Affordable lift blocks

The Evil Twin said:

Ground contact lumber. You want to make sure the electrical circuits have a good ground.

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True, I do have to make a good ground for my speedo to work on these...

Graysen said:

I would have used teak wood IMHO

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Dang, if you got that big $$ like that, might as well buy steel!

Graysen said:

Savings are no joke friend

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Agree, with the savings these blocks afforded me, I bought a whole 18 pack of eggs this week.

Graysen said:

Nice structural electrician tape! What are you building ?

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I am a 1 guy show here. Plenty of zip ties and tape when I need a 3rd or 4th hand.

Got an extra 10.25" built on the bench a few months back. Yukon grizzly & 4.56 gears. Barnes4x4 truss, Ruffstuff traction bar.
All hooked up on my 1995 7.3l CCLB with 2015 springs & Skys drop hangers to reduce block size.

I know lots of guys say trusses and traction bars are not required on these but I would rather over build first than do it twice.

Graysen said:

Nice. Any reason for newer springs ? I have a 1993 7.3 CCLB project.

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The springs are about 8" longer, but still from an F350 so roughly same capacity, but supposed to ride much better. I also got the drop brackets to almost get rid of the factory blocks, but I ended up with needing 1.5" to make the ride look level and get rid of that Carolina squat I had since the front spring install.

If you are considering making the ride better, you can also do an RSK on the front, and swap in 99-04 springs. It moves the shackle and the springs are about 4" longer from my memory. I did that one about a year ago and it was a major ride improvement.

I got the PMF kit on the front of mine (got it for free), but had to use a 10 ton porta-power to spread the frame rails to make it fit, it was off by about 5/8". I have read others had to do the same thing with their PMF kit. I also heard that Sky's did not have that problem.

Graysen said:

Interesting. What is going on here ? B
Backside of the frame

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Frame was rusty under the original spring perches since the truck came from up north. Most places where a bracket was riveted had lost maybe 25% of base metal. Since I don't haul heavy I don't care too much, but I wanted to reinforce the location there since I am changing the leverage on the frame with the different shackle flip / drop mount setup.

Its probably not needed, but if you look a little behind that, I am also putting an integrated hitch into the rear bumper that will accept a winch. I wanted it connected across the frame for that reason.

Also, most of the brackets aren't fully welded yet. That one you zoomed in on will be similar to this illustration (I know these frames aren't heat treated, but it's still a good guide to follow): REPAIR AND REINFORCEMENTS (Heat Treated Frames)

You can also take a look here, where it shows "maximum shear stress" in a chassis frame, top of page 3, left side. That colored area where the flange and web meet is where it is smart to minimize welding or holes.

jetjock15 said:

Neat link dude. That was an informative read. Appreciate it when people posts good resource links when posting.

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Thanks, I actually was on the fence a few months ago about welding on the frame myself, so I did the research until I felt confident that it was acceptable.
It was during that research, both forum & technical documents came up. Most of the forums were people adamantly opposed to each other in the weld vs. no-weld camps. The technical documents were useful if you take the time to read & understand them.

I found a Ford document too, it mostly said it was OK to drill holes, but not within another 1" of existing and a few other common-sense things, all in keeping with what I found and linked above.

All this, coupled with the fact that I worked on Class 8 trucks (semi's) at my last job, and our 2021 Navistar trucks came from the factory with some cut/welded places on the frame, I figured it was OK, if you followed the recommended practices from various OEMs. They all had slightly different recommendations, but none of them were at odds with each other.

Oh, you can also find good welding info on the heavy equipment repair recommendations. Mostly how to prevent stress cracks from starting on the ends of your welds.

Most commonly they called it a "tail out" or "fly out" from the weld. Also makes sense when viewed in context with the previously attached documents / discussion.