I'm going to install a Tuff Country 2.5" leveling kit over the weekend and was wondering if it's really necessary to remove to factory springs. My snow plow bracket is blocking the front spring bolts and it will take a lot of work to remove them. Is it possible to install the extra leafs while the factory springs are still on the truck?

Thanks

 

I'm sure it can be done... but I would have an extra set of hands available, if I were you...

Joey

 

If it's just the mini spring pack, I am pretty sure you can just undo the u-bolts jack up the truck, leaving the axle on the ground, put the new centering pin in and and bolt it all back together.

I had that kit before my 8" and I dont think I took out the factory springs to do it. I hope we are talikng about a leaf spring front end truck.

Of course be careful and safe jacking up truck while driveshafts, brake lines, etc. are still attached.

I'll see if I have my old instructions.

J.

 

I think its an AAL for the front, but same idea

Joey

 

hey guys, the kicker will be holding the leaf pack together in order to get the center pin outta the pack and install the new longer pin that holds the "little" pack on. In the past, I have used some big C clamps to squeeze the stock pack in place, tap out the old center pin and tap in the new one. Follow? If you let the pack shift, you'll never get a pin back in there.

 

I installed the same kit on my truck. Yes if you jack it up, put the frame on stands and a jack under the diff, you can undo the u-bolts and ease the diff down. The factory spring pack is only two leaves, so separation is not an issue.

The leaves will separate and the springs will separate from the diff. We cut the center pin below the nut and drove it back through the spring. Started the new pin into the bottom of the factory spring, added the 5 leaf pack between the 2 factory leaves, and jacked the diff back up, guiding the center pin up thru the whole pack. Install your new nut, and go on.

Something I can share from my install, we did not heat up any of the bolts that hold the trac bar bracket to the frame. They use loctite from the factory and as soon as we put a socket and ratchet on it, it spun in the frame. Do yourself a favor and hit them with a little heat to melt the loctite. Otherwise you'll fight them trying to get them apart. It's possible but we lost an hour screwing w/ them when a little heat would have done the trick.

Good luck and post pics when your done!!

Dave

 

why did you put the new spring pack between the factory springs. arnt they different type of leafs and supossed to go below both factory leafs? I just did that to my truck but i made the lift myself using the rear leafs out of a bronco.

 

The biggest difference between the Donahoe leveling kit and the Tuff Country leveling kit is that the Donahoe is a small stack of leafs that go under the existing leaf pack, thus you use some C-Clamps and hold the factory pack together while you remove the center pin and drop the front axle/differential.

But on the Tuff Country, the new leafs go in-between the stock leaf pack, so you'll be seperating them anyway, but it's not that hard to line the holes back up.

My biggest recommendation on these installs is that you :

A) Get the front of the truck up high enough to allow sufficient room to lower the front axle. If you're doing this in your driveway, it will mean using a pair of HEAVY duty jack stands, and you may even have to put them on top of something like wooden blocks to get the height you need.

B) Use TWO heavy duty rolling floor jacks to support both ends of the front axle / differential. Why? The biggest headache on these installs is getting the lower round head of the pin that goes through the leaf pack to line up and drop back into the hole on the top of the front axle on both sides. That front axle/differential assembly is HEAVY and you'll need leverage manuevering it around to get the pins on both sides lined up.

One man with one jack will have a @$# of a time.

TX

 

Because that's how they go!!!

The leaf pack consists of 5 different length leaves, the shortest being on the bottom. If you install them under the leaf pack ,the whole suspension would be resting on a 6" long spring.

Tuff Country recommends taking the whole spring out, but there's no reason to.

Dave

 

Ok. then tell me this, if you buy a whole new spring pack for the front and not just a add aleaf pack how long is the bottom spring? I put a leveling spring in my last truck and the bottom spring was only 6in. also put a 6in lift in friends truck and bottom sping was only 6in. it dosnt matter how long the bottom spring is, it all rests on top of the axle which is only about 4in anyway

 

OK, point taken. Was the bottom spring clamped into the original pack? On the 6" all spring kit, probably so. On my leveling kit, no. Otherwise it would be sitting on a pack of springs w/ nothing to hold it together but the center pin, right? What would keep the pack from turning under the original spring if the front end got light?

If that is how your stuff was designed or how you chose it to work, then that's fine but that's not how mine worked and it's not how the original poster's kit is going to work. I'm not saying your wrong, because obviously DR uses one under the spring, but I don't know if they're separate leaves or not. The pics I've seen, it looks like it's all one piece.

Separate leaves need to be clamped into the pack somehow. Otherwise, they will move around and more than likely cause the center pin to break.

Dave

 

My 2" Donahoe Mini-Spring Pack was 4 short leafs, as shown in the pic below. They are 4 seperate little leafs, nothing holding them together except the center pin. When I put them on and put the new, longer center pin through, I held them straight as I tightened up the center pin nut. Given the fact they (along with the stock leafs) are all bolted together, I can't see how they could move. Add to that the fact that the U-bolts slide tightly around the entire spring pack (stock and add-on), thus not allowing them to move.

 

On its own the leaf pack would move but with the u-bolts it lockes the whole unit together. the center pin has little force on it once everything is bolted in and tightened down. My original concern was the differnt types of leafs being mixed by putting them between the factory tappered springs. local spring shop said that could be harmful to the springs.

 

Agreed. One amendment to my original post further up is that the only Tuff Country leveling kit I've done was 2" "Add-a-Leaf" on my brother in laws F350. It was one, heavy-duty leaf that was inserted between the stock leaves. It was inexpensive, about $100 for the two leaves (left and right). Now that I'm looking at the current Tuff Country leveling kit and reading it's install manual, it sounds a lot like my Donahoe, since it sounds like it's a small stack of leaves added underneath the stock stack.

TX

 

This is the kit I used: