....but you gotta take your hat off to Tedster9 for the passion, right? Am I right?!

 

Yeah, he's an entertaining read and often has good advice. I only protest the description of "coal car" for the benefit of the OP in this thread. If handling on his recent purchase is bad/scary at highway speeds then it needs fixed. These trucks handle like trucks. Ford still uses twin I beams/coils/shocks on 2wd fronts, rear suspension is still leaf/shocks, and todays trucks are still trucks so don't expect new trucks to be waterbeds either.

 

A truck will steer, stop, and handle like a truck unless a significant amount of upgrades and changes (read $$$$) are done. There are marginal and reasonable improvements that can be made without going overboard like brakes, shocks, springs, swaybars, bushings, lower center of gravity.

If I wanted my truck to steer, handle, and stop like a Ferrari then I'd just get a Ferrari. Oh.... I did.

.

 

Yep. New bushings, springs, shocks and front and rear sway bars dramatically improved my truck's cornering ability and got rid of the 'boat' feeling it had when going around curves. The truck is much flatter and more predictable when going around curves now. --the power brakes with front discs work pretty darn good too. Not so much when I had power 4-wheel drums and definitely not when I had manual 4-wheel drums.

 

Yep, bushings, springs all the way around and King pins are a good idea. I did them right after I did the brakes. Any modifications depend on the OP's intended use. After two pages of us yammering there's been no weigh in from the OP so it's been just us telling each other how we use our trucks differently. I like hearing and sharing how different guys (e.g. you guys) use their trucks which is why I joined FTE.

 

Ahh that would be a New Thread that you can start..

So ya don't High jack this guys thread.
Orich

 

It's not at all a thread high jack. It's totally relevant to wonder what the OP wants to do with his newly purchased truck to help decide what brakes to install. He hasn't been back since starting the thread so I was wrapping up by thanking everyone for their various opinions and experiences as well as their suggestions for going through the suspension as well. If you want to yelp "thread high jack" then go back to Tedster9 when he was talking about coal cars and air conditioning and what ever else.

 

Not much I can add to this thread but I did a complete brake job about 3 years ago on my '68 F250 with power 4 wheel drums, and i'm completely satisfied with the stopping.

 

LOL!!

I denounce myself.

 

I saw your post and did my own LOL. Cool beans. You ain't half bad Tedster9.

BTW, I'll risk the "High Jack police" again to say Thank you to Orich for your service. I checked out some of your links the other day...cool stuff.

 

I have to say. I love how much input you can get within such a short period of time...

 

When these trucks were built, most all of them had 4-wheel drum brakes and many more of them were manual, than those that had power (drum) brakes. This is also in a time when most all Chevrolets and Dodges had 4-wheel drums too. Everyone was on the same level, stopping-wise.

Today, very few vehicles have rear drums but none of today's vehicles are running front drums. Even many cheap, crap-box, econo cars have power 4-wheel discs. The advantage modern/more modern vehicles have is they can stop quicker and in a shorter distance than you can.

Trying to pace yourself and keeping your distance between the vehicle in front of you only works so long as some idiot doesn't come flying around you and dart in between you and that vehicle you were trying to keep your distance from. I've had that happen numerous times.

Other than getting the spindles, I-beams and radius arms from a Dentside donor, its not much difference, price-wise, to completely refurbish 4-wheel drums vs installing discs.

This is from when I changed my truck over to front discs in October, 2014.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ont-drums.html

 

Ha! Yeah, this turned into a pretty good knitting circle. Hopefully you got what you're hoping to know. We all know discs are more heat resistant, easier to service, and better at hard braking. And I've seen enough on various forum threads that F100 owners appreciate the conversion to discs. I honestly don't know why my F250 manual drums are as good as they are. I've been all over the eastern U.S., empty and heavily loaded/towing, and lot of rush hour traffic and excluding my 90mph crazy moment they've done their job as well as any of my 4 corner disc cars/truck. Sometimes logic is defied.

As example of logic defied, many people tell me a mustang is no good in snow/ice. Many, many times I wrestled front wheel drive cars out of being stuck and simply got in my '87 mustang and drove away easily. It made front wheel drive cars look silly over and over. One time I used it to pack down snow by driving it back and forth to help a cavalier get out. Made zero sense and I couldn't' figure it out...and yet it happened...a lot.

Have fun with your truck...but be warned...these trucks will suck you in deep :-)