Step bracket trade?
The Super Duty brackets let the steps sit 3 inches lower. They are completely interchangeable. I have done this twice before.
And there are different versions for different truck configs all using the same brackets and hardware but a different step.
The plastic steps are cheaply held on to the brackets by brass inserts screwed into plastic with metal bracket screws roughly screwed into the step.
Care must be taken when disassembling the brackets from the step.
After destroying a factory step via a big rock, I loosened the brass screws with a power screwdriver which bunged up/heated the threads so badly as to make the step not reusable.
Ford's engineers figured there would never be any upward pressure on the step, only downward so why not cheap out and and use plastic threads to hold the inserts and step down.
Ford sells the whole assembly, both step and brackets as a unit for each of the 3 or 4 versions.
My advice is to trade the entire step/brackets/hardware as a unit, making sure the model truck is the same.
I'm sure there off roaders on here that would like higher up steps.
BTW, in my photo below, I still had the stock step height.









