The Begining...

When I pulled up to work one early December morning, the first thing I saw parked out front was a 2005 Ford Superduty. It is a well known fact that I am usually late to work, but it was too early this day for a customer to already be there. I did what any 4x4 guy would do. I crawled underneath and checked out the brand new coil spring suspension design. I also got a good look at the new Dana 60 with larger hubs and factory crossover steering. The leather interior, sunroof, and auto sliding back window also caught my attention.

Finally, I began to get a sneaking suspicion as to whom the truck belonged to. Phil, (who works at WFO), had been mumbling something about getting a new truck for the past few weeks. Due to the fact that he mumbles about crap all day long, we didn’t really think anything of it. I think this time he actually followed through!

Yep, sure enough, it was Phil’s! We took it to lunch that day. I will have to say that it is just a little bit nicer than my GMC! At lunch, Phil mumbled something else. We couldn’t quite hear him, but I think he said something about 40” tires, coil-overs, and smokies in front of the movie theater. It all sounded great, but who in their right mind would cut apart a brand new truck!

The next morning (as I walked in late again), Phil’s truck was already on the rack. This kid was crazy! The plasma cutter came out, and sparks started flying. That day at lunch, we made a list of parts we would need. It was a big list! I got on the phone and ordered everything that afternoon. We were now committed!

The first order of business was the axle. The F-250 came stock with 3.73 gears. We wanted to run a 40” radial tire, so we needed to lower the gear ratio. In order to match the factory setup, we calculated that we would have to run a 4.66. Due to the fact that larger tires require a little more power to spin, we opted for 4.88’s.
Since the axles were already torn out, they were easy to get to. We started with the Sterling 10.5 rear. The factory gears were taken out, and a new set of Sierra gears was installed. For a traction device, the factory limited slip differential was retained. After all, it had less than 1000 miles on it!

In the front, our install didn’t go as smooth. In the older ford front axles, once the unit bearing is un-bolted, the whole axle assembly slides out. On this new Dana 60 front, we couldn’t get the axles out. When we called the dealer, they didn’t know how to do it either. They recommended tearing the seal apart and replacing it. We ended up designing our own tool to press the axles out. After a few hours of screwing around, the axle assemblies finally came out, undamaged! To our surprise, we were looking at a 35 spline inner and outer axle assembly. Not to mention a completely new unit bearing design. This upgrade was just what ford needed.

With that small hurdle over, we could now install our new gears. When we pulled the front cover, we discovered that the front gears hadn’t even turned over yet. The factory gear dye was still on them! We went ahead and yanked them out. We quickly noticed the new spider gears design. It was still a regular Dana 60 carrier, but the spider gears were much larger than the old style.

A new set of Spicer OEM 4.88’s was installed. Due to the fact that we decided to use OEM gears instead of aftermarket thick gears, we were forced to change the carrier as well. I had a 4.56 carrier from a 74 Chevy that was in perfect shape. We threw the new gears on it and stuffed it in. Sure enough, everything set up perfect! The cover was put back on, and the axle re-assembled.

It was now time for design. Once again the three of us pulled up a chair and started thinking. We had already ordered 4 14” Sway Away, coil-over shocks. It was just a matter of how we wanted to link it up. The main focus was to have a truck that not only looked good, but handled and drove just as good. After seeing most of the trucks at SEMA this year, it was obvious that most big truck builders were building for bling only. A truck can only be so cool if it is trailered to every show! This was going to be a daily driver.

We finally settled on a radius arm setup, front and rear. This would allow for a nice soft ride, and help the truck handle better. Due to the design of a radius arm, it naturally keeps the vehicle from flexing. This will act as a built in sway bar. We are not going to take this on Rubicon, so we don’t need a true 4 link setup.

Our next decision was to do as little modification to the original truck and frame as possible. We came up with a design that used mostly existing holes in the frame, and bolted in. We also wanted to keep the option to be able to put the truck back to stock if we ever wanted to. The only cutting and welding we ended up doing was on the rear axle. We cut the leaf spring perches off in order to weld on new link mounts. (perch off 2)

In the front, new longer links were designed to attach to the axle in the stock radius arm location. The axle already had factory rubber bushings in it, ready to accept our new links. At the upper end of the new links, 1 1/4” heim joints were used. The main link was fabricated from 2”x.250 wall DOM tubing and 1/4” plate steel. The plate was waterjet cut out, and broke to fit around the tube. The upper, adjustable link, was built from 1 7/8x .250 wall DOM. Everything was fit and welded together.

With the links built, the upper and lower coil mounts were the next order of attention. The new Sway Away coil-over shocks needed mounting points at the top and bottom. The brackets were built in cardboard, transferred to the computer, and cut out with the waterjet.