In 2022 I snapped a leaf of my front drivers spring pack, I'd assume the original to the truck, 65 year old springs. I was hesitant to drop hundreds of dollars on brand new springs at the drop of a hat and found a guy locally who'd sell me two good spring packs for $20. DONE DEAL.

Well surprise surprise, I broke another leaf of that replaced spring pack a week ago. This time I decided to buy new, and bought two packs from RockAuto, it was $350 shipped.

Here is a rough list of my grievances:
1) Spring packs have little rubber isolators , several were missing
2) They painted the springs black AFTER installing the bushings, and this made fitting the pins harder unless you clean the paint out of the inside diameter of the new bushings..., annoying.
3) One spring pack had better fitting bushings than the other(the other were a bit more loose for some reason)
4)This was really annoying--One side(the rear eye) of the spring pack...the eye of the springs are a little less "crimped", this is true even with the factory original spring packs. Well Dormans was so "uncrimped" that it actually would hit the pin retainer bracket before allowing the pin to align, so I had to grind away a good amount of the top of that uncrimped eye so it would go up enough to alight the pin in the bushing.
5) There is a bolt in the center of the spring pack that keeps the pack together. There is a "U-bolt saddle plate" that goes over that bolt from the factory. Dormans bolt was too long and the plate wouldn't sit down properly, so I had to grind off the end of that bolt to let the saddle plate sit all the way down. Stupid, not well thought through.


OK, I'm done, you all can now commence hounding me for not using one of the reputable spring manufacturers elsewhere in the country.

 

I'll say Dorman has a reputation of not having good quality control. Springs can be formed with hammering and you probably could have closed that eye up with a large hand or sledge hammer. The longer bolt is no big deal and could either be cut down or the hole through the top plat could have been drilled through with out damage. But hopefully you have no more issues and it rides better wih new springs.

 

Must be all those Dukes of Hazzard jumps you've been doing while eluding Roscoe.

I have a very similar list of grievances about a pair of front springs for a '72 Land Rover project I'm working on. (as well as numerous other replacement parts) They aren't made by Dorman but the inconsistent quality is quite similar. I'm in the supplier quality profession and I can say that companies took some liberties both before and especially during Covid and have not bothered to return to previous standards. Not only that, the feedback chain from end-user to manufacturer's operations and engineering groups has become highly questionable.

Tom

 

If going for the stock look, I’d go with Eaton springs. I did go with Posie springs for my 51. Very well built.

 

It's one thing to crack one of the secondary leaves in the pack, it's quite another to lose a main leaf. That's pretty scary. It's another testimonial for not using the mono-leaf springs that have been so popular in the past.

I would also agree with Dorman's lack of quality control. It's like they've become one of those "80 percenter" companies, making stuff that may get the job done, but certainly isn't close to right. Whenever I see them as being the supplier, I always take a second look at alternatives.

 

The question of Dorman quality came up in another thread on here, https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post21166360
I am really shocked at what OP is posting here, tho. They almost appear to be rejects. Even the most casual inspection would have noticed the wrap on the eye was incomplete. I'm a believer in either Eaton or locally made springs, but Eaton's prices are out of this world nowadays.

 

I have about 3 trucks, (1955 and 1954 F100) worth of stock springs that I was thinking of taking to the scrap yard but I think I will see if I can make them available to someone who needs them

 

Always do this, there are pleanty of people who can't afford new springs from anyone....Ya never know who you can help...


Ross, I want to be clear the "not completely wrapped eye" is also a factory thing, I'll post pics later.