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F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

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SubSonic

F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

Greetings.

My truck is a 1980 F350 (SRW) 2WD Camper Special.

One of the things on the short list is to smooth out the ride, significantly.

The ride in this thing is absurdly rough without a heavy load in the bed, which does me no good as I don't haul heavy stuff often.

I recently replaced the front coil springs, front shocks (Bilstein), and rear shocks (Motorcraft).
I also took apart the rear leaf spring packs, gave them a coat of paint, put in some of those plastic anti-friction liners between them, and replaced all the bushings with Energy brand polyurethane bushings.

When I did this I also removed the bottom-most, thickest leaf spring, hoping it would improve the ride.
Then a 2" block to gain some lost height back.

Well, after all that the ride is slightly improved, but just barely. Needless to say I'm bummed out.

Can I put F150 leaf springs in the rear of this F350? I know the load capacity will be cut down, which is fine.

This place has a bunch of options with different spring capacities:

https://www.generalspringkc.com/leaf-springs/ford/ford-truck/ford-f100-f150/1980-1996-ford-f150-leaf-springs/

I know it's a 1 ton truck and I don't expect a Cadillac ride. But I know it can be improved. Most of the bouncing and bucking seems to come from the rear.

Thank y'all for any help and input!

Gary Lewis

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

Administrator

I took 2 leaves out of BB's rear springs, losing 2" in height that I got back via taller blocks, but dramatically improved the ride. Why not take another leaf out and test it?

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
Blue: 2015 F150 Platinum 4x4 SuperCrew wearing Blue Jeans & sporting a 3.5L EB & Max Tow
Big Blue: 1985 F250HD 4x4: 460/ZF5/3.55's, D60 w/Ox locker & 10.25 Sterling/Trutrac, Blue Top & Borgeson, & EEC-V MAF/SEFI

SubSonic

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

I may do that.

But I'm thinking that if the thickest/stiffest leaf spring removed didn't help the ride any, then would the next one make a difference?

I could be wrong, I am not a leaf-spring/physics expert in any way LOL

Gary Lewis

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

Administrator

This post shows the sizes of the springs that were in my pack as well as those in Shaun's pack. And you can see which ones I took out. Made a HUGE difference.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

salans7

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

In reply to this post by SubSonic

The thicker, bottom most leaf you removed was probably the overload, which does nothing for your ride, and is pretty much why you didn't notice much of a difference. You need to remove some of the leaves above that, in order to notice a difference.

Gary Lewis

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

Administrator

salans7 wrote

The thicker, bottom most leaf you removed was probably the overload, which does nothing for your ride, and is pretty much why you didn't notice much of a difference. You need to remove some of the leaves above that, in order to notice a difference.

Amen! Yes, you have to pull leaves from the middle to change the ride.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

SubSonic

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

In reply to this post by salans7

Oh okay, dang.

So as of now there are 4 leafs in the pack, should I take out the bottom and top one, leaving two?

Or just the top one since I already removed the overload spring?

Gary Lewis

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

Administrator

I'd put the overload back. As Shaun said it doesn't change the ride - unless you bring all of the others down on top of it with a heavy load.

With it out I'd take out 1 other if I wanted to be able to carry things, and 2 if I wanted the best ride. Which one(s)? I wouldn't take out two adjacent to each other.

So I'd compare the spring lengths to Shaun's and mine in that other post and see if some "stick out" as being odd. But probably not, so you'll just have to pick 1 or 2.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

SubSonic

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

Thank you for the advice!

I think I'll opt to put the overload back in if the ride quality won't suffer. In addition to removing two others higher up in the stack.

If the overload spring is the thickest one at the bottom, what's that thinner single one at the very top separated from the rest of the stack with a little block/spacer? Helper spring?

I had to remove that also because with it in there the U-bolts that came with the 2" block weren't long enough.

salans7

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

That one is the auxiliary spring, kinda like a second overload spring. When the springs are compressed, the auxiliary spring touches the pads on the frame. It doesn't have anything to do with ride quality either.

SubSonic

Re: F150 Leaf Springs in an F350?

That's what I figured, thanks!