Front Coils

[alberta 7.3]

Is there a source for better riding front coil springs, or something that will interchange for a 97 2WD?

[mcantar18c]

Do the 97's have coils up front? Mine was a 95 and had leafs, I was under the impression that all OBSs had leafs.

If it has leafs, you're better off just getting softer leafs and firm shocks. A front coil conversion is nowhere near impossible, but it's quite a bit of work. You'd have to find/have custom made coils that are the right size and spring rate for the ride height and quality you want, make/have custom made upper and lower control arms, and a trackbar to match it all, and make/have custom made brackets for everything. To make the control arms, you'd need to find a good suspension calculator and plug numbers into it and play with angles until you find something that works, and make sure everything is made exactly to spec.
Some people think it's worth it, some don't. For a truck, I wouldn't.

[JD3020]

My 1990 F-250 2WD with the 300 has coils, and it rides silky smooth. It actually rides a lot better than my dads D-max, and some cars. You could try finding out if the different motors had different springs.

[alberta 7.3]

Originally Posted by mcantar18c

Do the 97's have coils up front? Mine was a 95 and had leafs, I was under the impression that all OBSs had leafs.

If it has leafs, you're better off just getting softer leafs and firm shocks. A front coil conversion is nowhere near impossible, but it's quite a bit of work. You'd have to find/have custom made coils that are the right size and spring rate for the ride height and quality you want, make/have custom made upper and lower control arms, and a trackbar to match it all, and make/have custom made brackets for everything. To make the control arms, you'd need to find a good suspension calculator and plug numbers into it and play with angles until you find something that works, and make sure everything is made exactly to spec.
Some people think it's worth it, some don't. For a truck, I wouldn't.

A 2WD OBS has twin i-beams and coils. To convert to leafs would be a fabrication nightmare.

Originally Posted by JD3020

My 1990 F-250 2WD with the 300 has coils, and it rides silky smooth. It actually rides a lot better than my dads D-max, and some cars. You could try finding out if the different motors had different springs.

There are different springs for different engines. But different engines have different weights. A dressed 300 probably only weighs about 450 lbs, were as the PSD will be around 1,000 lbs. That'll make it sag like grandma's boobs.

[mcantar18c]

Ah, 2wd... so who's truck is this? Both of the ones in your sig are 4x4.

[alberta 7.3]

It's a little beast I'm putting together in my spare time