I bought a Westin bull bar license plate mount, I don't like it there so I may get the 05 bumper plate holder and just put it back on the bumper. The bar blocks half of it but I never got any trouble for years and I liked the look better.

If your installing a double din radio get the mounting kit and the easiest thing to do is completely trim off the top and bottom lips inside the radio opening and then trim the left and right ones a little at a time until the radio slides in and snaps into place.

Also! if you guys aren't following my dash swap thread I already started, I have the dash half out right now and will hopefully get the dash removed tomorrow.

 

Jon (reddevil) your dad probably has better turning clearance because of the 05 front end being coil sprung and the 02 F250 being leaf sprung. The 05 has just a little bit better turning I have driven both an 02 (ours) and an 05 F250 and you could defiantly tell the difference.
Trav

 

I don't get how Dennis has 1.5" of clearance and mine doesn't have any...does that mean its worn out or something is wrong with my steering box? It has at least 43k from when i got it and idk how much was on it from when it was on the junked truck.

 

Are you sure it's not because dennis has lift springs and you only have a spring pack? It looks like he has more space between the top of the spring and the frame

I can measure when I get back to my truck in a few hours

 

I think you need to get a few more measurements. How about center of steering box output to the leaf spring edge as well as center to center length of the pitman arm.

 

Yeah I think it may have something to do with the lifts springs vs. the spring pack.

Agreed. If you need any more measurements Matt, I can crawl back under the truck with the tape measure and camera

 

My spacing from the top of the leaves to the bottom of the frame is 5.4". I think if you have a drop pitman arm its going to put that right in there to connect if its sagged out.

 

I'll have to measure more tomorrow in the morning. Ill get the center to center of the pitman arm, anf tge top of the spring to the bottom of the frame.

How much of an arch do your springs have Dennis? Mine are pretty flat.

My suspicion is that the leaf packs vs springs are the issue like you guys are saying.

 

Also, measure your turning radius going left, and going right. There could be some indexing issues with the box.

 

Good point! Would I just measure the knuckle straight then with the wheel turned relative to the axle?

 

Yup. Or count turns on the steering wheel. Or go drive in figure 8's.

 

Yeah I guess you were right, haha.

Yeah that's the only "infraction" on my truck right now. I'll be getting some tint though soon, but not too dark, still less than legal though. Cops are pretty lenient around me too, and I haven't been pulled over in my truck yet. I think the bull bar helps hide it because even if it was there, it would be hard to see. I don't roll coal too much, most of the time. Or mess around really either, now if I'm with my friends that's a different story, but I still usually only mess around on the freeway. I think I'm going to look more into getting the front plate mounted, just to be safe.

Thanks Matt. I took another look at some of your pics, and figured it was mounted to the bumper. That's cool I wonder if they make one for 99-04 bumpers, because there's not a lot of room for a license plat on mine. I'm guessing that's the issue, is because we have different front ends. That's why I wasn't sure what to do with it, because like I said there's like no room on mine for a license plate and bracket, there's about an inch or two in between the bull bar an the bumper. I'll have to see if I can squeeze it in there. I wonder if Westin makes on of those for my truck.

Yeah I got a double din one. Thanks for the tips, doesn't sound like its too hard to put in. How hard was the wiring for you? I know there's a lot of wires back there.

Going to check out your dash swap thread.

Yeah Trav, that's what I figured. I was guessing that's what the difference was, I just wasn't sure if the steering box had anything to do with it.

Sorry Matt I'm not much of a help with the steering box or your other issue. I'm still not too good with the technical stuff yet, lol.

 

If you get a harness its not bad at all its like 12 wires. Also its actually mounts to the bull bar so up should mount up fine.

 

I agree, if you the the radio haness that plugs into the Ford end its really matching wires. For me it was even easier because I bypassed all the factory wiring for the speakers because I have an A/M amp.

 

Yeah I did get the harness, so hopefully it won't be too bad. And that's good, I might get the it then, but still not sure.

Sounds good. I'm definitely glad I got the harness. I also have an amp going to my speakers and subs with an amp. So hopefully that will make it a little easier.