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Ford auxiliary leaf question

Gbkeith

Gbkeith

Three twenties and a ten
Joined
Oct 29, 2022
Member Number
5703
Messages
475
Loc
County Road 13
Does anybody know how many different auxiliary top overload springs ford used on 2017 and up super duties? I have a 2017 srw F350 with 270,000 miles and the rear suspension bottoms out with loads that didn’t phase it four years ago. I’m going to either put a new leaf pack in it or cobble something together by adding a leaf out of something else. Looking at parts online it seems that DRW and SRW trucks used different auxiliary leafs. I can’t find any dimensions on the two different leafs though. I’d like to have an auxiliary leaf that is a little stiffer with a little more arch so it engages sooner.
 
I'm a little confused what you're after.

You're asking for specs on a truck you own? :flipoff2:

Seems that truck is plenty new enough that a new or slightly used set of leafs shouldn't be too hard to find and would solve your problem.

Or if you want the overloads to engage earlier, you could just space them up a bit.
 
I’m looking for specs on a truck I already own as it was 270,000 miles ago, before the leafs were shot. And also specs on whatever other auxiliary leafs might exist.

Spacing the overload up was my first thought, and probably what will end up happening, but if there happened to be an off the shelf overload that did what I wanted I wouldn’t complain.
 
just grab a pair of leaves that are the right width and chop them off to the right length
mix and match with your existing pack if you want more than you can find in your yard

every pickup I see with the top mounted overloads has what looks like a passenger car leaf pack up there
where every older cab and chassis has a leaf pack that looks like that of a 3/4 ton up top there
 
All ot the top overloads are the same so drill holes and make a 2" spacer to bolt to the ends so they come in contact sooner.
Or better yet just get a pair of air bags and a Daystar cradle kit and your set.
 
irate4x4.com

CA - F550 rear springs

This is just the leaf springs in this pic. I need all the other crap. Beat95yj bought em for me. 200.00 picked up, without assistance, at Franks.
irate4x4.com irate4x4.com

I promise they won't sag.
 
Grendel said:
irate4x4.com

CA - F550 rear springs

This is just the leaf springs in this pic. I need all the other crap. Beat95yj bought em for me. 200.00 picked up, without assistance, at Franks.
irate4x4.com irate4x4.com

I promise they won't sag.
Click to expand...
Wouldn’t budge an inch until the tires popped. Thank you, that’s a long way to go for them though.

I was over complicating things. Weather was bad, in laws were in town, and I was bored. There’s a half dozen retired parts F250’s parked in a corner of the yard. Off the top of my head everything before ‘17 had more skinny leaves and after ‘17 they had fewer thick leaves. I’ll just pull a long leaf out of whatever truck is easiest to get to and put it between the longest two leaves on my truck. Replace the bushings in the shackle and the ends of my leaf pack, space the top overload an inch or so higher, put new u bolts on it, and call it good.
 
I'm in a similar boat with my 350k dodge. Between probably 300k of towing and swapping a steel flatbed on, my shit is saggin like grannies tittays.

After deliberation I'm going to replace my shackles, bushings and add bags.
 
BLKNBLK said:
All ot the top overloads are the same so drill holes and make a 2" spacer to bolt to the ends so they come in contact sooner.
Or better yet just get a pair of air bags and a Daystar cradle kit and your set.
Click to expand...
leaf spring overloads increase axle stability
bags do not
 
Grendel said:
Yer on crack.
Click to expand...
for realsies I haven't done a back to back, and your 550 springs are weirding me out with the single leaf up top

but having four spring hangers per side with two big stiff leaf packs locating the axle... there ain't really any wrap to speak of
where lots of guys run traction bars when they've got too little spring helped out by bags
 
[486] said:
for realsies I haven't done a back to back, and your 550 springs are weirding me out with the single leaf up top

but having four spring hangers per side with two big stiff leaf packs locating the axle... there ain't really any wrap to speak of
where lots of guys run traction bars when they've got too little spring helped out by bags
Click to expand...
For realsies bags that are tied together increase side/side and weight stability... they're dynamic.

I've done back to back.

Why do you think anything handling weight has bags?
 
Grendel said:
Why do you think anything handling weight has bags?
Click to expand...
Almost nothing heavier has a similar geometry to light duty leaves being used to locate the axle under bags.
Even shit like the air leaf is not really a leaf spring but more of a radius/trailing arm, nearly all include links for axle location
even many leaf setups without air bags have those half leaves at the bottom of the pack going to the spring brackets to control axle wrap

not saying that people don't make a bunch of money doing it, just saying it isn't ideal
 
[486] said:
Almost nothing heavier has a similar geometry to light duty leaves being used to locate the axle under bags.
Even shit like the air leaf is not really a leaf spring but more of a radius/trailing arm, nearly all include links for axle location
even many leaf setups without air bags have those half leaves at the bottom of the pack going to the spring brackets to control axle wrap

not saying that people don't make a bunch of money doing it, just saying it isn't ideal
Click to expand...
Funny, Ford does "air bags" factory, on the next up trucks, F450 and F550.

1672108786139.png


and it's balls out better than leaves for weight handling without sway or axle wrap.

Go back to your crack pipe.

This is my truck, with a Cummins :)
 
[486] said:
never said it did
you win oh great moderator, no longer will I stray from shit chat
Click to expand...


Lol.

You're just wrong and you want to lay this on me?

I repeat, LOL.
 
Grendel said:
Why do you think anything handling weight has bags?
Click to expand...
I think it have a lot to do with maintaining the ride height between zero and maximum payload. Otherwise they’ll put leafs in everything if they’re loaded and don’t change weight all of the time.

To the OP, you can look into taking your existing leaf spring packs to local spring shop to re-arch them?
Or put add-a-leaf to the aux pack? To put some arch back in them and raise via AAL’s thickness?

How are your pads on frame where your aux springs contacts? Usually have rubber pads and might be worn or missing.
 
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