Spring hanger and spring ?
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From: "The Backroads"
Spring hanger and spring ?
I have a 71' F-100 4x4 . It currently has a 4" suspension lift with blocks. I want to put a 6" suspension lift in and eliminate the blocks. Unfortunately nobody makes the springs for my year. I am going to swap in spring hangers from 76'-79' truck because I can buy springs for these yrs. WILL THIS WORK??? I also want to put leaf springs in the front and eliminate the coils. I thought about putting a front diff out of a 1 ton 4x4 in it. I also want to eliminate the manual np 435 trans/Dana 21 tcase for a c-6/np205 tcase.My goal is to make a mud truck instead of the trail rig it is. I guess i will have to locate a 76'-79' 1 ton truck with a blown engine with these items in it. I am currently building a 460 c.u. engine for it. My question then is will this work, what are the +'s and -'s of this swap? When I built her she was for trail use and now I am not interested in trails but mud. I occasionally visit trails but mainly mud. Thanks
J.P.
J.P.
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Joined: Mar 2001
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Spring hanger and spring ?
Actually if you can find an old highboy chassis it should contain all the parts you need. Highboys used a 2 1/4" rear spring just like your 1/2 ton but they have probably 4"+ more arch to them and have more leaves in the pack. What I would do for the back is put the highboy springs on your hangers (which are about 4" more below the frame than a highboy), do a shackle flip in the rear and that should make about 8"-10" or so of lift. take out the factory 3" block and you end up w/ abou 5"-7" over stock. The front could be a major job to tackle. the steering setup is totaly different between a highboy and a 1/2 ton. You may be better off leaving the coils on and buying a 6-9" lift for just the front.
What I did was I bought a complete rolling chassis from a 76 highboy and put my truck body on that chassis. W/ nothing more than some extended shackles in front, shackle flip in rear (minus a couple of leafs to soften the springs up and lower it 1-2"), a 2" body lift and some fender cutting I have tons of room for my 38's and could run 40's if I had the money to buy a set. If you need even more room they still make 4" lift springs for highboys (very pricey though) and that would give me plenty of room for 44's w/ my setup.
What I did was I bought a complete rolling chassis from a 76 highboy and put my truck body on that chassis. W/ nothing more than some extended shackles in front, shackle flip in rear (minus a couple of leafs to soften the springs up and lower it 1-2"), a 2" body lift and some fender cutting I have tons of room for my 38's and could run 40's if I had the money to buy a set. If you need even more room they still make 4" lift springs for highboys (very pricey though) and that would give me plenty of room for 44's w/ my setup.
