I know I know, this is the 4x forum, but I figured ya'll would be able to help the most. Anyway, my truck is a 1988 F250 with a 6.9/C6, and a HUGE homemade bumper made of 2 pieces of drill stem and a aftermarket grill guard welded together. The back of the truck sits just how I like it and I'm runnin 295/85's in back, I want to run taller tires in the front, but the front springs are sagging so bad I can't really fit anything bigger than a 265/75.

So, my question is, will spring spacers work (Not the wedges), or would ya'll suggest new springs,and if so who do ya'll recommend

 

I'm just afraid if I get *generic* springs, the weight of the 7.3 and the 500lbs bumper (no I'm not exaggerating) would give me the same goofy looking hot rod look.

 

Thanks Ben, see your now seein my problem. I need to find some kind of extra heavy duty front springs for the front, but they are seemin to be hard to find, which is sadly leading my to think of breakin down and using coil spacers

 

With all due respect, 1 mpg for 100 lbs??? So that would mean I am loosing 5mpg?? That expalains me only gettin 12-14 mpg LOL, no just kiddin thats due to my C6 combined with a 4.10 rearend scream 2800 rpms down the highway.

I don't think that 500 lbs is going to hurt a 7,000 lbs truck. It may be hurtin my mileage, but I bet it ain't more than 1mpg total and this includin my matchin back bumper.

 

I get what your sayin, Ben, not to get too off topic, but I'm extremly jealous of all 3 of your rigs.

But anywho, I'm at a loss, because when my 87 F150 started to sag, I just put springs from a 460 F350 in it, but my truck has the stiffest springs ford offered on this truck and it still sags, so I just don't know what to do.

 

I'm about to, but there aren't very many diesel trucks in there, and there isn't alot of suspension techs in there, but I'll give them a try.

 

no way does each 100 additional pounds cost you 1mpg. I get 10-13 mpg with my f250 c6, 460. I get that whether I am riding solo or with 4 adults each weighing ~200 pounds. By your estimation I would be getting 2 to 5 mpg. Maybe a 50 mpg hybred would drop down to 42mpg hauling 1000 lbs of people but an F250 is not going to drop that much.

 

well not prefect not exact nor even close when talking big vehicles LOL. Heck one of those big semi's should get about 100mpg when running empty LOL.

 

I still say your rule of thumb is flawed. I have 2007 Honda van and it gets 25mpg on the highway whether it has just the driver or 7 people and a full load. By your rule of thumb if I get 25mpg solo I should get about 10 ro 12mpg loaded or if I get 25mpg loaded I should get 35 or 37 mpg solo. It just does not work out that way. frontal area drag has more impact on mpg then weight. Not trying to bust your ***** but just pointing out that the logic is flawed concerning 100 lbs/1mpg theory.

 

The weight idea isn't always that flawed, I got a sweet headache rack and tool boxs(around 750 lbs total) from my brother in law who had it on a 99 Dodge, and he said he went from 14 mpg to 16 mpg after taking them off, so he gave them to me. Its what he gets for driving a Dodge, it didn't even hurt the mileage on my 87.

I think the 100lbs idea works once you get past a vehicles maximum optimum weight, kinda like 100 mph compared to 70mph, hurts worse than 70mph compared to 40mph, their both 30 mph difference, but the difference between goin 100 mph and 70mph will burn much more gas than the difference between 70 to 40




But anywhoo back on my original question, I may have found my answer, I found at alocal junkyard an ol ford dumptruck that appears to have a very beefy front end that looks similar to my trucks, so I'm gonna measure the spring to see if it will fit.

 

For trucks the size we have, I think 1 MPG per 1000 pounds might be a bit closer.

 

i'll buy that LOL. little bit different than 1mpg per 100 pounds. I did a quick google search and it seems like 1 percent per 100 pounds is used. So if you normally get 10mpg and add 100 pounds you would get 9.9mpg or if you removed 100lbs you would get 10.1mpg not really enough difference to loose sleep over.

 

With my truck, i dont check gas mileage and i dont wanna know what my mileage is either....
I would probably beat my head on a wall if i knew what my mileage was....

As for the front springs off a dump truck, hope you like rough rides...