Can you beleive it? I broke a rear leaf on my truck! I don't even haul nuthin in the bed bigger than my kids and my water tank is so ballanced out hat you can lift it off he hitch fully loaded. What gives here, I know it wasn't broke when I transplanted them. Sorry bout the ranting but this is not the time for this to happen, we are buying a house and it has taken every red cent we had for the down payment.

 

Man, that's just the way things seem to go. But, on the brighter side, you got the red cents together to get your new home on the way. If I had any springs laying around, I'd send em to you, but I don't. Hopefully you can find what ya need cheap.

 

Shouldn't be too hard to find some CHEAP used leaf springs.
Craig's List and wrecking yards should be full of them.

 

For what it is worth, when I was driving over the road in a tractor trailer, I broke my share of springs.

I never broke a spring when I was loaded, every one of them broke while I was deadheading somewhere to pick up my next load.

But then if you think about it, when you go over a bump loaded, the bump is rather smooth.
Hit that same bump empty, tires bounce, teeth rattle and stuff flies off the dash.

 

LOL you got that right Dave. This Bronco rides like a log wagon as it is and has little to no body roll. I found a set of springs at a local yard ($40 a side) but they don't allow torches in the field so I will have to use a battery powered sawzall on them. The fracking U-bolts ae gonna cost $60 plus (they are longer than stock to fit my pivot block). I plan to do this swap this weekend so wish me luck.

 

I know you're not supposed to do it but I ALWAYS re-use the u-bolts unless they are messed up.
I'll bet I've swapped 30-50 axles and re-used them every time with ZERO problems.

 

You want to try mine?
2 extra leaves in the front spring pack for a total of four per side.
2 extra leaves in the main spring pack and 5 leaf overloads on the rear for a total of 12 leaves per side.

2 tons in the bed drops the rear hitch one inch from empty height, just enough for the overloads to hit the stops.

9700 pounds in the bed makes it sit level, so that is about 4" below empty height at 17,700 pounds gross weight.


After reading the above, you will understand why I never reuse any hardware when swapping springs.

 

Are you joking? how do you not bust an axle!
that is the kind of weight an f550 is made for!

 

So wait; I should only have 2 springs in the front on each side from the factory? I have 3 on each side in the front, haven't really checked the rear to be accurate, but I know there's 3 on each side in the front of mine.

 

There were three different spring rates on the front axle, two had two leaves and the third had three leaves.

For what it is worth, the three leaf spring is the lightest spring rate.

I am a bit over 450,000 miles now and have been hauling like that for that entire time.
I installed a Lock Rite locker about 8 years ago which was a very big mistake hauling loads like that.
Pulling a hill, locker locked and the truck went straight, no matter where the front wheels were pointed.

One day there was a very big bang, the Lock Rite turned into very small pieces.
So I had to rebuild the axle, bearings and gears were trashed by metal fragments.

That is the only thing I have done to the axle other than changing the oil.



17,060 pound gross weight in that picture, dump bed is 8 feet wide and 9 feet long.

Caution, I have spring upgrades and brake system upgrades so I can stop that much weight.

 

Good info. I'll get a pic tomorrow and post it up, I'm not sure it's "original", but I think you'd be able to tell better than I would.

 

well bro best of luck either way, hope it all works out and like dave said, the three in front is the lighter load limit, the two flat ones like i have in my 350 are the heavies, J/Y's should pay you to take stuff like this, they have them all over the place!

 

Do you have a thread detailing all the mods?

 

I called today to get the bolts made and the asked what they were going on? I told him it was an 88 Bronco F250 diesel lol. It was quite for a second and then said that he didn't think I knew what I was talking about. When I got there after work tonight to pick them up you should have seen those guys staring at my truck as I pulled by their bay doors and it was going clack clack clack. When I went in to get the bolts the guy apoligized to me for what he said then said he had been working on trucks his whole life and didn't know Ford had made a 3/4 ton diesel Bronco. We all got a good laughed when I told him I had built it myself and that Ford should have built this truck lol.

 

Brake upgrade was new brake lines, removing the vacuum brake booster and replacing it with the hydraboost unit off of a 1996 FSD (Super Duty as the F 450 was called in 96)

That requires three hydraulic lines change from the power steering pump, a different power steering pump and the hydraboost unit.

Using new parts from Ford, cost was about 600 total for the hydraboost unit probably 7 or 8 years ago.

Ken, I had mine at Ford for a front end alignment a couple years ago.
I have a 92 Dana 60 under my 86.
I needed a tie rod end, you should have seen the look on the front end tech standing there with a Dana 44 tie rod end in his hand looking at the ones on my truck.
Parts manager standing beside him scratching his head as well.

I come in laughing, try 92 F350 parts and specs.