Hey guys, i am rather new to the super duty / Excursion world.
More familar with the OBS.

Anyways,
I did my oil change and checked out my suspension today, as its been 6000 miles since last time, and was looking for a clunking i was getting at times, Found it (sway bar link) but as i was underneath, i noticed i only have 1/2" of clearance between my front leafs and the bump stops, (probably explains my rough ride) and have been trying to research things since then.

People seem to have this problem often, and either swap to different springs, or put a lift in.

Ive looked into a spring swap, but dont really know what the difference between all of them is. (B or C, or C SRW, V or X ???) And frankly im confused.
Some people say that the truck springs are a direct swap, others say you have to add excursion spring pieces in, all contradicting.

As for a lift kit, can i use a f250 lift kit, or does it have to be a excursion kit, ive heard people say the excursion is lowered 2" compared to superdutys, so would a 4" ex lift just be a 2" superduty lift? like i said all very confusing.

Thanks for any ideas or advice guys, it means alot.

 

For anyone to really give any meaningful advice they would need to know what you are trying or wanting to do. What are you trying to achieve ?? You are correct in this math: A S/D front 4" lift spring will be 6" LIFT on the front of your X. The back can be adjusted between block size & spring pack as required.

 

The SD spring swaps are very popular with the EX crowd, Ford put some very soft-ish springs on these big wagons. Back when I was starting to contemplate a spring swap I searched a lot and put this little cheat sheet together that compares the various SD springs when swapped under an EX.

This spring swap reference chart my help with your spring selection.
This is my Spring cheat sheet complied from various posts here on FTE mostly from old posts by bruce1954 and Monsta.

The following only applies to 4X4 EXs, the 2X4 rigs have coil springs up front. All EXs came from Ford with G code rear springs, the V-8 EXs all came with B (front B code is much different than rear B code, confused yet?) 4100lb, all V-10 EXs came with C code fronts at 4300lb and all PSD EXs had D codes at 4700lbs.
All the other codes discussed come from SuperDuty trucks (they came with springs that don't suck from Ford.)
Spring........Capacity.....Rate lbs/".....Max travel.....V-10 change.....PSD change
B (V-8)......4100lbs.......330 lb/".........5.02"...........-0.25".............-0.66"
C (V-10)....4300lbs.......350 lb/".........5.01".............0.00"............-0.37"
D (PSD).....4700lbs.......380 lb/".........5.14"...........+0.33".............0 .00"
S codes.....4000lbs.......370 lb/".........4.34"...........+1.22"............+0 .88"
T codes.....4400lbs.......390 lb/".........4.63"...........+1.42"............+1 .11"
U codes.....4800lbs.......410 lb/".........4.89"...........+1.60"............+1 .32"
V codes.....5200lbs.......430 lb/".........5.13"...........+1.77'............+1 .50"
W codes....5600lbs.......450 lb/".........5.34"...........+2.77'............+2 .52"
X codes.....6000lbs.......470 lb/".........5.54"...........+2.90"...........+2. 68"
W codes are from F-450s and X codes are from F-550s and other SD trucks with snow plow prep.

The above spring info has been gathered from posts here on FTE by "monsta" and "bruce1954".


And this thread may also help you to decide on suspension mods based on what some others here have done. My mods were done with the goals of running 35" tires, pulling our heavy travel trailer better and sitting nearly level with that trailer's heavy tongue weight on the hitch.

 

Ok well here is some better info then as to what i am wanting to do.

Right now i am running a 5.4v8 and stock height tires.

My Eventual goal is to run 35" tires, and i will be swapping in a 6BT Cummins Diesel, roughly doubling my engine weight.

I know that the Diesel will cause lowering of anything i do to the front, which im ok with if i can just adjust the rear to not have crazy rake.

I will be towing a car trailer with my Lincoln mark viii on it, and a 9000lbs tow behind camper on occasion.

A little firmer ride would be nice as well, i am coming from a bronco that was on OBS SRW F350 suspension and think the EX is rather soft, also i want a rear sway bar, are there any particular companys to use?

 

I too enjoy a more truck like ride and my modded X/B spring swap has provided that.
Hellwig makes a very nice adjustable rear sway bar for the EX for about $200 and the rear sway bar from a similar year model SD truck can also be used. I would not recommend towing a travel trailer without one on an EX.

 

Are those codes only for front springs?

 

Well Storm : That's quite a list & a heck of a lot of work . As a min to run 35" tires clean you need to raise the front 3"s (your basically running 31.5" tires now) As Tom's (good looking) rig shows, you can do that with the V/B Mod (factory springs). On the cheap if you have a good yard you deal with. THAT MOD will net you best ride obtainable for the X. Go to the TECH page & Steward as a great compilation & history of the B/V info. If for now, You just want to stop bottoming out you could just unbolt the stops.

 

TOM: Shouldn't your text read All S/Duty's came with B,C,D ect. NOT X's ???

 

As far as the front spring pack being 1/2" from the bump stop....that is just about the normal ride hight. Mine has been within an inch since I've owned it with 17k miles.

Beyond that a nice mild lift for a diesel X/SD will be perfect ( then you'll be set up for the Cummins install).

 

So if I'm searching for used springs in Florida I'm looking for F-450's and F-550's? I think that is going to be a tall order so I should give up the used search and just save up for new springs?
Unless I want V codes which I'm fine w/....which trucks did they come on? And unfortunately I really need to know what is stamped on the actual leaf spring as I have a few peeps that have a stack of superduty springs but they don't know what they are.......

 

Not necessarily, if you want V codes you can find them on 250s/350s. I found a set of V codes on a 250 and B (rear) codes on a 350 locally from a large truck dismantler for pretty cheap.

We all would like to know that, but from what I've read, no-one seems to be able to find the Ford information regarding the stamps on the springs...most of the V/B swap threads I read before I did mine stated that those codes aren't reliable to use to ID the springs, as two members each did a V code swap (confirmed by taking them off the donor truck and verifying the spring code by the door sticker) but their codes didn't match. Those may be codes used to identify the lot number of the springs (I personally agree with that - think recall - how would you know what rigs to recall for a bad batch of springs?).

Anyway, the best way to know 100% on used springs is to have them pulled from the donor truck where you can verify the door sticker.

It takes a bit of searching, but you can find them out there. In addition to dismantlers, check with suspension shops and see if they can call you when they get a 250/350 in for a lift kit. Have them check the door sticker of the truck before they take them off, then you can have a confirmed set of springs.

 

Thanks Robert.....wasn't even thinking about duallys...duh. I will keep searching.

 

Who said anything about duallys?

 

Sorry.....doing too many things at once. F-350's are what I'm mostly looking for to find v/b codes.

 

Yea, 250s you can find V codes on...not sure what options for rears came on 250s, but don't rule those out.