I purchased a Sky Jacker 4" suspension lift and was told that I did not need a drop pitman arm. Actually they said one wasn't available for my truck, '77 F250 Hiboy D44 front. I know on most applications one is not necessary for a 4" lift but I'm not real familiar with lifting a Hiboy which already has 4"s or better.

 

I guess I will find out when the lift is installed and the truck is driven?

 

This has always been of concern to me as well. I don't see why our rigs would not need the extended arm and why they don't seem to be available. I have about 2" of extra lift and I'm okay, and in theory you can lift up to 4" without an arm...but then theres optimal geometry and "barely acceptable". Give us feedback when you get yours lifted because I was thinking about going higher and was wondering about this myself.

 

Thanx for the reply and I will let you know how it comes out, with pics if I can figure that part out.

 

i bought a 4 inch skyjacker for my 78 f 250 i needed a drop pitman arm and i also needed an adjustable draglink and i was told i didnt need the adjustable draglink i would try to find one cause i belive you will need both parts for the steering to be correct and safe hope this helps

 

boy this is hard to explain without pictures if I remeber correctly my highboy the gear box goes through the frame. with this set up your pitman arm only goes forward and back( push pull)horizontal with the frame on the 78 79 gear box the pitman turns left to right so when you lift a 78 79 the arm angle gets wierd (like your pinion ) on the highboy it doesn't let me double check and get some drawings if I can get them posted.

 

This is where I get confused. The 78 F250 was a lowboy and the Hiboys had a factory 4" lift, so did they set the steering up from the factory?

 

460/429_Freak, you are correct that the strg goes through the frame, I'm familiar with the Hiboy strg setup just not the 78-79 strg I guess. I was told that they didn't offer a drop anything for the hiboy strg and couldn't understand why Sky Jacker would offer a lift that may make the truck a real handful to steer. Not that 44 Boggers won't. LOL Thanx for the replies, I was beggining to think I was the only one lifting a Hiboy.

 

44BOGGER your welcomed I have two highboys and two lowboys anything else just ask and I'll try to help
remember the highboy lift is differnt from a 78 79 because of the width of springs. also the 78 79 ford gear box is kinda like a chevy or dodge set up, does your highboy have ps??? mine are manual for now, Im converting mine to a tow truck and going to upgrade to ps but don't know which gear box to use yet I'm going to try to use a common gear box so I can pass it along to other higboy freaks.

 

429460_Freak, I have 2 Hiboys also and both of mine have the ram assist strg which alot of people don't like but I haven't had any problems with so far. My first Hiboy is a 76 with 67,000 original miles on it. It had a very unfortunate engine fire. It broke my heart to watch it burn. My other is a 77 which I'm in the middle of a frame off build. About the springs, the front are 3"s wide and the rear are like 2.5"s wide. There is nothing about these trucks that are very normal. But man are they some tough trucks!

 

I have a 72 highboy and 79 lowboy. The 72 is stock height, but I did the power steering conversion to it and found that the 78-79 drag link is too short making it so the steering is the normal when making a left turn. But when making a right turn you need a football field to make the turn. All my angles were fine and not exagerated like on a lifted truck. So what I did to solve this problem was cut the wheels all the way to the right and measured the distance between the streeting arm on the axle and the stock. If was roughly 1.5 inches. So from the old non power drag link I cut out a chunk of 1.5", then cut the PS draglink in half and welded in the new piece and it steers from factory stop to stop no problem now.

Now on my 79 F250 4x4 I put a 4 inch lift in it and never could figure out why it would steer tighter to the left then to the right. After doing the steering swap on the 72 I figured out it is the same thing on the 79 that the drag link needs to be lenthend. I have yet to do this on the 79 yet. I have in the past put a drop pitman arm on the 79 but the tapered hole for the drag link was too big making the steering very sloppy. So what I plan on doing after the 40 inches of snow melts in july that we have now is add a piece to the 79 drag link. With the stock pitman arm and 4" lift my angles are really bad. So I and going to bend the drag link like an "S" after i lenthen it to get my angles back.

I know this doesn't help the original question about a highboy needing a drop pitman arm or not. But what I learned was if its not made but needed Modify some parts to make it work best, esp. if you are handy with a welder and or a torch.

I hope this can help some of ya's
Jeff

 

44BOGGER yeah very adnormal trucks when I got my first one the gear box had slop in it I went to my buddy's junk yard and found a 70's somthing model 2 ton gear box and took two to make one.
tough aint the word. just plain ford tough mine has the 360 with a granyy low 4 speed you put that thing in low lock in granny low with the 4.09's you can pull a mountian. I just like the look of these trucks.

 

429460_Freak, I started to install the lift on the rear end. I'm also doing the shackle flip so I don't know if I'll need the wedge for axle rotation on the new spring. Any ideas?

 

I have never done a shackle flip but unless it changes the pitch(angle) of the rearend you will still need the factory wedge blocks if thats put you over(since the blocks are 4 inches roughly) here is two CHEEP ways to get the angle right

1 look for a 80's 1/2 ton 4x4 some of them had a 1" to 2" block
2 here is one of my secrects look at a set of 2 ton springs(back one with overloads) between the spring and over loads there is a wedge block in there get them I used a set of them on my ford to get the angle right on the rear of my 79.

I use these because they are made out of steel.
If you plan on hauling anything don't get them aluminum ones I wore a set out on my dodge (10-12 inch suspension with 40 tires and a 440 4 speed) I put a set of highboy blocks under it and haven't had a problem in 5 years...............

see ford parts make everything run better!!!!!

 

429460_Freak, the shackle flip will definetely rotate the axle I just don't know how much and combined with the steel wedge that came with the Sky Jacker springs it will probably be to much. I will find out tonight though. I'm so fired up about this truck that I can't sepp at night!!!!!