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Hello all, I am brand new to this site. I wanted to ask you all your thoughts on a lift kit. I have a stock 74' F250 4x4 that I want to put 37's or maybe even 40's on eventually and wanted to lift it a bit also. My question is, is there a limit on how high you can go on a suspension lift before you have to make modification to steering and or any other issues? For what it's worth it does have the dana 44 closed knuckle front axle. I was thinking somewhere between 4" and 6" but not really sure. So I have read forums that say a stock highboy is able to clear 37" is that true? One other thing, what is a good brand lift kit that won't break the bank?
So I had a stock f250 lowboy, I ordered stock highboy suspension and put it on the lowboy. That gave me 4” of lift, so I recommend going that route. It was cheaper than ordering an actual “lift kit”. It could definitely clear 35’s and maybe clear 37’s
Welcome to FTE, great bunch of folks with a lot of experience and opinions. I hear on here all the time the 37's will fit a stock High Boy. FYI your rear leaf springs are 2 1/4 wide and so are your spring hangers back there. The fronts are 3" wide on a HB, just like lowboys. But low boys 77-79 have 3" REAR leaf springs. So pick you parts wisely.
Your 74 F250 has a 44 closed knuckle front axle that is LOW PINION out put, so 4 " might be pushing it. 6" even more. Sky Jacker, Super Lift, Deaver, QUALITY but $$ Atlas Suspension $$.
Cheaper is NOT always better...Rough Country is at the bottom of my list. I have a brand new set of 4" front springs that settled so much once installed truck is un level. Off and in the trash can some day soon.
Do you have the steering assist set up on it. Garretson or Bendix?
My truck has 33s. I just rolled this 37" Toyo up to it the other day. No way I would run this with no lift. My driver side tire hits the stupid power assist crap already. I have to swap to the 78/79 style steering box to run any bigger.
Mine does have the bendix assist. I never thought about a clearance issue there with the tire. I hate the thought of having to do all the modifications to remove that. So it appears unless I do some modifications to the steering I may just have to leave it where it is?
You hear that 37" tires will fit under a factory highboy but that really applied to when they rolled off the factory line with new springs and skinny tires were the norm. Here are a few pictures of my stock ride height 1973 F-250 4x4 I had with both 33" tires and 35" tires.
33" tires
35" tires Wheels are Pro Comp Alloys - Series 1069, 17x9 Polished finish. They have 4.75" backspace and drivers side did rub on full right turn. P/N PXA 1069-7982 from 4wheelparts.
Tires are MasterCraft Courser MXT, 35x12.50 R17. Overall diameter is 34.76" Load Range E Max Load 3,195lbs
Here are those same 35" tires on my 1975 crew cab pre-lift, partially done and post-lift. They do not rub at all on the crew cab. The lift is a SkyJacker 4" kit. I bought an extended rear brake hose from JBG and had extended front brake hoses made thru my local Napa. No steering modifications were needed/done. I will note that the crew cab has a low pinion D60 and not a D44 axle like your 1974 F-250. Going beyond a 4" lift would necessitate steering changes. On my crew cab with the 4" SkyJacker lift I am currently using the stock pitman arm and do not experience bump steer. 37" would also fit for me.
One more thing to consider is how much has your stock suspension sagged? My '77 Highboy is all stock but with 35's and I actually get a slight rub on the front right when I roll down through a ditch at an angle. According to dimensions I've seen on this forum, my stock springs have sagged about 2 inches up front, about 3 in the rear. If I put just a few hundred pounds in the bed it will sag another couple of inches. My 450 lb atv makes the rear sag about 3 inches, which wouldn't happen with stock springs. But this truck was also used a lot to haul some pretty heavy loads, way beyond what it was rated for. There's no way 37's would work on my truck, but if I had new springs but no lift it would probably work.
So my Skyjacker 4" lift kit (with 4 springs) showed up yesterday. I dug out the instructions and read through them. Unless I missed something there was nothing about what to do with the factory lift blocks in the rear. I read somewhere in a post these need to be removed. Is this true? Also ordered some 37" Super Swamper Irok HD's for it. They should be here soon.
I know for sure that on a Skyjacker 6" (with replacement Skyjacker rear leafs) you HAVE to reuse the rear OEM block and the leaf spring pack have a degree shim to correct the rear pinion angle. Once the front is done, do the rear and once the rear leafs are on, just lower the truck until the rear leafs are setting on the pads and see what is looks like. I bet you will have to reuse the rear block.
So my Skyjacker 4" lift kit (with 4 springs) showed up yesterday. I dug out the instructions and read through them. Unless I missed something there was nothing about what to do with the factory lift blocks in the rear. I read somewhere in a post these need to be removed. Is this true? Also ordered some 37" Super Swamper Irok HD's for it. They should be here soon.
You keep the lift blocks with the 4" skyjacker springs unless you want the rear end to be a couple of inches lower than the front
Getting the inside front nut off the leaf springs was the hardest part for me. It's a 15/16" nut and the wrench I had was just a tad too long to fit on the nut and not hit the underside of the bed, so I ran to Lowes, found a 15/16" wrench that was about a half inch shorter which was OK, but still cumbersome. Hence, took a cut-off wheel to it and cut it in half. Maybe there's a better way to accomplish this, but this is what worked for me.
This shows the rear skyjacker springs installed. Notice my lift blocks are still in place.
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