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Leafs are old, not as good as coils but still deserve some attention.
I bought my 2001 F350 and it came with a terrible 6" BDS lift. It rode horrible, had no flex and was too tall for what it was trying to accomplish (clear 315s). No pictures of it but it is a pretty familiar sight among Super Duties.
Quickly decided the 6" had to go. I prefer; soft ride, high clearance, and lots of flex! On-road and off-road performance is very important. Preferably something I can swap my 285/75 towing tires for a set of 37 or 38" TSL boggers without looking like the truck has a dumb lift with small tires. The first thing I did was ditch the sway bars, front and rear. Dont drive fast enough to need them and they hurt off road performance.
Decided to go with a light spring in the front instead of the standard X-code. I went light, U-code! 4800lb vs 6000lb (x). Same spring as my 7.3 Excursion, but that truck is very low in the front. To compensate for the soft U-code I added a 1" zero rate spring. It also moved the front axle forward 1" to provide fender clearance and improve approach angle.
It worked good this way but the shackle angle was very steep. The steep angle caused the leaf spring to become U-shaped and bottomed out fairly easy. To combat this I decided to move the front spring mount forward. What I did was unbolt the front spring mount, shim the shackle to the desired angle ans weld the front mount in place.
The front spring mounts are moved forward about 1/2" bringing the total axle placement to 1.5" forward from stock. This is what helps for running big tires.
Inner fender clearance with 285/75r16 tires. By the way the Cooper HT3 is a SUPERB sand tire. Far better loose sand performance than the Cooper STMaxx I have been running for years. A lot of loose yellow beach sand in Michigan.
Have spent a lot of time looking at and reading about bump stops. Bump stops play a bigger roll than one would think when it comes to smooth suspension travel. Some bump stops are softer than others; Polyurethane vs Foam, solid puck vs progressive rate. In this case I went with soft foam progressive stops. Turns out bump stops from a low rider website are what I was looking for, and those trucks spend a lot of time on them so they must be smooth. The truck is setup with 4" of up travel. These look to be 3" long or so, no dimensions were given. They will allow approx 1" of up-travel before making contact, may have to trim the down a little bit but will ride around with them for a while first. I think they will be soft enough that no changes will be needed.
What code leafs are you running? The U-code is a pretty soft spring under a 7.3. The bump stops are more for off-road use, stock pucks contact pretty hard at times causing a jarring effect in the cab.
Was unsure on what shocks to run in the front. Previously I have ran Bilstein 5100, KYB Monomax and Rancho. Never liked how stiff the Nitro charged 5100 and KYB were, like 200lb to compress them. Had the parts store bring out everything they had and tested their compression. The Monroe Gas-Magnum fit the need the best. Still Nitro-charged but not as still as say a Bilstein 5100. Has a mono-tube and large body, Made in USA as well.
These are the bump stops that came off.
Might as well elaborate on the rear also. The truck started with some kind of ****ty BDS 4-6in lift or something like that. It came with only a 3" add-a-block so I am not sure if the springs are stock, most likely. When I pulled everything off it I wanted to make the rear suspension soft but able to holr a load. IIRC, 3 leafs were removed from the rear pack, all lower spring the upper/lower overload springs stayed too. The stock 4" lift block was also changed out with a 3" one to keep the rear lower. This helped tremendously with ride quality but needed air bags for towing heavy. Went with Load Lifter brand (without internal bump stops). With the softer springs I run 10psi unloaded pretty smooth. Will likely go to a Monroe shock in the rear as well.
You really have the market cornered on some rust there.
Thats hardly anything! Michigan salt is the worst on vehicles. Mixed with lots of mud and being put away wet, about time for some Chassis Saver. Those rear shocks are less than 4 years old.
Michigan salt is the worst on vehicles. Mixed with lots of mud and being put away wet, about time for some Chassis Saver. Those rear shocks are less than 4 years old.
