wanting to lift my f-250

[ereed969]

I am wanting to lift my truck. What's the best way to do that. I don't know to much about lifts but I want maybe 4" . People are always telling me to do the straight axle conversion but don't know how hard that is and if u save money verses just buying a 4 inch lift

[351fifty]

Cost more to buy an axle and a lift over just a lift, but if you buy the springs with a ttb you need to get the drop bracket for the center as well, then have it re alligned as well, huge pita, I do have a drop bracket here if your close at all, good luck either way

[terryknight]

do the SAS. it's not hard, all bolt in. hardest part is getting the axle.

[Diesel_brad]

You can do a Rough Country lift for about $600
Skykacker 1200
Superlift 1200
BDS 1300

You get what you pay for

OR you can do a D60 swap w a 2.5" RSK, SD springs,Bilstein shocks and 5" rear lift block which = about 5" over the stock F250 height

for about........1500 if you shop around and the axle you find does Not need a full rebuild. This will yield you a BETTER ride and LESS maintenance down the road(TTBs do NOT like to be lifted and require constant alighments and ball joints to NOT eat tires)

[ereed969]

There are a few f350 for sale in my area for a couple thousand . Does anyone know what I need to look for. I heard once that a f350 from 1987 to 1997 would work as long as the gearing is the same

[terryknight]

here's a good thread

How-To: Dana 60 Swap

[gaspipe]

Once upon a time, the TTB was fitted to the Bronco and F150. It was fairly sucky as delivered by Ford, but the cool thing was Rancho engineered a 4" lift that worked great. The magic in it was they doubled the length of the radius rods, and the 1/2 ton trucks were fitted with coils rather than leaf springs. I was pretty familiar with it all because I had an truck I installed that Rancho kit in, and it nearly doubled the front suspension travel.it worked well.

The issue with the TTB F250's is the use of leafs rather than coils. The leaf springs are undergoing not only compression (which they are good at), but also torsion as the TTB swings through it's arc. Additionally, the leafs provide a very short radius for the TTB to swing it's arc. Despite that, the system works fairly well in the real world, but only in the wheel travel it is limited to.

So the net of it is, the TTB in the F250 is going to suffer somewhat limited travel, weird geometry issues, and extra wear on the steering components. If you lift the truck, you really won't gain any suspension performance, just lift. If you choose to keep the TTB suspension, be prepared to replace wear items more often.

HTH in the thought process.

[ereed969]

I a leaning towards doing the straight axle conversion. Speacially since I was quoted 750 to get the u joint fixed and some other stuff. But I cant to do tell spring. Its to cold now. And I need to find one. I want to buy a truck and take the steering column and rear window and axle. With that being said what could happen if I keep driving my truck with bad u-joints. It pops really bad when I turn now. Thanks for the info. I have been excited about learing this part of the truck

[gaspipe]

FWIW, you can replace the wheel unjoints in the Dana 50 while they are in the truck. The two outers are the same procedure as the Dana 60. The tricky one is the inner one on the passenger side. It can be done while the stub axle is in the truck. Else, it's not that hard to pull the chunk and do it.

Once you do it the first time, it's not that big of a deal. You'll just tend to do it more often on the TTB than the Dana 60.

[ereed969]

FWIW =?................