Hey All,

I am new to this forum and recently bought a 2000 Ford E-150 with a 4x4 Conversion. The conversion is a non-branded conversion that was done earlier in the Vans life by a company in Oregon that no longer does van conversions.

I previously reached out to U-Joint with a few of my questions but they were unable to help saying that I would have to change out all of my components and spend 14-15K to use there parts.

What I have gathered so far is this:

-Front Axle is a Dana 44 with 3" wide leaf springs
-Rear Axle is a Sterling 10.25" with 2.5" wide leaf spring

Overall the van is in pretty good shape for a 17 year old van with close to 200k but I am looking to improve on the following so the van is a little better suited for long road trips as a campervan. My goal is to get this van to put together for a road trip from Bozeman to Alaska and back.

What I am looking to fix:
-Rough Ride- The van rides extremely rigid. Going over s speed bump will rattle your teeth. I have also noticed that the leaf springs all the way around look almost flattened out. Does anyone have a recommendation of what leaf springs I could use to replace the current ones and possibly give a slightly less rigid ride?
-Steering- Current steering a bit sloppy. The PO but a steering stabilizer on but it is still quite floaty on the highway. I realize steering isnt going to be as tight as a car being it is a lifted van but would still like to see whats available to improve this?

My main reason for the 4x4 van is to being able to make it through the snow and dirt roads BLM land around where we live. I wouldnt say that I would be doing any hardcore off-roading but more or less wanted something that had the abilities to take me where I need to go.

I have included some photos for reference as well! Thank you.

 

Congratulations on the van. It looks like a nice conversion. A nice detail is that they not just cut the front cross member but welded back the lip on the cut that cleared the pumpkin. Not necessary IMHO, but shows care.

You can contact ATS springs and they can work with you on getting a matching set of springs to your needs. You probably have F350 leaves (3”) at front while retaining the original e150 in the rear. Add new shock absorbers (Bilstein or Fox if you can) and you should see improvements.

For the steering, make sure all your bushings are in good shape and the ball joints are not worn out. I am not a fan of steering stabilizers, I do not have much experience with them, but unless you are doing Dessert Racing, they only cover up system imperfections.

You should check alignment, specially caster too. Looking at the pictures it seems that your rear sits lower than the front. That will reduce the caster making your steering more “nervous” on the road.

 

looks cool, tough, fun. Nice!

However you bought a toy.
rough ride? no answer.
sloppy steering? do what GreeVan said, then you'll probably be in much better shape. Also maybe tires. maybe even just the tire pressures.

But remember you bought a toy; a 6000lb toy which was highly modified by a very very small company. Could have been a 1 person company for all we know.
Enjoy your toy but don't expect much from it besides fun.

Someday I want to do the 4x4 van thing...

 

One of the reasons for the steering problem is the angle of the Pitman arm (drag link)(not sure of the correct terminology). When you go over a bump,the arm pulls or pushes the wheels sideways a bit. The extended ride height amplifies this.Also,I question why a Sterling rear(with 5 bolt pattern)(and drum brakes) with a Dana 44 front,was used.The leaf springs are never going to give the ride of coils,but that setup was used because the donor front axle already had them. Most of those conversions (with Dana 44s)used Bronco front axles with coils.The steering stabiizer was used to control "wobble" with large wheels and tires.Probably an attempt to lessen the "bump steer".This is from my experience with a 350 Quigley.
FWIW, I have never been a fan of 1/2 ton 4WD conversions. These are typicly only some of the problems with them.

 

Thank Greevan.

Would ATS be able to help to improve the caster with new leaf springs? It does sit higher in the front than the back now and I was hope to be able to correct this with new leafs?

It has new Billstein shocks on it all the way around that were installed by the PO as well as doing an alignment.

 

Thanks Rick1025. As far as the steering goes I havent found it to be bump steer issue i would describe it as feel more "floaty" or loose when going down the highway. Bump steer hasnt been bad.

 

The springs have no arch to them as you noticed, search up a leaf spring shop in your neck of the woods and see what they say .

Check your steering box for play , and any other steering component big tires wear these out quick.

Nice looking ride once you sort it out you will love it .

See if you can find online pics of how quigley does their 4 x4 set up , it might give you some solutions.

 

Do any of you have experience with using Deaver Suspension leaf springs? I was doing some research and see that this often give a much better ride and even allow you to remove the lift blocks.

 

You need to find a spring shop in your area to custom build you a spring pack for your unique application.

The springs are way to flat and without any arc in them they cannot deflect to absorb any impact . They might as well be rigid .

Take the vehicle to some shops , be patient and you should find what you need ,
But nothing you get through the mail will fix this .

Ladder bars and coil spring conversion for the rear is not out of the question .

Good luck it’s a sweet ride.

 

There is nothing wrong with flat or reverse arch leaf springs it just comes down to how much ride height you want or need to clear driveline bits. In this case with the front suspension the two lower leafs are most of the problem IMO, they probably don't need to be there at all and I suspect it was setup this way simply to give that ride height.

 

For the steering wander the first thing I would check is the alignment. From my reading it appears that you want about 5* of positive caster. I want to do this with my '88, but it had kingpins and twin I-Beams. Getting more caster required heating and bending the I-Beams