Leveling My 99 F250

[dieselcrawler]

Forgot... keep an eye on your brake lines if you're letting the axle droop alot... most likely not an issue, but.... just something to think about.
later...
Greg

[volsfan411]

Yea I guess I feel stupid now, I was tring to do one side at a time with the other side hooked up. I will go with your sugestions, I should have thought of that. I am worried about my sway bar and have been told that your could remove the rear sway bar with out may issues but I would rather not if I don't have to.

[99strokinandsmokin]

All a leveling kit is, are ad a leafs. Comes with 2 leaf springs, and its suppost to add 2.5 in. The job is droping your front axle, taking off shocks and u bolts and stacking your new ones on top of your old ones. I have done it. Go to a junk yard and buy 2 heavy duty leaf springs, thats the cheapest way to do it.

[volsfan411]

Yea but don't you have to buy the same springs as your truck

[jostaman]

Yea would like to see before and after shots.

[rankroddin250]

you also have to be careful with shackles in the front because the basicly rotate the axle assembly. causing your steering knuckles not to be strait up and down. thios causes problems with your steering componanats wearing out and bad tire wear and freaky steering at highway speeds. all not good. when you see the hord core wheelers with the big long shackles for added articulation they have also lowered the solid spring mount at the other end of the leaf spring so your dropping both sides of it keeping every thing within spec.

[volsfan411]

I have heard and read so many different ideas I just dont know what the best thing to do is. $$ is not real easy to come by to mod my truck, I have the $$ to do it but talking to wife into using it for my truck is a whole other problem. I need tires and I want to go up a size and I can't until I lift my front end + I hate the saging front end. I would rather use a store bought new spring pack but I would do the add a leaf too. I had a toyota years ago and lifted it with shackes with out any problems but that was a whole lot lighter and much different truck, I had 8 shackes on it to lift it, 2 on each spring. I guess if I am going to be putting $250 into each tire or more I guess $200 or so more $$ won't make much differance. Maybe the wife will buy that one

[dieselcrawler]

Rank: I've got a '80's chevy LWB 4x4 in the garage I'm doing just that to right now... lowered the solid hangers for the rear spings about 4", re-braced with brackets for the new locations, shackle flip/drop hangers in the back, stock shackles, and stock springs to get about 8-10" lift, with a good pinion angle.... it's amazing what you can come up with in the garage with a welder and some buddies and some beers. Nice thing is that I still felt good about it the next day..... We're using 8" lift springs in the front with 2" longer shackles.
411: I would guess the combo of adding an extra leaf from another spring pack, say from a junk yard truck of the same design (AKA '99 to '04 with the leafspring front) and using slightly longer shackles would get you the lift you want, and at lower dollars. Might ride a little rougher than something you spend more money on, but it's up to you, spend more money, or more of your own time? Like Rankroddin said, longer shackles can affect the way your truck's steering works, and how the truck handles. That's not to say don't do it, just be reasonable... IMO, if the orig shackle was 5", going to 7" probly won't do much to the way the truck drives. More than that, you're pushing it. (Unless you're like some of my friends, I've seen some off-road only trucks with 10-12" long shackles! YIKES!)

Greg

[volsfan411]

Yea I will be going from 5" to 9" to get the 2.5" lift in the front. I am lost on wht you guys are talking about as far as "lowered the solid spring mount at the other end of the leaf spring so your dropping both sides of it keeping every thing within spec."
Do you mean add a shackel to the front of the spring. Anyway I am going to good about the shackles in the front any more. I believe I might cause more problems then I want and might end up spending more money in the long run if I don't do it right the first time.

[rankroddin250]

Originally Posted by volsfan411

Yea I will be going from 5" to 9" to get the 2.5" lift in the front. I am lost on wht you guys are talking about as far as "lowered the solid spring mount at the other end of the leaf spring so your dropping both sides of it keeping every thing within spec."
Do you mean add a shackel to the front of the spring. Anyway I am going to good about the shackles in the front any more. I believe I might cause more problems then I want and might end up spending more money in the long run if I don't do it right the first time.

no no you can only have a shackle on on side if the spring. the other side you can drop. I dont know of a muck better way of explaining it. basicly you can cut the solid spring mounts off the frame. and weld on hangers that mounts the spring lower. then you can use the longer shackles on the other side of the spring. so your not just lowering one side of the spring your lowering both sides and your pinion and steering angles stay where there suposed to.

what im trying to explain is that by adding longer shackles to droping one end of the spring basicly rotates the entire axle assembly a several degrees. causing bad u-joint angles and steering angles.