I have a 75 highboy chassis. Tried looking for lift kits, but don't really know what to look for. I've seen some trucks in the galleries pretty high up there and I just wanted another 4 inches for tire clearance. thanks for the help guys.

 

what size tires do you want to clear?

 

I have a 1977 250 and want to clear 38's im in the same boat cant find lifts anywhere whats the lift i should put in for 38's another 2 or 3 ?

 

a previous member had a 77 and he fit 37s on it easily. maybe get new springs. that usually helps a lot.

 

Instead of getting new springs get the ones you have rearched and packed. I have a local company called DENT SPRINGS that are going to do my fronts for $75. And that is rearching all the pack and then rebuilding them better than stock. Good guys, they did one of our old Semi's and it came out amazingly well for a 68 Peter.

 

highboys are supposed to be good for up to 38's from the factory, although it would be getting kinda close.

superduty springs are supposed to fit.

alot of guy build brackets to drop the mounting points for the leaves, just make sure you weld good.

there is also a shackle flip that can be done to the rear.

i myself would go with the latter 2 along with re-arching (which most of these old springs could use anyways)

 

Thanks guys, I'll be looking into rearching my springs if i can.

 

The highboy has some design problems with the front springs. 30 year old technology is exactly that 30 year old stuff. Springs were not progressive, and trucks rode like lumber wagons. Short shackles prevented any type of suspension travel, and off rad performance suffered. Current springs offer far better performance, and can be a substantial upgrade.
Search a little, and see what others are doing for lifts. Yes the super duty spring (front) is a great alternative and a reasonable option. This requires a little bit of work, but not too much.
These trucks can be lifted without modifying much, and can still be safe, and functional.

 

Thats an amazing price for the re-arching, I checked with my local spring shop and I could by new springs for what they wanted to re-arch mine...quite ridiculous

 

I thought that all leaves were progressive, hence why it is easy to shove the box down that first inch or so.

I do know however that a higher number of narrower leaves will ride smoother than a couple of really wide leaves.

 

I still stand by my statement. I never said that leafs were not progressive,(although we could bebate this concept with neg arch springs) but I did say that early thick leafs will not perform as well as later model stuff.

In response to the above statement, the width of the spring is not quite the whole enchilada.
Width has far less to do with performance than the amount of support that each leaf can provide.

 

no debate here you speak without forked tongue. But it did [i]sound[i] like you said that older springs were not progressive... but i will listen to what you meant, not what you said!

if you do some searching around on you favorite search engine I do believe that there are sring rate calculators for leaves, although they are not as accurate as calculating rates for coils, probably due to the progressive thing.

and to add fuel to the fire, my highboy rides way smoother than my brothers 89 f250, which should be considered odd because my shorter wheelbase and smaller engine (FE vs 460) should make my highboy more skittish, however my front leaves have an actual arch to them as compared to his that have a negative arch (like 75350 said, they would not be a progressive rate)

and you are correct that width is not everything. in fact, everything makes everything, however that leaves you with alot of variables to (hopefully) improve your truck

 

Many variables can dictate how a spring reacts to loads, or compression. This will have an overall effect on how the vehicle performs.
Consider that the number of leafs, as well as the leaf design itself has the greatest impact. Diamond cut, VS blunt cut leafs, tappered leafs, thickness of the leaf itself, and even the spring clamps themselves can make or break a leaf pack.
Length of the spring and shackle angle has as much effect on the vehicle as anything.
Spring location, center pin location, axle width, shock angle, and frame width all fall in to play here.

I have had much success, with 99 to 04 front super duty springs, and 64" rear springs.
The SD springs have way more leafs than anything aftermarket offers for such old trucks, and they ride sooooo much better. Flex is incredible, and the slightly longer spring helps with shackle angle.
For the rear, the lomg 64 inch spring cant be beat.


As far as the above comparisson to the early truck and the later F250, the TTB trucks used a rather stiff front spring, because of the arch of meovement that the front axle has to do, the spring os forced to twist, so a thicj leaf had to be used. The front swing shackle did not help things either.
These trucks rode terribly from the beginning.

 

Excellent thread.

How much work does it take to put those 99/04 front springs and 64 inch rears on a 77 Highboy? Where do you source the 64 inch rears?

 

To the OP, stay away from body lifts.

I can't imagine a world where anything good would come from stacking a thousand or so pounds of steel on top of 6 totem poles made of rubber.

Perhaps in one with no gravity or inertia maybe.