Well i finally got my dana 80 set up with 4.10 gears and an arb air locker. Fought tooth and nail with it, but finally got it. Was going to install it this weekend, but happened to read an article on ladder bars in a magazine a couple days ago. I knew i was going to need one down the line before i read that article. But after doing some research here the past few days, it looks like i am way better off just taking care of it now so my pinion angle will be ideal.

After my research it looks like i need to:

Throw that 4" riser block in the trash. Now to compensate for that lift is where i need some advice. I see that a lot of you guys are flipping the rear shackle and throwing a zero rate plate in. For those of you that flipped the shackle, is that safe? How does it ride?
Or i could go with 4" lift springs. Not my first choice because of the cost. But may need to be done because i need my truck for a couple side jobs coming up soon.
End goal on the truck is multi-use. Work truck/dd, mud/off-road trails, local street legal truck pulls.


I think this is the ladder bar method i'm going to use:
Anti wrap bar

I do use the search button, but i am running out of time and need to get parts ordered! Some links/advise to great setups is much appreciated!
Thank you
-matt

 

I'v been working on flipping my shackles for the past week or so. I'v heard it's good for off road. And I'm also getting the zero rate plates to center the axle. You can read my thread if you want but I'm not finished. But I will warn you, grinding the rivets are a PITA!!!
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...s-of-pics.html

 

zero rates are basically just thin blocks, really. The center pin of the spring goes through them and they are made out of spring steel, but they don't do any springing.

If I were you I'd put the 4" block back in for now, since you said you have work to do. If you are adding traction bars you won't have any problems with the blocks.

the deal with flipping the shackles is that there a few different ways to do it. Some people torch out the bottom of the mount, weld in a triangle above to reinforce it, and run it that way. fast, cheap, looks ghetto, probably not very strong, doesn't look (from what I've seen) like it puts the shackle at a good angle (near vertical).

Another cheap way is to grind the riverts off the rear factory hangers and put left on right and vice versa, flipping them over. If you do this you can correct pinion angle and "dial in" the amount of lift and drill new holes in the frame. The rub is, to me, the factory hangers weren't designed to withstand load flipped upside down. Lots of people do it this way, but I consider this way to be one of those "good enough until its not" sort of mods.

I had a sky manufacturing shackle flip kit and it was really nice really heavy steel. I'd use one like that again if I was flipping my shackles. They are designed from the get go for use as a shackle flip. I decided to go for a less "big gay mud truck" lift so I sold the kit because I already had 6" springs. Mine are deavers and they were expensive but they ride really smooth and flex really well. Wouldn't want something that soft for towing and carrying loads though.

 

If you use your truck for hauling I'd skip the shackle flip because you will loose payload. You are better off just buying a good set of lift springs.

 

i flipped the shackles on my one ton and removed the rear blocks. with stock springs. It rode a lot better. and you do not have to switch the brackets side to side, they are the same. 2 of my friends have done shackle flips on lifted chevys using ford spring hangers and removed blocks also and said they ride better. None of us really haul with our trucks but we all drive them on the street and mud bog them. I suppose it would be possible to bend a factory bracket but i wouldnt worry too much about it. IF you did bend one they are cheap and easy to find to replace it and there wouldnt be any fab work. If you think you would bend it you could beef it up when you flip it. And from what i have seen/heard of pulling trucks you would basically want to block out your rear suspension anyway so i wouldt worry too much about it there either. I wouldnt think you would really want ladder bars off road but thats up to you.

 

Thats the best looking anti-wrap bar Ive seen. Don't need two, and its tucked up out of the way-and could be considered/fabbed to protect the driveshaft.
As for the shackle flip, well it is similar to what stock jeeps and toyota's ran for years-or like the front shackle of an F-250. Interesting about the payload though!

 

would you loose payload even w/ the heavier built shackle flip kits? could see loosing payloaad from using stock shacksles, but the kits iv seen have been quite heavy duty, engineered to be upside down where the stock ones werent intended to be fliped