Ditto what TJ said about the coil overs. They may hold up for very light duty use, but long term it is not a good idea, think bout this, the shocks are being converted from the duty of buffering the load to partially supporting the load. All of the weight that shock is supporting is being carried by the thickness of the sheet metal at the upper portion of the tube. The outer shell on the shocks is just a dust cover and was not designed to carry a load. The mounting area of the upper tube was only designed to hold it in place and keep it from wobbling around as you are going down the road. The load bearing portion of the shock is at the lower base of the gas charge assembly, and the piston rod itself. So in effect, the load is being carried on the weaker portion of the shock. True coil over shocks have special mounting surfaces that have been specifically engineered to carry a load.

You will also find that especially on the front, the upper shock mount (frame portion) is not designed to carry extra loads. If you were to try and use it in this fashion, it would need extra reinforcement to keep it from bending or tearing loose.

 

Thanks Tim I may try the add a leaf. That would definately be cheaper than new ones.

 

that makes sense about the shock mounts. the look of that setup kinda reminds of that turbonator thing you put in your intake and gain 500hp and 30mpg. they're also really good for turbo's when they come loose.

 

got my new shocks and add a leafs today. on our trucks the front springs are "upside down" with the arc going up instead of down. if i got the right springs, i dont see how in the heck they are going to work on the front suspension. they are 33-34" long depending on whether you measure across the arc or through it. that is not nearly as long as the front springs. when i mount them (if they are the right ones) do they go on the bottom arching in the same direction as the existing springs (i can't see how they could possibly go the other way). i dont see how that would lift the truck. ease my mind guys. they are rough country add a leafs with the number 6128 painted on them. on my packing list the item number is 6130, description says "add-a-leaf/f250 rr" this is the actual invoice from rough country to the distributor i bought it off. i am afraid they are rears

 

just got off the phone with rough country. guy said i have the "6130" spring which is the add a leafs for 99-04 250's. he says they will work with my truck. says since the 6130's have two holes that i should put the longer section to the front. is this a good idea. anyone done this? i am now on a time table and don't really want to have to go through return shipping them and trying to get the different ones. thanks for reading everything

 

I am quite sure you have the right one. though when the truck is sitting on the tires the leaves have negative arch the positive arch add-a-leaf will fit and do it job. you install it like a normal spring with the opening of the arch facing up. its kind of a pain to get the leaves all together. about 4 c-clamps come in handy!

 

well i stand corrected. you don't have the right ones but they should work. I would put the longer side to the rear. don't know why but thats what I would do.

 

rough country said put the longer to the front. what's the difference?

 

I don't know. do what they said. I had no reason to put it to the rear. just sounded right to me but they will know mcuh better! put it to the front

 

I have rough country stuff on my truck, if it is rough country you are speaking with direct, and they say it will work, then it should work. I don't know how they were with you , but when I dealt with them I had some questions and they were a great help and didn't talk down to me at all. I trusted them and it all worked out.

For installing the add a leaf, I like to use a REALLY long piece of threaded rod that is the same size as the center bolt. Put it through all of the leaves with some big washers on each end. Use the threaded rod to drawn them down together, then hold everything in place with C-clamps while you remove the threaded rod and put in the proper center bolt and cut it to length. Another step I like to do is mash the threads on the top of the center bolt once it is torqued down to specs. You don't want that nut backin off on ya.

 

thanks miker. the rough country guy was really nice. especially since i kept asking him...are you SURE the 99-04 will fit on my '97. anything else i should know about disassembly besides common sense and c-clamping the springs before i unbolt them?

 

No, not really, like you said just use common sense! Obviously the springs need to be clamped as you remove the center bolt. Other than that, it is really pretty straight forward.

 

I just finished rebuilding my rear spring packs. I removed the very top helper spring, and the very bottom over load spring. I had a broken leaf on the p-side so after replacing that one with one from the bronco (matched each side) I replace the thick monster overload spring on the bottom with 3 thinner leaves from the bronco. So other than replacing the broken springs I took 2 out and put 3 in. I gained an inch in height and the first bit of the suspension is nice and cushy. I dont haul much stuff (SWB) so the F450 springs arent needed.

Definately have an angle grinder handy. Remove the U-bolts and shocks, drop the axle down away from the springs. Clamp the springs together, one clamp each side of the pin. Cut the center pin from the top and push it out through the bottom. Aim up your add a leaf to see which way it fits the best, undo the clamps, fumble with the leaves till you get them aimed up, PUT AN ALIGNMENT SCREWDRIVER, BOLT, ETC IN before you clamp em down so the new center pins will fit in nicely. I just clamped the rears enough so that I could put the pin in, then I just sucked the pack together with it.
You dont even need to take the main leafs off the truck to do this. Just make sure you have some good blocking under the truck.
Since youre TTB, when you are ready to hook the U bolts back up, you may want to stick a jack under the spring and compress it to ride height or somewhere around there to ease in the alignment of the center pin to the axle hole. Since the TTB moves in a radius, the lower it goes the further away from the outside of the truck it gets, which means the pin hole in the axle wont line up to the pin hole in the spring. Good Luck. Post pics when done. For good measures heres one of mine done after I did the rear. Ive got new leaf packs for the front to level it out. Just waiting for my buddy to make me those poly bushings.

 

i got in there last night and did the axle pivot bushings. i have to this project in stages, i am doing everything at work. all my tools are there and i dont have a garage. i raised the truck and put jack stands on the the frame rails high enought to get the wheels off the ground. used the jack to support the axle while unbolting the ttb's from their mounts. lowered the axle but he springs kept the ttb too high to remove the bushings. jacked the axles again and removed both front spring bolts, the ones that go through the spring and shackle. now i could lower enough to work on the bushings. burned out most of the rubber until the center sleeve popped out. note: to anyone out there burning out bushings, besides normal torch safety precautions like lots of wet rags, when that rubber starts to expand and fall out eventually that center metal piece will come popping out anywhere from 6 inches to two feet away so when you see it start to move out, stay to the side. i learned that a couple of months ago while doing spring bushins. anyway. after burning out the center. i chiseled the outer sleeve collapsing it in on itself all around until i could put a big socket in there and pound it out. i dont know if these were original or not, but they seemed to have a lip on both ends of the bushing, the new ones only had one lip. how the olds were installed i have no idea since they had a lip on both ends. used another big socket to pound in the new bushings coated with lots of antisieze. repeated for the other axle jacked the axles back in place. took a little persuasion with some pry bars and kicking leaf springs to get the holes lined back up but not too long. lowered entire vehicle before tightening anything up. now the passengers side spring shackle was hangin terrible crooked, which i have had a problem with for the last few months, which i why i changed those bushings a couple of months ago. i was out of time so i tightened it up anyway. after driving home, it's gotten better, but i am afraid the fairly new spring bushings are going to be worn out prematurely. add a leafs will probably not happen until next week. i am still waiting on a reponse from the seller about getting the wrong springs. didn't have my camera on hand at work, it was a spur of the moment job, had some unexpected free time.

 

i installed my add a leafs last night, now i'm freekin out. lifted the truck at LEAST 4 inches... not good. the way the truck sits now, if i dont install ttb drop brackets soon something bad is gonna happen. camber is off the charts. my truck looks like one of those prerunners with front end high in the air and the tops of the tires stickin outside the fenders. called rough country and they said to drive it hard get the springs working and it will settle in. i dont see how it's gonna settle that much. at the bottom of the stock leaf pack there was a square plate (not the thin shims) that was as thick as one of the leafs. i kept it in the pack, should i have? if i take it out will it fix the height or does it do an important job like keeping the flexing metal from being directly bolted to the axle thanks everyone