Hi! I have an 1992 f-250 4x4 i just bought recently. I noticed the front springs are a bit tired,My axle is about an inch from the stops.apparently Ford decided to go with a kind of 2 leaf flat spring to make the ride better.I am trying to decide on what to do.
Maybe just a set of fresh springs or maybe even 3 leaf type springs,But still like the factory flat style.new shocks also. I am worried this would make the ride to rough.I am not expecting any kind of off road race truck kinda suspension.I use my truck for towing and offroading for hunting. Any ideas or experiences with this would be great.

 

You can look at the swap for the super duty springs. I hear they make it ride better

 

The bad thing about those front axles is that there isn't much travel up front so there will always be a very minimal amount of space between the pad and the bump stop. A direct replacement leaf spring may help with gaining a little bit of height (depending on how much you are sagging). A 3 leaf, heavy duty leaf spring is going to do two things for your truck. It will give you more height up front than the 2 leaf will and it will give you a firmer ride with a higher capacity spring set up.

We have a lot of customers who swap out the stock springs with a super duty springs but you will have to do some kind of reverse shackle kit to do the install.

 

And the front springs are flat to start with, not positively arched like most people expect. 1" of uptravel at the bump stop really isn't that unusual for a leaf spring TTB. Keep in mind that you get a lot more uptravel at the wheel than you do at the spring due to the geometry (still not much, but close to double what it looks like at the bump stop).

 

Twenty-five years of constantly having a 6000 to 8000 lb truck sitting on a pair of any kind of springs is going to cause them to sag. I bet the original clearance on the front stops was closer to 3" or 4".

 

Thanks for the replys. super duty springs are? from a newer truck? Or the 3 leaf one's? i see 3 leaf spring sets for sale but they add around a thousand pounds of extra weight capacity.Without a winch or snowplow i think they would be mighty stiff.

 

No doubt they've sagged, but no way did F-250s ever have upwards of 6" of uptravel at the tire. I doubt the original clearance at the stops was even 2" new.

For what it's worth, the springs that have been holding up my 460 for the past 20 year and 197,000 miles have about 3/4" - 1" of clearance at the bump stops. I'm not slamming into the stops, so I'm fine with them the way they are.

Yes, SuperDuty springs are from a SuperDuty truck, which started in the '99 model year (I don't know which year they recommend for a spring swap). As already noted, they require a shackle reversal kit as well, which gives about a 3" lift. And shackle reversals were originally made for solid axles only. Later they started selling the solid axle kits for TTBs as swell, but there's some chatter that they don't work so well with TTBs. I have no experience with it so just repeating what I've heard.

One other thing is that I've only heard of SuperDuty springs being used with a solid axle. Because of the geometry of the TTB the spring doesn't move as far as the tire, so 3/4 ton TTB springs need to be stiffer than 1 ton solid axle springs. I'd make sure I knew that the SuperDuty springs wouldn't be too soft and lead to excessive bottoming before putting them in a TTB.

And no one's ever accused a leaf spring TTB of having a soft ride, so I wouldn't suggest trying stiffer springs than stock.

 

My springs appear to bend in reverse a bit.I wonder about the shocks also. I have only pretty much only driven it home.I felt it bottom out a few times.Some work to do making my old truck road worthy.People sell 2 and 3 leaf springs that bolt right up.So i am not sure why the super duty springs are needed. what would reverse shackles do for the truck?

 

The reverse shackle kit when paired with a straight axle and super duty springs will give you a better ride (and height if that's what you're also looking for). The shackle is relocated to the rear of the spring and the super duty springs have a different rating and are longer, basically all things that will help the ride quality.

 

What about with a TTB? Can you do a reverse shackle and SuperDuty springs with a TTB? If so, does that help the ride? Or should the reverse shackle / SuperDuty spring swap only be used with a solid axle?

 

So what is TTB? I will do some research into the idea of super duty springs and the shackle kit. The front could use a lift to even it out with the rear. At least i haven't had any death wobbles or anything except the bottoming out. Any source or article about it i can read? Thanks!

 

TTB = Twin Traction Beam

 

... the (semi) independent front suspension on 4WD F-150s and F-250s. F-350s (after about 1986) have a solid front axle (which can be pretty easily swapped into an F-250).

 

I actually am glad to not have the TTB. So many people have front end problems. bad tire wear.This dreaded death wobble seems to come up a lot in conversations.

 

Unless someone has swapped in a solid axle, you should have the TTB. Solid axles only came from the factory in 1 ton (F-350) or bigger trucks. F-150's got a coil spring on the TTB, F-250's got a leaf spring TTB.

ETA: TTB's are not a "bad" setup, really. They aren't as durable as a solid axle, but they can handle some abuse. They do have their share of issues, and they can be a little tricky to maintain and to align properly, but I wouldn't say Ford did too bad of a job when they led the market with a fullsize truck IFS.