My just purchased E350 won't quite clear my 82" garage door. A slight drop at the front and maybe 2" at the rear is all that would be necessary. Hardly a full slam. It would look better and also probably handle better. Has anyone out there done this to an E350? What components or kits are available? Thanks for any info.

 

If you only need 2" more of clearance, try some smaller tires and have them aired down a bit. That might work.
I don't know of any lowering kits for big vans. I haven't seen too many lowered vans. You could try moving the rear axle above the leaf springs and that would free up a bit more than 2" and perhaps level the van a bit or have the rear slightlysagging.
Personally I wouldn't try to lower it if it was my van as I like to lift my vehicles! What kind of garage do you have? Conventional wood construction? It'd be pretty easy to knock out a 2x4 for the additional clearance. Are you sure 2" is all you need? Get a new garage door or lengthen your old door if you need to a bit. If you aren't comfortable doing this yourself, call a contractor.
If these suggestions won't work for you, then join the club and be like the rest of us "big vehicle owners" who park their monsters outside. Most garages are too small for a real full sized vehicle.

 

DoninDenver
Hey man, what do you think?

 

Do you need the full weight capacity of the 350? If not, you can take a few of the short leaves out of the rear springs. It would have a minimal effect on carrying capacity.

I've thought of this myself because I don't need a full E-350 capacity but I may buy one anyway. I'd look at installing F250 front springs.

hth
kevin

 

Contact air ride technogies, they put bags under anything. That will definitely give you the ride you need.

 

I meant E250 springs.

 

DoninDenver,
Are you getting all of this? What do you think of the ideas?

All of you guys had some good ideas for him. I saw an E350 in a parking lot the other day and they are kind of high up compared to an E150. I like the idea of taking some leaves out of the leaf springs, but would that make for a springy ride?

 

Removing a few leaves would make it ride better. It's only a problem if he needs the maximum capacity. I had a C1500 Chevy that had 2 leaves removed (from 6-leaf springs) and there were no side effects. And I occasionally loaded it as heavily as a 1/2 ton truck _should_ be loaded, and it only brought the rear to a level attitude vs the front (which had drop A-arms).

I should probably explain how heavily I think was OK. I hauled a full bed of warehouse shelving, the kind that's in the back room at K-Mart, etc. IOW, loaded to the top of the bed (and front-to-back and side-to-side) with 3/4" particle board and heavy steel supports. Well, I guess it wasn't _all_ full of shelves. There was a 351W back there too. I've loaded it full of pumpkins, then hooked a trailer that 's 2000lb empty to it and loaded that with I suppose not a heck of a lot of weight, a few hundred more pounds. Or the same load of pumpkins with a 5x10" landscaper trailer fully loaded with hay bales stacked 3-high.

And an E-350 has ~14 leafs. Take put 4 small ones and you've still got a hell of a lot of weight capacity.

I'm definitely inclined toward a 350, as I continue to research my upcoming purchase. Pulling some leaves will be th efirst thing I do when I get it home.

later
cf

 

Well shoot! Looked under a ~98 E350 PSD 15pax at work today and it only has 4 leaves! I'd still try pulling one.

Been spending too much time counting leaves under dually pickups, I guess.

 

Couldn't you just buy the rubber lift blocks & huge U brackets (like $30 at Autozone/Advance). That would drop your *** end 2".
You'll need extra hands, because the back end weighs a ton when you free it off,and wobbles about like you wouldn't believe.

You could have your front springs shortened, but that scares me too much, I think I would rather settle for buying shorter strut assemblies if your budget will stretch that far.

 

14 leaves, I was thinking that it sounded like an awful lot as an E150 has 4(I think). It's okay though.

 

Thanks for the info guys and sorry for my delay in responding. Had to go to Mexico to lie on the beach for awhile. Anyway, I don't much like the idea of smaller tires. To get a 2" drop means a 4" tire diameter reduction. After my original posting I spent some time under the van and there don't appear to be many options other than maybe raising the rear attachment of the leaf spring and buying lowered front spindles. There's not a lot of travel in the front suspension so cutting or replacing the front springs may drop it right onto the bump stops. Since the axle is below the springs, spacers and longer u-bolts won't work. And flipping the axle above the springs would probably be too much drop plus possible alignment and clearance problems. An air type suspension system would probably be ideal since I may only adjust the height to get it in and out of the garage. These systems seem pretty pricey though. Any guess what something like that at the front and rear would cost? Maybe working on raising the garage door opening is the best bet after all. By the way the van will be used for race car hauling/trailering and it's handy to be able to load stuff in the garage rather than schleping everything out to the driveway. Any other ideas?

 

How about installing a taller garage door? I plan on raising my header 12" and replacing my 7ft door with an 8 footer.