Gary Lewis Posted May 16, 2019 Author Share Posted May 16, 2019 Wow! Nice! Yes, wow! Nice offer. As for the springs, he just used stock 4wd springs? What did that do to the ride? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 Scored a 3rd tailgate for 50 bucks from North Carolina. If anyone up north or anywhere needs a gate I have a knock for finding decent ones. Let me know. Also, dad replaced the front leaf springs and shocks...wow what a difference, the truck returned to stock heigh and lifted an easy 4 inches. Angelo, Wondering where exactly that gate came from. ?? As I mentioned last week, I saw a big salvage yard that was exclusively trucks near my brother's house in Siler City. I've wanted to stop and see but usually go by before or after hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 .... Also, dad replaced the front leaf springs and shocks...wow what a difference, the truck returned to stock heigh and lifted an easy 4 inches. That does not look like stock height to me. Here's a picture of a brand new '85 F-250HD 4WD (with a 21 year old version of me standing in front of it). My truck had LT255/85-16 (33" tall vs the stock LT235/85-16 at 31.7" tall). But that truck you show has WAY more room above the tire than my new stock truck had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelo Voltura Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 .... Also, dad replaced the front leaf springs and shocks...wow what a difference, the truck returned to stock heigh and lifted an easy 4 inches. That does not look like stock height to me. Here's a picture of a brand new '85 F-250HD 4WD (with a 21 year old version of me standing in front of it). My truck had LT255/85-16 (33" tall vs the stock LT235/85-16 at 31.7" tall). But that truck you show has WAY more room above the tire than my new stock truck had. The springs are stock 4wd replacement springs with an add a leaf as what was in it before, those are Skyjacker Hydro7000 shocks. They are indeed stock replacement springs but I beleive once they settle the truck will come down a bit. It now sits level with the rear , so it should drop about an inch or so when they break it and settle. It has noticeable positive camber at the moment, whereas before it had noticeable negative camber. Also, the body is about 1.5-2" over stock height due to the massive amount of work we had to do to put a body back on it and salvage the cab, so that adds to the height. Otherwise, this is how it sat with worn out springs and 33x12.50s with the slight body lift... You can see the bumper doesnt coincide with the fender. So that said, the new springs probably supplied 2 inches alone, and the body makes it look way taller than it actually is. Ride quality wise I havent been innit yet so hard to say, but with the worn out leaf springs it felt like a coil sprung 2wd truck. The ride was amazing. As for the gate I will find out what yard it's from, I have the reciept somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 The springs are stock 4wd replacement springs with an add a leaf as what was in it before, those are Skyjacker Hydro7000 shocks. They are indeed stock replacement springs but I beleive once they settle the truck will come down a bit. It now sits level with the rear , so it should drop about an inch or so when they break it and settle. It has noticeable positive camber at the moment, whereas before it had noticeable negative camber. Also, the body is about 1.5-2" over stock height due to the massive amount of work we had to do to put a body back on it and salvage the cab, so that adds to the height. Otherwise, this is how it sat with worn out springs and 33x12.50s with the slight body lift... You can see the bumper doesnt coincide with the fender. So that said, the new springs probably supplied 2 inches alone, and the body makes it look way taller than it actually is. Ride quality wise I havent been innit yet so hard to say, but with the worn out leaf springs it felt like a coil sprung 2wd truck. The ride was amazing. As for the gate I will find out what yard it's from, I have the reciept somewhere. Thanks Angelo. It's nothing important, I'm just naturally inquisitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelo Voltura Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 Thanks Angelo. It's nothing important, I'm just naturally inquisitive. It ended up being South Carolina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 22, 2019 Author Share Posted May 22, 2019 It ended up being South Carolina. Big Blue does what Ford's do best - rescuing hapless Chevy drivers. The Beach Boys said: Late last night I got an S. O. S The fairy tale girl's in deep in distress Our youth minister intern's Chevy had a broken serpentine belt. Luckily I have the trailer out ready to go, so I putt-putted it out through the gate and past the brick posts on the driveway using the front hitch. (If you don't have one and you move a trailer, you should get one.) Ran around it and off we went. Had to go to the station as all this Chevy hauling is making the 460 thirsty. Got 8.9 MPG, which is slightly less than what Blue got hauling Big Blue back from Florida at 75 MPH, through the night. But Big Blue gets the job done, and he looks mean doing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 .... The Beach Boys said: Late last night I got an S. O. S The fairy tale girl's in deep in distress That was a new one for me! .... Luckily I have the trailer out ready to go, so I putt-putted it out through the gate and past the brick posts on the driveway using the front hitch. (If you don't have one and you move a trailer, you should get one.).... I do have a front hitch on both my Bronco and my F-250, and I agree with you! It's so easy to walk my folks 32' travel trailer into and down their winding drive way, putting it just where we want on the far side of the pad. With a travel trailer in front you can't see ANYTHING, so my wife drives the truck and I walk alongside, spotting. And a couple weeks ago we put their pontoon boat in the lake. The new boat (bought last spring) just barely fits in the garage at the cabin so we have to pull the trailer out from under it once it's in. The old trailer was too small and light for the new boat so after carefully using it to put the boat away last year they bought a new trailer this spring. With the old trailer I could run the trailer up to the front of the boat with the truck, but the back of the trailer would be too high to fit under, so I'd have to stop just as the trailer tires got up to the flat floor, lift the tongue off the hitch and walk it in by hand. But the deck on the new boat comes almost all the way to the front, so the trailer tires would still be well down the hill when the trailer got to the deck. And the new trailer has way too much tongue weight to do that by hand anyway. So imagine my delight when I found that the new trailer is low enough to fit under the boat while it's still on the hitch! There's only about 3" to spare to fit the trailer between the pontoons, but with the trailer on the front hitch I was able to push it straight in, no problem. I was expecting it to be a lot harder than before but it ended up being much easier! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted May 23, 2019 Author Share Posted May 23, 2019 .... The Beach Boys said: Late last night I got an S. O. S The fairy tale girl's in deep in distress That was a new one for me! .... Luckily I have the trailer out ready to go, so I putt-putted it out through the gate and past the brick posts on the driveway using the front hitch. (If you don't have one and you move a trailer, you should get one.).... I do have a front hitch on both my Bronco and my F-250, and I agree with you! It's so easy to walk my folks 32' travel trailer into and down their winding drive way, putting it just where we want on the far side of the pad. With a travel trailer in front you can't see ANYTHING, so my wife drives the truck and I walk alongside, spotting. And a couple weeks ago we put their pontoon boat in the lake. The new boat (bought last spring) just barely fits in the garage at the cabin so we have to pull the trailer out from under it once it's in. The old trailer was too small and light for the new boat so after carefully using it to put the boat away last year they bought a new trailer this spring. With the old trailer I could run the trailer up to the front of the boat with the truck, but the back of the trailer would be too high to fit under, so I'd have to stop just as the trailer tires got up to the flat floor, lift the tongue off the hitch and walk it in by hand. But the deck on the new boat comes almost all the way to the front, so the trailer tires would still be well down the hill when the trailer got to the deck. And the new trailer has way too much tongue weight to do that by hand anyway. So imagine my delight when I found that the new trailer is low enough to fit under the boat while it's still on the hitch! There's only about 3" to spare to fit the trailer between the pontoons, but with the trailer on the front hitch I was able to push it straight in, no problem. I was expecting it to be a lot harder than before but it ended up being much easier! That's an interesting Beach Boys song. But, it was late enough that it doesn't play on the 60's channel. As for the use of the front hitch, Janey wouldn't be willing to drive the truck, but she'd walk outside to direct me. But the boat trailer change appears to have been a big help or plus. Good karma! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted May 23, 2019 Share Posted May 23, 2019 .... As for the use of the front hitch, Janey wouldn't be willing to drive the truck, but she'd walk outside to direct me.... It wasn't easy for me to talk Lesley into driving the truck. And there's no way she'd do it if it had a manual trans. But there were enough tight turns and she's not as used to how big vehicles move, so she wasn't comfortable (and I wasn't either) with having her guide with me being blind. She was the spotter for me to stick the trailer under the pontoon though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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