I'm giving serious thought to doing the Super Duty axle swap on my 97 F350 4X4. I don't really have the option of buying a wrecked roller, so I need a good shopping list for when I head out to a wrecking yard.
From what I can tell, I need to be looking at '05 to '08, or will any '05 and up work?

Thanks in advance.

 

Interested. and subscribed.

What is the advantage here. My 3.55 open rear gets stuck looking at grass. I couldn't even back into a firm yard to hook up to the trailer with out using ramps on the ground (ramps did not sink at all, the ground was not soft).

 

remember that the distance between the springs on SD's are different than the OBS.


The SD front is a Dana50 solid also.
Not much difference between it and a 60 but a few small things.

The 3.73 gears are pretty neat and the gen 3 stearling has a 3 spider carrier as opposed to a 2. as well as a 10.5 ring gear instead of a 10.25.
The rest of the axle is identical except for the pinion, which is actually smaller than a gen 2.

So, in order to mount SD axles on an OBS, you have to use a portapower to spread the springs out to line them up. (it could be suck it in, i forget if its wider or narrower, but its like a 1 to 2 inch difference)

And... thats not good for the suspension.
Its not designed to work with that load.

 

I am asking about coil springs of the '05 and later SD axles. I'm not interested in swapping leafs for leafs.
As far as why, my understanding of the swap is it gives better handling and adds rear disc brakes.

 

Yeah the coils are nice.
Ive only ever seen a PSD bronco have that conversion though.


The rear axle is still different.

Have fun mounting those buckets for the coils.
It sure will ride nicer though.

I'd rather have the leafs and an RSK.

 

Quite a few people have done it. It's a nice upgrade and not that hard to do if you have some skills. Do a google search, you should find something.

 

oh thats good, more people are doing it.

 

I've been doing quite a bit of research, and it does seem to be RELATIVELY easy, I was just hoping to find 'Hey, don't forget to get ___ of the donor." I haven't come across that yet.

 

Well this is slightly off topic, but I subscribed to this one, because I HATE my open rear diff. My truck gets stuck looking at grass, not even mud. I am hoping to find a cost effective way to get rid of the one wheel wonder action. Long shot, but do you guys think running 80 psi in the tires is affecting me. I have never seen any truck get stuck like this one.

 

Well this is a great swap I just completed it a month ago and I can tell you what you will need and yes much better ride and better steering and better brakes

 

The easiest thing to do would be to air down and see.... I am sure tread pattern means the world, keep in mind a lot of off roaders and jeep guys run 6-15 psi in their tires when off roading...but you don't want to do this all the time!

 

It has pretty good tread wear/pattern. It just occurred to me last time I got stuck, that at 80 psi, and no weight those tires are rock hard and have a small contact patch. Worth a shot I guess. Time to carry an air compressor.