I'd look into whether this will pass safety inspection down by you before you go & do the work. I've got a buddy down by Victoria & it seems the annual inspections down there are VERY critical.

 

I agree mofoco1! You won't know till it's done. I also want an update. I know this seems like "Jerry-rigging" to some people, but in reality it's pretty much the only solution, other than paying 2500$+ for an autofab kit. But in that case I would spend that money into making it a 4x4. But to each their own. Florida has no inspections at all. As long as it makes it to the tag office and they check your vin. Your good to go. No smog or e-check, nothing! Lol. But of course. I would want my truck to be safe and street drivable. I wouldn't put my family in danger. If I have doubts on the truck, i would fix the problem immediately. like I'm sure many of us on here would do the same.

 

4x4s are cheap enough around here to where I don't see a need to do this on a 2x but I am curious to hear how this works out in the long run.

 

4x4 anything are not cheap in my area and scares for the most part, especially in the f250-350 sizes. I have a donor, but not the time to remove both cabs and clean strip, chop, reinforce and reweld the donor SC long bed frame to use with my SC shortbed, so I am thinking the flip may be a weekend project whereas the 4x4 conversion would be way more involved time wise. Many people also do not have the $$ or the ability to tackle a bit more involved conversion like this. Irregardless people want this info. Hoping the guys that started all this will chime in and give us updates. If anyone knows them tell em' to post!!!

 

Sorry I blew up.

 

No big deal, didn't think you blew up, just in our area of CA everything OLD is GOLD or so they think. I got mine for 5 bills cause he was a customer and was not needing it anymore. Most 4x4's I have found in this area tend to be 1/2 and I really wanted the hi pinion, and since mines a 250 8 lugger it had to be that. My plans ultimately was going to say a 95 hi pinion d60. I was going to do away with the leaf springs and go with a set up like the 78-79 Bronco instead. They sell the weld on wedges for the d60 as it is a popular swap for the early and later Broncos.

 

I am going to give these Moog variable springs a shot look to be about right and not too expensive shipped free thru JEGS, even if it gives me no more than an 1" it's got to be better than what is on there now. CC860S for the E250 vans but dimensions look good $82 per pair shipped thru JEGSPERFORMANCE on Erayp. Will let you know how these fare.

 

So anyone seen or heard from the originators of this thread? I have sent out some PM's and no answer are they off the board? Anyone know them personally to get them a message?

 

No. If you look back a page or so, I asked for an update a while ago. No response. Now, still no response. I don't know if any of them even come on here anymore, or if they even have their trucks. I would love to get a long term update too...

 

Ted, I would have thought that someone here would know how to contact them offline or knew them personally. Hope they just did not loose interest with some of what they may have perceived as 2wd lift Hating!

 

Hi guys,
First off, I like 2wd lift hating, gives me something to laugh at. I have 3 lifted 2wd Fords. In fact one of them has 32 inches of lift and 60+ inch tractor tires. mofoco1 emailed me and asked me to give an update. He asked me how it drove and how I liked the flipped front end. I have attached my response to him below.

I really did the flip just to see if it could be done. I thought I had seen a few trucks around that had been done but never could find an owner to talk to. My truck is a 75 f250 camper special, 8100 lb gvwr and has the short coil towers. I planned to use the truck for occasional off roading if the flip worked. I daily drove it for about two weeks with 31 inch tires on it with the front flipped. As far as how it drives the negative caster makes the front of the truck "fall" when it turns. Therefore if you are turning right and let go of the steering wheel the truck will want to turn right even further very quickly instead of straightening up. The larger the tire the worse this gets. I see no easy way to correct this issue and I do not let anyone drive this truck but me. I use it for off-roading but never have to drive over 40 mph to get where I am going. If I were you I would leave your beams stock and lift the truck 3 inches through taller springs or a metal spacer under the springs. Then have your beams bent at a shop to align it. I am currently thinking about flipping my beams back to stock and doing this. I am going to try to bend my own beams with the 20 ton press where I work. I think you can get 3 inches of lift this way if not 4 and not sacrifice how the truck rides. All in all if you want the 6.5 inches the flip gives you and want to off-road your truck only then go for it. If you want good stock street manners then put spacers under the coils and bend the beams.

I want to add further to the steering feel part of this reply. The steering is very touchy and gets worse with increasing speed. barely moving the steering wheel results in the truck darting off in that direction. I currently run 9.00-20 military tires on it with recentered 2.5 ton army truck rims. These are very heavy and the steering issues dont seem as bad. However when I ran the 38 inch michelins on 16 inch wheels the steering issues were horrible.

You guys let me know if you have any other questions. I will try to check this thread and see if I can help anyone.

 

Thanks for the honest evaluation. It sounds viable but definitely has some issues with the caster numbers being off

 

I have a 2wd f100 and instead of flipping the axle, I put 4 inch lift springs on it that a freind gave me. After i put them on my camber was way off. So i made drop brackets out of 1/4 steel to drop the pivot point of the i beam down 4 inches. i bolted it on and made a brace for each side that goes from the drop bracket to the crossmember. This could be easier than what you are doing but I've never flipped a axle so i wouldn't now. I ended up with 4 inches of lift for free.

 

When you lift a 2 wheel drive for off roading you just give yourself that much more height to get stuck.Now before anyone gets all bent out of shape, I have owned 2 wheel drives with lockers. They did very well in sand, but it is still only 2 wd. Cant compare to 4x4 doesnt matter what you do to them.

 

I also just recently did the the 2 3/4 inch lift. But my drop had to be 2 inches on my pivot point. Give me the look I wanted on the truck. Rides good I would recommend. I reach 75-80 mph no problem