That's what I'm saying, so I think we agree. What doesn't make sense to me is loaded handling being worse with a lifted front end. Loaded handling worse than unloaded handling? Of course. But not significantly affected by a leveling lift.

 

Trucks are designed to be lower in the front than in the rear so when they are loaded and the rear sags, it levels out the truck without removing allot of weight off the front end. If you level the truck out with a leveling kit or lift and then load it down it starts to take the weight off the front end as soon as you load it. Where before it had a little bit of give to it before it started picking the front end up.

 

A leveling kit doesn't change how much weight a load takes off the front end. It's simple physics. On my crew cab short box the trailer hitch is about 4.5 feet behind the rear axle and the front axle is about 13 feet in front of the rear axle. Putting 1000 pounds of tongue weight on the hitch puts a torque of 4500 lb-ft on truck (this is the tongue weight times the lever arm length from the hitch to the rear axle, it has nothing to do with engine torque). Newton says that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so that 4500 lb-ft results in a 4500 lb-ft lift in the front. With the 13 foot lever arm this results in about 350 lbs less on the front wheels (4500 / 13). The height of the front end doesn't factor into the equation.

 

Raising the front end does change the the weighting, just like adding a load to the rear. Raising the front changes the COG front to rear, altering everything from ride to braking to load handling. Adding a load to the rear end changes the COG even more with a lifted front end (as compared to stock) as the COG starts further back to begin with. Therefore, the load has a greater effect on the "leveled" truck than the stock one. The front to rear COG is the greatest variable in this scenario. Seems like some people think the the COG is stationary and base their assumptions on that.

 

One thing people also fail to realize is that when the front end points up in the air from being lifted and loaded, your headlights are going straight into oncoming traffics eyes. The front axle serves as the pivot while the rest of the truck acts like a giant lever.

 

Thank you.

 

There are 2 sides to every story. Now, think about the truck that has a plow or a big winch bumper or some other front end accessories. That guy has an issue as well being as the front end points at the ground, changing steering reactions, braking actions, so in that case, remember to compensate as well. It might be a situation where the un laden truck sat level to slightly higher in the front, and with a plow remember that you need to compensate for weight being there for driving and backing up but being lesser for actual work and snow pushing. All good points, who cares about back bumpers anyway?

 

NPD carries a stock OEM bumper. A BIT over priced, but they offer it. If they have it, chances are Ford still has them too
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National Part Depot

 

Stop by a local salvage yard and take a tour. That is what I did and I have 3 to choose from that were in good shape. Surprisingly the one I took to match my stock the best was off a roll over and the bumper was the only straight piece on the whole truck.

As for weight transfering to the rear with a leveling kit... Yes and no. It will but not enough to make a noticable differance other than the headlight angle. The pivot point geing that far forward I wouldn't expect it to transfer more than 150#'s. It would still handle the same if you left it stock and threw a couple sand bags in the back. I've worked with weights and measures and load features such as this for over 10 years. Now the addition of the weight transfer would probably be more noticable in a lifted vehicle but still not a big differance. Leveling kits are more about looks and don't effect funcionality other that maybe fuel economy. With the nose of the truck level you will get slightly more wind resistance decreasing your fuel efficiency very slightly on highway mileage only.

 

Ford no longer has rear bumpers for these years, and they haven't for some time. I tried to get one 3-4 years ago thru the dealership and couldn't. NPD doesn't have them either. They're catalogs are way out of date and show a bunch of parts that are no longer available. Oh and by the way, the price they were asking was the same price Ford wanted for them.

 

I don't think the CG is stationary, that's why I said "about the same amount of weight" in my first post. The CG will move back about a tenth of an inch with a really bad squat with a truck that started level. It would move back less if the truck started nose low, so to the extent that the CG shifting back makes a difference, yes, a leveling kit will cause the front to lighten more. But the CG moving back a tenth of an inch will only lighten the front end about 5 pounds. About the same.

 

I'd like to know where the "tenth of an inch" figure comes from. Depending on load, the CG changes quite a bit more than that. Sure, a 2" front lift won't move it too far back, but with the addition of weight in the bed or on a hitch, the movement is significant.

 

We're really hijacking this thread bad here. That, and the fact that I don't want to seem like an annoying idiot who acts like a know-it-all (if I haven't crossed that line already), I'm going to go back to my first statement, it doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm wrong (and if I am it wouldn't be the first time... today). But someone elses thread on bumpers isn't the place to have this discussion. If anyone wants to continue this I'm perfectly willing to on it's own thread or in PMs. Or if people just want to leave the disagreement there I'm fine with that too. I just don't want to be disagreeable.

 

Wow, this thread kinda got away from the question, huh? Bumpers, my 2 cents. When I bought my F-350, it had one of those goofy drop hitch, Mr, Bumper type bumpers. It was bent 6 ways from Sunday, and I cannot due with out a class 3 receiver. I really wanted a Ranch Hand, heavy duty bumper, but could not shell out that kind of money. Simple solution - Build it! It will never look like a OEM bumper, but it will be custom! I made mine out of some 5" od pipe, some pipe fence caps, and cut the rest of the parts (Gussets, brackets, hitch plate) out of some scrap 1/2 plate. Welded it up, sand blasted it, epoxy primed it and painted it with aluminum paint. It looks awesome, its tougher than $2 steak, and it is one of a kind! If you don't like paint, a chrome shop can chrome it, or get it powder-coated. Spray liner is another viable option and can be colored to suit. I used scrap material for the bulk, and have roughly $45 in it including my receiver set up. $10 of it was just Grade 8 hardware.

Just throwing it out there!
Pat

 

Since we're back on the topic of bumpers, guess what I scored over the weekend? I found a warehouse out west that just happened to have a few old school Hobrecht double tube rear bumpers! In CHROME none the less! These used to be the **** back in the '90s, and is one more missing piece of the puzzle for my project truck. (The next awesome find will be a C.R. Laurence Power Lite rear window!)