Finally! Someone saying I am correct about something on here! Just joking.......

Like I said, if you buy the complete kit, SHOCKS AND ALL, it rides great. Its not something I would want to "off road" (LOL), but mine does ride great and it still has travel in the rear, believe it or not. At least now I have someone who can back me up on that.

Your truck looks great and made a huge difference in the appearance after you lowered it, in my opinion of course. I agree with with f100today said except I would put a little wider stock wheel on the back and run the bands and centers......thats what I do and I get alot of compliments on it. I have factory 8 inch wheels on mine, but I am running a wide 60 series tire on the rear and a 70 series tire on the front because I wanted to fill up the rear fender wells and also try to compensate for that "looks like it is running sideways down the road while driving" look from the rear of the truck. What color are you going to paint it? I have always been a sucker for black, red, and a blue and white 2 tone truck. But yeah, your truck looks awesome and I am glad your happy with it despite all the trouble you had with airbagit.

 

The overall ride height will vary between trucks, even with the same drop modification, because of the difference in varying spring rates and spring sag. Some truck rear springs lay flat, unladen, while others retain an arc. My truck has 3600# rear leaf springs and would not yield as low of a ride height with the same mod. I relocated my axle to above the springs and yielded a 5 3/4" drop. Mini notch gives me 5" of rear suspension travel.

 

Do you have stock springs on your truck? I always thought that was the reason a helper spring was installed on f100's was to help control the springs from flattening out during heavy loads and to also make sure that the upper leaf springs retain their natural arc?? Ive never seen a stock spring setup lay flat, no matter how old the truck was. I know of 2 other trucks in my area that also used the same setup as mine and 2 sit the same, the other one is running a smaller size tire and also used a 2 inch drop lowering Eibach coil spring in the front so naturally he's lower.......

I can see where you are coming from I guess, Ive just never saw a stock suspension truck sag in the back. I have seen a truck completely sag all the way down bottoming out the truck in the front (literally sitting on the stops) but that was because the owner heated the coil springs to lower the front a little bit and eventually became weak after several years and gave way. He came out one morning and his truck was sitting on the front tires, LOL.

 

Yes, my springs are stock. H2 axle code, 3600# springs, 31 spline 9 3/8" ring gear.

 

So what is the 3600# springs? What do I look at to see what springs I have on my truck? Just wanting to know the difference. These are parts numbers from numberdummy:

C5TZ5560A .. 5 Leaf Rear Springs / 1175 lb. Load Rate / Use under 5,000 GVWR only.

C5TZ5560N .. 6 Leaf Rear Springs / 1250 lb. Load Rate

C5TZ5560D .. 9 Leaf Rear Springs / 1650 lb. Load Rate

I would think they would all be the same except for the number of leaf springs added from the factory. But if you end up with the same number of leaf springs when installing the complete lowering kit, the result should be the same. You also have to leave the helper spring in.....which you should after final install of the kit anyway to help keep it from bottoming out. I took out the number 2 spring from the top on my setup. That is also where the lowering shocks come into play. They are alot stiffer than the regular shocks and absorb alot more of the road conditions, as FILTHY now knows what a difference a shock can make, and Im sure some people over look that when buying one of these kits.

 

Look at your axle code on the door warranty plate. My truck has flexomatic springs, which are 4" longer than non-flexo springs. Mine have 4 leafs each plus the fat lower-most leaf. In the pictures, your leafs look flat, mine have a definite arc to them...

 

My Axle code is 17 which states a 3.25 gear. Mine are mounted above the axle where yours is mounted below the axle. Now that I think about it, I think mine came with 5 springs orginally, thats including the the helper spring. I will ask my mechanic as soon as I can get in touch with him and see what he says he removed. Im more that possitive that if yours was mounted about the axle and you used the same kit that your would lay flat as well. If mine was below the axle it would have an arc like yours. I wish I have pics before I lowered the back. %^$W#%^@!!!!

 

17 axle code is 3330# springs. The fact that you removed leafs is why your springs lie flat. The arc of my springs has not changed since I relocated the axle to above the spring pack. I'll have to look for my before pics. I know I have some somewhere (I have a new computer and haven't moved all of my pics yet).

 

Thanks for letting me know what I have!

I also understand the fact that me removing some of the leaf springs made mine lay flat, and yours still have an arc because you relocated them under the rear end housing. My point was that I have never seen a stock leaf spring setup sag as you stated above. If all of the springs are still entact including the helper spring, I dont think it could sag....ever. I know they also make/made a kit for flexomatic springs which also yielded the same lowering specs as regular springs. I would think that the kit being installed on these trucks would end up being the same lowering specs for each truck. Different wheel and tire combinations, removing leaf springs, and changing or cutting the front coil springs is what would make the difference in the final installation. In fact, I have read that some people have looked into having the rear leaf springs "de-arched", but that would require relocating the shackles and spring hangers, so by the time its said and done, you might as well have just bought the kit.

None the less, the system you have is great by the way, as is other ways people have lowered their trucks! Like I had mentioned earlier in this thread, I just didnt want to cut my frame in anyway. I wanted everything to remain close to stock and be able to put everything back on the truck without ever noticing it was lowered at one time. This would be helpful if somewhere down the road someone was looking to buy my truck and "opt out" because the frame had been cut. They also might not want to buy the truck lowered.....I could then uninstall and sell the lowering kit and recoop some of my money back that way too. No harm done to the truck what so ever.

 

Here is mine that I have been working on. DJM beams with stock height moog springs. In the rear is a flip with rearched stock spring (still all there). I did gain some height going from long bed styleside to this short flare in the rear. 245/45r20 tires. I have the correct spacers ordered for the rear, then its 2" eaton drop springs in front and a c-notch and 2" block in back.

 

justiz,


Do you know how many inches your front end drop netted? It doesnt look quite as low as some of the other djm drops Ive seen. I understand, that you are using 20" steel wheels.

 

About 2.5", the standard djm actual drop. The coils still need to settle as they were uninstalled for a while before getting it back on the road. If I had the original uncut coils in it I would expect an 1" to 1.5" lower than now. I have a little positive camber from that aswell.

 

Do you have to use the tie rod adapters when using dropped beems?

 

Yes because it raises the spindle and will throw your steering geometry off.

Most likely too, because the outer tie rod end runs through the radius arm and with the spindle higher the tie rod would most likely not be able to connect to the spindle correctly.

 

This thread has been helpful and a little confusing. Thankfully, I live close to F100 Today and he can help answer questions.

Looking at two sets of DJM beams right now.