Yes being that the OP truck is a 99 and not knowing the history on whether or not it came from the salt belt we don't know what could be bent with that much weight..

 

I found the problem. I bought the truck used and apparently missed that the passenger rear leaf spring is missing two leaves on the front half of the spring. When I put the load on it the spring "bent" and didn't rebound. I also got to weigh it and it weighed in at 6880 lbs with a full tank of gas (37 gallons), me (215 lbs), and an empty water tank (150 lbs). I did overload it, so I guess I shouldn't believe everything I read.

 

Replace both rear springs, not just one. Might as well do all the bushings as well. Good time to do some things like that.

 

Glad you figured it out, you got lucky if the springs were that bad with that kinda weight that you didn't leave the rear axle in the middle of the road..

 

Since I have to replace the springs anyway I'm thinking about upgrading from 4/1 (3,000 lbs) to 6/1 (4,400 lbs). The parts guy at my local Ford dealer said the springs are really the only difference between an F250 and an F350. Does anyone have any feedback on the topic?

 

The 6/1 is a pretty heavy spring. We usually sell these springs to our customers who are landscapers that haul a lot of weight and a few guys in my area that have extremely heavy black topping equipment. It really depends on what you want to use the truck for. You will definitely feel the "stiff" ride of the vehicle if you don't have a load in the bed. If you need the extra weight capacity thats a great spring for it, it will raise the rear end a little also.

-Junior from ATS Springs.

 

I'm going to use the truck to haul water. For the most part that's all it will be used for. I won't be driving it unloaded much so a stiff ride doesn't matter much. I want to haul the most I can with each load. I have a 425 gallon tank which would weigh about 3600lbs. I'd like to fill it up.

 

With that kind of weight you are in the dually category, Hopefully you don't have to go far like that and hopefully you don't get stopped by the DOT...

 

Only going to be driving about 4 miles loaded on country roads.

 

Well what you did read might have been correct. The problem is that most people do not pay attention to the fine details - IE the truck that has the most payload capacity of a given pickup truck line - IE the 8800 GVW package trucks, is a 2WD drive SINGLE cab, GAS engine, not a extended or 4 door, diesel, 4x4 optioned truck. All of those things just take away from the trucks load capacity. Remember it is a "load capacity up to, not a absolute number that applies to all trucks in a given GVW rating"

Which is why people also need to pay attention on towing capacity, all the time on here people say my truck is rated to tow XXXXX lbs. No, it may or may not be. The towing capacity is also a will tow up to - it is NOT a absolute number. It only applies if you have the most basic truck with just the options needed to have max tow That means no 4x4 and a regular cab.

We are running into this all the time in the fleet service, as in running out of GVW instead of truck cargo space. These trucks in the F250 form have pitifully low cargo capacities when optioned out with the diesel, crewcab and 4x4 options. Hence, no more F250's, they are all the heavy payload GVW F350's now, and we may have to go up to the F450 to carry the same load that we used to with the F250 2wd gas regular cab trucks!

Heck, our older late 80's and early 90's F250HD's 2wd regular cab automatic 351w's scaled at 4500 lbs give or take (basic trucks) and with a GVW of 8600 lbs - that meant over a 4000 lb payload capacity

David

 

The 6/1 leaf spring is a Heavy Duty (HD) version to what you have on there right now. It would most likely work very well when considering the type of weight you are hauling around. We sell a lot of these springs with no complaints, I don't think you would be disappointed going the HD route!


-Junior from ATS Springs

 

Thanks for the support Junior. Other than a longer U bolt I won't need anything else to upgrade right?

 

Other than the Ubolts you won't "need" anything else to upgrade the suspension capacity. I would suggest getting some grade 8 spring eye bolts for the eyes though. I don't know if you'll be able to salvage those old ones, plus you will already be under the truck installing everything else, mind as well put some new spring eye bolts to!