Hi i really need to lower my ford f350 1955 fire truck.I have fitted a camper sky light and i have very little room above.I have been told people have put trucks and buses on air ride.Or just lowered there trucks.Any ideas on how to lower it.On the rear it has twin wheels.I have been told to put the leaf springs on the bottom of the rear axle which will then lower it.But how about the front as were the springs sit its flat if i put the springs on the under side of the axle there no flat bit to sit the springs.Then would the steering links be in the way.Any help would be good thanks Pete from the UK

 

You could have you front axle stretched to lower it I had mine stretched 3"; I'm not sure if the lowered front leaf springs are heavy duty enough for your truck.

 

How do the strech it.Which bit do they do.Thanks

 

I got it done at a shop there was a thread on drop axles and they mentioned another company that does them. I had Dave Mann at Roadsters.com do mine. You may be able to search "drop axles" and get the thread.

 

for the rear axle you could certainly "flip" it meaning put it on top of the rear leafs. That would take little work to do and should prove to be easy to do. However, once you do this you have to understand that you have reduced the amount of travel available between the top of the alxe and the bottom of the frame.

on normal 1/2 - 3/4 ton trucks I would be more than comfortable in doing that however your truck appears to be a different kind of beast and I dont know how much suspension travel you have based on the load your carrying.

If you were to flip the axle to ride on the top of the leafs and you still wanted to needed to go lower you could always run blocks between the axles and the leafs. This would move the axle higher up into the fenders while retaining the factory leaf spring config.

Air ride is certainly possible but I'd need to know max axle load ratings to keep you safe. Air suspensions are quite a bit more complex (meaning a lot of parts and fabrication) from a systems, setup and cost standpoint.

Best way to start is to find out how much lower you want it to be and then what is the intended uses of the vehicle?