unbolt both hangers, put front hanger to the rear and bolt up shackle.

get another hanger to replace on the front eye of the spring. does this have to be longer, or can it be the same as the front hanger that is now in the rear? in other words, can i use a front hanger on both the front and rear of the spring for the shackle flip? or will this not push the axle far enough back in the wheel well?

also, do i have to use different springs, or can i use the stock spring (measures 51" eye to eye 9 leaf when truck sits on ground) and remove leafs if the initial flip is too high for my tiny 35's?

next, does all this require me to get a new driveshaft? and for the front, 4" lift SD springs, driveshaft will work yay or nay?

ive searched the forum for days reading thread after thread about this, but i would like to be positive before i tear the truck apart. its my daily driver, 1973 highboy. most of the stuff ive read is later trucks, and im not sure how different it is on my 73.

i want to get the truck lifted 4 inches taller from where it sits now. 4" is not that much, i used jacks to jack it up 4" all the way around and the stance and look is much better than the worn out sag it has now. much thanks in advance, and appologies for such a repeated question.

 

 

 

you can leave the front hanger where it is, and that will keep your axle basically centered in the wheel well. You can actually reuse your rear spring hangers and just flip them over. that should gain you close to four inches. and you can use your stock springs. Or you can get another set of front spring hangers and use them for a shackle hanger. This will probably give you more than four inches of lift, but then you could remove the factory blocks in the back. you will then have to get shorter u bolts of course.

wichever hanger you use in the rear, you will have to move the hanger forward and drill new holes to mount it. you want your shackle angle to be about 30* or maybe a little less with the truck sitting on the ground. it takes a little trial and error to get the hanger in the right spot to get the angle correct.

You will want to check your pinion angle when you are done and make sure it is still ok. it will be tilted up from original. you could use a chevy hanger in the front to drop your pinion back down a little and get a little more lift if necessary, or just use a degree shim between your axle and springs. Doing either of these will give you more ujoint angle though so you will have to check your angles and decide what your compromise is.

NOTE: as a rough starting point, when i did the shackle flip on my 79 f-350 with stock springs and rear hangers flipped and blocks removed, my rear hanger ended up being centered under the bed cross support that was right there. It could end up different on your truck with different spring rates though.

That flip on my truck actually lowered the rear an inch or two. I ended up cutting up some chevy hangers to make them fit and lift the truck a tad more.

PS: good looking truck! I think it would look good with a small lift. cant wait to see pics when its done!

 

Dont reuse the stock ones. They aren't designed to be stressed upside down. You could weld plate in to reinforce them, or just buy aftermarket ones from ruffstuff or sky manufacturing, though I think highboys used like 2.5" springs so not sure if they make one for the narrower ones or not. You can leave the front hangers where they are. As said above, you will have to redrill to get your pinion angle correct, most people just use a shim to help. I wouldn't move the front hanger, that just gives you more stuff to worry about.

The 4" superduty spring will lift your front up about 6". You will have to drill out the front hanger as the sd springs use a larger diameter bolt.

Driveshafts should be fine with a 4" lift.

 

^^^ not much of the above info is true! For starters just flipping the rear hanger will NOT give you 4"s lift. More like 2".
Moving the front hanger to the rear is because it had a lower mounting point on springs ,adding more lift. As for putting a longer hanger in place of the front one this is to even it all out. If you just flip the back the spring will have arc on the front half and be flatter on the back where flip is. Add a longer hanger on front and spring sits with even arc from end to end.

Stock hangers will be plenty strong enough as long as they are not rotten. Also if you have 2.5" wide springs and your longer new front hanger is for 3" spring, add spacer washers to make it a snug fit..

Bottom of this page and beginning of next I explain my setup if you have not read this

73's Build Thread... - Pirate4x4.Com

 

And I also made a set of new front hangers for my other truck that I show and explain here

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...0-build-5.html

 

I guess I should have mentioned I'm not a fan of bootyfab/ghettofab solutions. To each their own.

 

Hahaha!! ^^^ that's hilarious. I expected a comment like that. Drive and wheel my rig quite abit. Zero issues. Have 8 current CWB welding certifications but my work is ghetto/bootyfab.

Original poster don't listen to this guy.

 

Zero issues? thats not exactly how I recall it. If I remember right, you ripped your axle out from under your rig and ended up with another booty fab solution, welding the blocks to the axle? And I also seem to remember you rolling the whole thing over as well.

I guess those don't count as issues.

Don't mistake "welder" with "engineer" or even "reasonable person with common sense and internet access."

You don't appear to understand how a leaf spring cycles and hence how a leaf spring suspension operates.

I think its safe to say that a forum member should not do anything merely because its suggested to them by the internet, and I'd say this thread is a good example of why you should do your own research and arrive at your own conclusion.

 

For starters axle has never "ripped out"! I did bend a lift block, flattened spring perch and twist ubolts in a 4 foot deep rock pile in a competition with a heavy right foot but found the weak links due to axle wrap and no traction bar. Fix was new solid 4 sided block vs stock 3 sided ones, massive 3/4" ubolts, new solid vs open ended perches(so they cannot flatten like a stock one)and a traction bar to stop axle wrap for the now overkill bulletproof setup! Hangers were never any issue. Still was ok to even drive home in front wheel drive.

As for rolling truck yeah I did once! That means nothing.
I like to compare it to my freestyle skiing days throwing down corked 1080 spins over 60 foot jumps. Did I land everytime?? Hell NO. Did I get injuries?Sure did. Broken thumbs to a collapsed lung once. Regret it? No. Any permanent effects? Nope! But got some good stories and videos though..
It's called progression and pushing things to the limit while having fun doing it. Any professional wheeler will flop a truck many times. They must just be bad drivers and should stick to easier stuff right?

 

Seems to work!
Trails we run in a private Offroad event. Filmed by a spectator that posts these up. I que in at 37 seconds..


2011 nostopin, Fun Day - YouTube

 

No I guess not.


Same setup...enjoy

73 flex ramp - YouTube

 

Thanks for the Sunday morning video's! Great way to start the day.... Those two girls seem to be having a good time also!

 

Haha .. No prob! Got a little worked up on the above comments last nite. Thought I'd prove a point.