I have retired my 1978 F150 Manual 4x4 StBd from ranch life and have begun an extensive restoration and upgrade yet trying to keep it driveable for the time being. The suspension has suffered many years of abuse and overloading and feels soggy on the road. I believe the truck came with a 2-3" lift but I am unsure of that except for the 3 inch lift blocks under the rear axle. Are those standard on 4x4s? I know this truck inside and out but I am unsure about the factory standards on the vehicle. What is the standard ride hieght of this truck. It measured in at 6.5" in the front and 10" in the back tire to fender. I wanted to try and level the truck out alittle so I installed 3" lift springs in the front which lifted the front end 4 inches from where it sit before. This baffled me on what I should do next. My intentions are to lift the truck by about 3" which will help give the truck some proportion with 33x12.5" tires installed (in the future). Ultimately the truck is going to be used for an every other day driver/occasional trail/hot rodder so it needs to handle the bumps yet take corners like it's on rails. Front and back anti-sway bars are on the drawing board and RS5000 shocks installed (which I now know I should have waited and sprang for the RS9000 series. Any advise on this matter would be greatly appriciated.

 

Asw far as I know, the 3" blocks are standard equipment from the factory and should have "ears" on them for the bump stops to contact. New leaf springs in the rear are probably the best way to go, especially if handling is a concern.

 

What about the RS5000 shocks what ia everyones opinion about those?

 

I had them(RS5000's) on my 79, they seemed good to me. My truck was 75% on road and 25% off road, but the off road was HARD on the truck, deep mud, air time, water, etc. They held up really well and worked fine.

 

What is everyones speculation on installing anti sway bars onto these trucks, pros, cons?

 

How much off road use are you anticipating? The only drawback I can see with sway bars is limited articulation off road. Of course this can be dealt with with sway bar disconnects, basically end links that come apart or are removable. It would sure help with on road handling characteristics, but it still wouldn't be a sports car, especially with33/12.5 tires, lots of sidewall on those tires.

 

Someone may disagree with me but the front sway bar doesn't do much on the f150 4x4. In stock form or at least stock length radius arms the suspension acts like a big sway bar already. I took mine off years ago when I lifted it and never noticed a difference. The spring rate in the front coils has some factor though. If you want to understand better how the front acts like a sway bar look up "wristed radius arm". It's a popular upgrade among the early bronco crowd which shares the same front suspension as the f150 4x4. Most of the articles explain how the stock style front suspension acts as a sway bar

 

That's a good point. I guess I never really thought of the radius arms that way.