Has anyone heard whether there are any major body style changes expected for the F250 in the next couple of years? I have a 1999 F250 Superduty w/ a 7.3L Diesel. I'm thinking about trading in for a new one but for resale purposes I don't want to end up with the last year of a body style.

Thanks.

 

F150 all new in 04 and 250 all new in 05 maybe in 04 as an 05 is what I read in a mag???

 

Heres a pic of what might be comming in 2005.

http://popularmechanics.com/automoti...it_spy_report/

 

The SD is unchanged in '04.

In '05, the SD gets a new front end (fenders, grill, hood), a new dash, new seats and a new coil spring front suspension. A "freshening".

Complete makeover in '07.

Someone at KTP reported trial running some '05's down the line a couple of weeks ago, so the '05 changes look pretty definite.

 

UGLY! They just can't leave well enough alone. And coil springs....puke! I won't buy one.

 

Are you sure Ford will go to coil springs? That will suck! I'll stick to my '97 psd F350 with dana 60 and leaf springs!

 

Lets see by going to coil springs the real axle gets held in place by a link system. This stops the axle from moving side to side and make trailering 100% better is amazes me how people will trash any new idea just because.
I mean the truck will not be out for 2 years and already you guys are saying what trash it will be

 

I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I just like the fact that Ford has leaf spring straight axle, or IFS option. Maybe I'm old school but I think Ford should stay the last leaf sprung option. Even if coil's ride better. Then buy a Dodge, or tosionbar Chevy.

 

It is not so much the ride that coils will change it is the control. Remember leafs are locating the axle so the axle can move from side to side at the leaf eye and along the spring. What happens is in front you get a vague steering and the front can wonder around in the rear it does the same thing. By going to a coil the axle get located more ridgely and steering and control are inhanced and tire life is increased because of reduced heat due to side to side tread walk. Also if you tow a trailer you get better control.
For rock crawling I guess you might loose some articulation but who is going to crawl a 6000 lb 20 foot long truck.

 

Switching to coils is to improve the ride by reducing spring to spring friction and increasing suspension travel for a given force input. It has little to do with locating the axle better. Leaf sprung Superduties have a track bar to eliminate side to side motion of the springs and all the bushings in a coil sprung suspension will be just as compliante as in the leaf version.

 

pick_up_man is right here. Leaf spring front suspensions locate the axle pretty darn well by themselves, most lighter duty pickups that ran leafs didn't even use a track bar (old Toyotas come to mind, just the leafs and an anti wrap bar), the super duty uses one becuase it is a pretty heavy truck that tows even heavier. You can take it off completely and drive it fine if you wanted to. If leafs didn't locate the axle laterally then why is there not a track bar on the rear?

A link suspension by design does a poor job of locating the axle laterally, you definately need a track bar to stop the side to side movement. (unluss you are running a dual triangulated set-up). Look at rear link systems in newer SUV's, most use a 4 link with a track bar.


Either way the Ram has been a using coil front link set-up for years. Seems to work pretty well for a heavy duty pickup. More expensive to lift though. I do think if Ford goes this route I will buy an '04 with the leafs, 60, and refined 6.0 and keep it till it dies in 2030 or so! (hopefully we will still have trucks with dino fuel!)