The hitch on my Van drags when I go up or down hills or even drive out of a parking lot with an incline. Actually it's not the hitch, but the bottom of the ball bolt.

I don't want to make any major changes to the systems. Would my best and easiest bet be to add Helper Springs and sumosprings (or timbrens) to the rear suspension?

 

I like the idea of this option, but haven't looked into the price considering how cheap helper springs are.

 

What is your truck and why is it dragging it's booty on the ground? Helwig helper springs are a good option, some of them are a direct bolt-on without removing any part of the existing suspension..

 

Depends on what your trailer is doing when your hauling. Is this at rest with no trailer or with the trailer? You may need to just flip your hitch and ball to raise the tongue height.

 

Oh shoot, sorry guys (gals)! I totally forgot, it's a 1993 e150 conversion van. The trailer would be for a 12' boat, but it is low enough as is, that it drags without the trailer. I had the hitch flipped, but I built a truck box onto a cargo carrier which I slide into a two level hitch/receiver (bottom has the ball for the boat trailer and top is a second receiver for the cargo carrier). There is 20 pounds in the box now, so it's just the height of the van that'sthe underlying problem.

 

You have ,an almost 30 year old van. The springs wern't the best when it was new. 150's had very low rate springs and 27 yrs of use has fatigued them. Start with a new set of springs and add from there.

 

I was considering that this morning when I ordered the helper springs. I could probably cancel the order considering it's columbus day.... how long are springs typically good for? The van has 87k miles on it, and 30 years of squatting.

 

The only reason I didn't order heaver OEM springs was because
A - I didn't know if that was the problem in the first palce
B - I don't know of I need to order heavier e150 springs or if I can order e350 springs (if they're even different)
C - I don't know of they already upgraded the suspension back when they did the conversion (am I just swapping e350 springs for new e350 springs and going to need helpers anyway)

If you can guess, I did just learn what the different components do this weekend. I I defintely didn't understand what shocks did! I'm lacking in the real-world experience here!

 

I don't think new stock spec replacements springs would do much for you.. they will just sag to where you are now pretty quickly as they are too light for a conversion van to begin with, so if you're ordering all new springs you want to uprate them.

AFAIK nothing is changed with the suspension when a conversion is done, but a 1/2 ton is a poor platform to use for this as it squats pretty bad with not much weight added.. only 500lbs can drop it several inches. The E250/350 platform handles weight much better, 2000lbs of books in my E250 only just brings it level, but I don't know if you could just bolt these springs under your 1/2 ton they may be wider.. 2.5" vs 3" wide.

 

I was think stock econoline springs for the 250 or 350 but I probably didn't specify that. Sorry.

You're not kidding the kind folks at sdtrucksprings are helping me out and are going to look at the spring code to see what the current ones are rated for. The axles are rated for 7,000 and that what the Van's listed at. That doesn't seem legit considering the weight of passengers and belongings.

 

It looks like the springs are rated for 2775 but I don't know if that is per spring both front and back (x4) or front back (x2)

Spring codes were h4c
https:/http.sdtrucksprings.com/ford-spring-code-listings

 

The first 2 characters are for the front coils, the last character is the rear leafs.

For your truck that means the rear springs(code C) are 1685lb and 2.5" wide.

 

Thank you Conanski!

So, they're rated for 3,370 in the rear combined.

I SD called me back and recommended the add a leaf option for roughly the same price with new hardware. I believe each new leaf will add 1,200 pound capacity. The Hellwig helpers add 1,700 per side. I'm not sure which is better. Add a product that I can take with me if I change vans, or add a leaf and know it's (more or less) stock.

​​​​​​​The bolt on addition is tempting me to be honest.

 

The original 3+1 rear leafs on my '94 E-150 cargo, 351W, towing package, 6700 Gross weight, often loaded to about 6500 for camping, had no arch, even with aged helper leafs and load-assist Monroe shocks with the coil springs. It always sat on the flat, bottom overload leaf.

SDtruckspring's 1033HD 4+1 springs raised the rear about 2.5 inches, from about 31 to 33.5 inches, measured from the floor to the top of the wheel arch, while heavily loaded. The flat overloads don't touch anymore. The load-assist spring surrounded shocks were replaced with KYB gas adjusts.

The front also sagged. Oreilly coil springs SP08187, with about the same specs as Moog 880(no S), raised the front a little over two inches to about 33 inches and resulted in less bouncing and better handling. They are progressive rate springs. They did cause excessive camber, and Moog's two piece caster/camber bushing allowed an alignment with a little over 4 degrees of caster.

With a steering stabilizer and a Hellwig sway bar on the front, and an Adco on the rear, it is a much less scary death trap than before. Two-fingered, elbow on the armrest interstate driving, unless high winds.

 

Thanks for all the detailed experience with this. I may be looking at the front end if the back improves. The camber is something I'll pay attention to. The van was much more squirrelly before the alignment and I DON'T want to go back to that!!!

For anyone curious, I elected to go with the Hellwig 991's. The add a leaf option was going to be a lot of work and hardware ($600) to get an extra 1,000 pounds. The Hellwig LP-35's would probably work great, but with the kit it also came out to $600. One forum member with a different vehicle actually had his original springs distorted by the force from this model and since I don't need 3,500 extra pounds, the Hellwig 991's offering 2,000 pounds and a simple bolt on installation seemed like the right medium. My axles are already maxed out. The springs are matched to the max axle load. If I need 3,000 additional pounds in the springs there's probably something wrong there.