Tired Leaf Springs

[carlover]

Be careful with the coilovers, there isnt much room to work with in there. If you have the two piece passenger upper control arm nothing will fit. Even with the single piece things might not fit right. A 2.0" shock with a 6.5 inch stroke will be the one to fit right. Fox makes them, and they are about 550$ without coils. If you need a custom set of uppers that are extended a little and made to fit coilovers let me know, i can even shoot you some email pics of the arms. I know a guy who could build them for you for a pretty good price.

 

[CDW6212R]

There you go, work out a decent front coil over shock and control arms, that might sell fairly well.

 

[carlover]

With a set of custom upper arms the 4wd guys would have to strap your front ends to the amount of travel the cv's could take. The uppers would have moog hi angle ball joints, and be a tubular design.

 

[CDW6212R]

Another thought, this idea would really be for the off 4WD's anyway. If the upper arm is tossed, and the lower has to be modified at the least, why not come up with a longer axle set, and longer arms. That would increase travel without adding to CV problems.

 

[carlover]

You can re-do the uppers without having to do anything to the lowers. The extra travel is due more to the high angle ball joint than anything else. Once you start talking new lowers and all that the prices get pretty high. But if someone wanted to do that then it could be done pretty easily, but it would cost a few thousand.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

For all you coilover swap haters http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186393&page=5

 

[CDW6212R]

Very nice, I'd like to see where those go, how good the ride and fitment is, longterm.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

SOA is on for tomorrow- I have welding rods, flap disks, grinding and cut off wheels ready to go.

I got the perches, ubolts and plates today- very nice stuff. The 3/8" plates are thick and heavy, the ubolts are just massive. All precision cut, heavy steel parts.

 

[Hokie]

SOA is on for tomorrow- I have welding rods, flap disks, grinding and cut off wheels ready to go.

I got the perches, ubolts and plates today- very nice stuff. The 3/8" plates are thick and heavy, the ubolts are just massive. All precision cut, heavy steel parts.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

SOA complete. The welding of the perches went pretty good, I used 7018 rods and got good welds and penetration. The SOA kit parts are massive.

I am afraid that its too high though

The picture of my truck is the before shot.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

The after shot:

I am hoping the springs will settle out some.

 

[Hokie]

The after shot:

I am hoping the springs will settle out some.

You could remove some of your F-150 leaf pack. Didn't you say before that it rides too rough?

How's the drive shaft length?

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Oh yeah, I am back down to my factory leaf pack- I removed the F150 springs. Rides much better.

The drive shaft is OK even at full droop

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Does any body have any advice on how to get the rear down some???

I didn't expect or want this much lift- its way over 5"

Would a Sport MonoLeaf work??

I have my stock leaf pack, stock shackles, BTW.

 

[CDW6212R]

Others will know better, but at first thought I think that you have the springs and shackles to work with. How many choices of shackles are there? You likely only need to drop it an inch or so to be comfortable with it.

 

[FROADER]

Are you going to be towing with this anymore?

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Very little towing, my camper is for sale, so at most an 18' trailer, and not very often at all.

I thought about shorter shackles, how short can they be before it causes issues?

 

[CDW6212R]

You don't have stock shackles now do you? The stock pieces wouldn't be worth working with. A strong set of aftermarket shackles should be good enough to rearrange. That is if the range of motion can allow shortening them at all.

 

[MountaineerGreen]

I can get or make some 1/4" thick shackles easily, its just how short can they be before they cause problems?

I have my stock shackles on there now.

 

[FROADER]

That is if the range of motion can allow shortening them at all.

That is the problem. I don't think you can go much shorter than stock length if at all. I think there was a thread about it. I'll look.

The reason I asked about towing is, I was going to suggest custom (softer) leaf packs, but that would add about $400+ to this project.