I have a 75 F-250, and I want to drop it and make a rat rod out of it. Looking aroung for how to drop it I find there isnt to many parts to do this.

There are some trucks on here that I have seen bagged that look like the basically set the frame on the ground... which is ok by me. So where ad what are you guys getting parts to lower your rides?

 

There are only two companies that make lowering I-beams for these trucks. DJM and AIM (chassistech). Those will get it down three inches. I have only seen one company that makes Bag brackets for these trucks and that is AIM. I think most people that bag the front of these make their own brackets, but good luck getting a picture. Pic's of the bag brackets that people have made and put on these are pretty hard to come by! I plan on getting the coil spring replacement kit from suicide doors http://www.suicidedoors.com/BuildItY...th55ODTube.php and cutting and modding them to fit inplace the coil spring. Some of the trucks on here that are lowered were lowered with complete front clip swaps from LTD's.

 

I used the DJM on my 76. I was happy with the product.

 

There is one other alternative, an Mustang 2 IFS kit.
Fat man fabrications www.fatmanfab.com in North Carolina makes a great kit, I have purchased one of their hub to hub kits and installed it under my 79 F100 and still under construction.
The IFS kit is on the expensive side, but it was worth the money to have the engineering already done. There body on mine will be the only stock thing left when done, Engine is a 32v Lincoln Mark 8 with tranny, computer, donor dash and electronics and donor rear end.
If you check out their site and decide to call either speak with Brent or Kevin you will find them really helpful.
The only thing I did not do was body drop it, they look way cool but I decided against it.

 

Isn't an F-250 front end going to be a completely different animal than the light duty F-100's?

 

I have a 78 F250 in my side yard and with the exception of the 8 lug pattern the steering looks pretty much the same. There might be some differences I do not know about.
My son is going to play around with the 78 model and body drop it for some extra experience. He has already done a nissan king cab and thought the full size extra cab would look cool!

 

The F250 front end is very similar to the F100, the main difference being the height of the springs (F250 front coils are taller than 1/2 ton) and the spindles, which are much heavier and use 8 bolt wheels. Brake calipers are also bigger and are dual piston compared to the single pistons on the 1/2 ton. The problem is that you can't find dropped I-beams to fit the F250 front spindles, since they require larger king pins.

It is very easy, however, to find a set of 1/2 ton spindles and swap them onto the dropped beams, everything is a bolt-on procedure then. You will also have to get a 1/2 ton tie rod since the tie rod ends are different.

Swapping to 1/2 ton spindles offers some additional benefits, too. The biggest is significant weight savings, you probably shed 50-80 pounds right off the nose, which helps. Also, there is a much wider selection of wheel sizes and options when using the 5 bolt spindle setup. Of course, if you do swap, you will need to swap to a 1/2 ton rear, but a 9" will bolt right to the rear springs.

Personally, I did the 3" DJM front spindles on my '79 F250 with rear 5" flip kit along with swapping to 1/2 ton spindles and rear. Unbelievable difference in handling!

 

Seems to me it kind of defeats the purpose of using a F-250...

 

Thank's for the useful information Ford141

 

I have actually found some benefits in starting with the F-250 for this project. First of all, the springs are heavier in front and rear, which improves handling over the 1/2 tons (especially for the front coils). The 2wd F250's ride decent without wallowing like the 1/2 tons, so it gives the truck more of a "sporty" feel compared to the 1/2 ton. Think of it as a "lightning" setup on a 70's model truck. Also, if you start with a camper special like my truck was, you have factory front and rear swaybars that can be reused, again greatly contributing to the handling of the truck. Another benefit is that the 3/4 tons use bigger master cylinders, which when combined with the 1/2 ton calipers gives a very strong feel to the brakes (my truck can slide all four tires with no problem).

One thing that I have not been able to verify yet is if the F250's use a thicker frame than the 1/2 tons. Some say they do, and at least in my experience it seems like the frame on my F250 is stiffer than my old 79 F100 was. Stiffer frames mean less flex, and less flex means better ride and handling, so this is another side benefit of starting with an F250 if it is true.

 

Interesting response. To each their own. If you want to measure the frame, we have some calipers here and I measure my 4x4 frame.

 

I have both a F100 and a F-250, I will measure tomorrow and post.

 

Here it is...

I measured both frames at the first hump behind the core support and in front of the engine.

My 79 F100 frame thickness is .147 and the width is nearly 2 1/2" and the height is 7"

My 78 F250 frame thickness is .235 and the width is 2 1/2" and the frame height is nearly 7 5/8"

 

I'd measure a bit further back... the 4x4's and 2x4's and some of the different weight rating used different front frame horns. There's got to be a universal spot...