I thought there was supposed to be a shackle on the rear leaf mount? Can't believe I never noticed before when crawling under there...sure does explain the rough as hell ride

 

Look at the other end of the spring.

 

Shackle is in the front, right there in your first pic. That being said, there are shackle reversal kits. It will give some lift and soften the ride.

 

Nope Ford had their head up their A S S in the 80s and 90s and put the shackle in the front

 

well now I feel stupid. I was looking at pics of my Excursion and how I did the lift on that D50. That's when I noticed it looked weird.

thx guys, it does have that stupid shackle up front. the way it recesses into the frame horn...obviously I missed it

 

<br/><br/><br/>Here is my f350 with reverse shackle and superduty u code spring<br/><br/>

 

PMF makes some nice stuff

 

Please enlighten us about how the TTB trucks with negative arch springs (of which many more were made) would ride better with a rear shackle

If anything having a front shackle on the front axle is better for stability/handling. The D60 just happens to have a positive arch spring that doesn't play nice with the front shackle.

 

Could be argued that the head up *** situation extended throughout the ttb lineup.

 

Please enlighten me where this is a thread about a TTB?

 

dont know, don't care

Ive had many TTB trucks over the years and was quite happy with them. Only true complaint was camber

but I've now got a D60 with factory setup and it's a horrific ride. A crack in the pavement makes me cringe. 1st gear (granny) and speed bumps are enemy #1! Heaven help you with off camber bumps

My 2002 Excursion rode like a dream with its D50. The only true difference is placement of the shackle. Even after the AAL using a rear leaf it still rode light years better. I didn't understand the RSK talk truly until yesterday after I spent hours looking the truck over and reviewing my X pictures.

 

my bet is it rides like crap because it still has the F250 ttb springs in it.
ttb used very heavy springs to withstand the twisting force of the axle. the solid axle F350 used much lighter springs

 

The stock D60 set up includes a negative arch spring,which works ok with the front mounted shackle. The truck pictured has a positive arch lift spring on it,which rides pretty bad,as mentioned with a front shackle.

 

Near as I can tell, it's a factory D60 pack with 2 thick AAL.

i broke a ubolt, so will remove the AAL shortly

previous owner did some weird stuff. Longer AAL almost looks like an overload leaf

 

I'm not saying front shackle is superior here, just that the design makes sense if you put yourself in the OEMs shoes.

It works pretty ok for what it is. It doesn't really have any big flaws in stock form. It won't support massive tires and is hard/expensive to lift (and will eat tires if you half *** it). Sure the F250 rides like a brick but nobody ever bought one for the ride quality.

My point is they went with the setup that would work better on the greater share of trucks.