2011+ rear spring swap

Addicted4

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Being stuck with the older truck cause I’m too stubborn to spend on a new one I’m upgrading to newer suspension on my 2002 cclb 4x4 7.3. I’ve coil swapped my 03 and 95 so for the front I’m pretty familiar. As for the upgrade this will be the following, 05 front axle with 2.5” icon coils and shocks, rear is 2014 f250 springs and shocks unknown as icon doesn’t make a factory length shock. I chose the newer leaf spring over 08-10 due to talking and reading on 08-10 springs and sounds like the 2 leaf spring is better.

So the swap is pretty straight forward: remove old springs, remove front bracket and move 8” forward.

Took about 5hrs to swap, bed bolts were a pain and had to cut 2. Brackets came off fairly easy. Front hanger needs drilled out 25/32” for new leaf spring bolt. Once the brackets are removed I just moved them so the front holes in the frame lined up with the back holes on the bracket. Bolted the bracket with 2 bolts and drilled the other 4 and done. Had to change u bolts as the spring is noticeably thinner. Truck sits perfectly where it was with old springs.

Ride is improved, less chop from the rear but the front is still leaf spring so it’s still rough. I didn’t even change shocks which are probably garbage and the ride is improved so take it for what it’s worth.

Front end will be swapped Friday, waiting on shocks to get here. Before I swap it over.
 

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Addicted4

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02 f350 rear spring and 2014 f250 spring
 

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Addicted4

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Coil spring swap under way
 

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Addicted4

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All done waiting on shocks
 

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Dmstrucks02

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Moving right along! I have a 07 rolling chassis at the house. I'll be doing the swap one of these days.

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Addicted4

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I haven’t hauled anything yet but the new trucks seem to handle the weight well. Once done I’ll hook up a trailer and we shall see but I also have air bags.
 

JCart

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I haven’t hauled anything yet but the new trucks seem to handle the weight well. Once done I’ll hook up a trailer and we shall see but I also have air bags.

Thinner spring pack change air bag mounting? Mods look great BTW. Been chewing on swapping over (rears) on my Tan sig truck and it has air bags with a B&W turn over ball Goose neck hitch. Had to modify the mounting of both hitch and air bag top brackets.
Cheers,
j
 

Addicted4

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My truck has a gooseneck hitch and the air bags mount under the frame not on top of the leaf spring so I didn’t have to change anything for either one of those. Just swapped the same springs into my friends 06 ecsb yesterday and same result, smooth ride and he hooks to a trailer 3-4 times a week so I’ll get feed back from him on weight handling/ sag in the rear
 

Dmstrucks02

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My truck has a gooseneck hitch and the air bags mount under the frame not on top of the leaf spring so I didn’t have to change anything for either one of those. Just swapped the same springs into my friends 06 ecsb yesterday and same result, smooth ride and he hooks to a trailer 3-4 times a week so I’ll get feed back from him on weight handling/ sag in the rear
Where are you getting the springs from?

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Addicted4

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I bought mine from the junk yard $200 for one pair and $100 for the other and gave the second set to my friend for his 06 so I could use his shop to do my swap.
 

Addicted4

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I’m running a 3” spacer in the front with new icon shocks. Need to take the 2” stacked block out of the rear. Was in there when I bought it
 

Dmstrucks02

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I bought mine from the junk yard $200 for one pair and $100 for the other and gave the second set to my friend for his 06 so I could use his shop to do my swap.
Good deal, I need to hit up a few junk yards and see what I can find!

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Addicted4

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Replaced right tie rod end and both ends on the drag link yesterday, also installed specialty products 2.3 and 2.6 castor cams. Have about 100 miles on the swap but so far so good. Would like to order new shocks for the rear and the 2.5” icon coils but will wait till this virus blows over.
 

co04cobra

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I’m in the middle of swapping the wife’s excursion to a 15 front and rear. What are you guys finding as far as ride goes for which spring codes? The older trucks I knew the rates but haven’t swapped enough newer ones to remember. I’m planning to do a coil over conversion on the front and king 2.5s on the back. Main focus is ride but need it to be able to tow some when needed.
 

Addicted4

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Are you looking at rear spring rates or front? Remember that 11 and newer don’t have a speed sensor in the rear end so that’s a no go unless you figure another way to acquire a speed signal. I can tell you that the newer the rear spring the better the ride. I’ve talked with Trevor at pmf and suggested newest I could find 11+ are the best for ride plus ultimately they will have less miles the newer you can go. 08-10 have 3 leafs and a bottom overload as my 14 f250 springs have 2 and a overload. The swap we did on my friends truck has 14 f250 springs with a added overload on top from a 02 and he hauls 3-4 times a week bumper towing 13k lbs, does it drop on the rear, yes but no more than his stock 06 springs. Ride much improved empty and loaded.
 

liquidlounge

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Nice work - how did you handle the emergency brake? I know PMF sells the front spring hangers to do this and the only reason I can see to buy them is for the retaining the EB in the original position.
 

Addicted4

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I cut the ebrake bracket off the frame, mounted the leaf spring bracket, turned the e brake bracket 90* then welded it to the frame and added a piece of flat bar to the end of the bracket that comes down to the leaf spring bracket. 100% functional, may not be as clean as pmf brackets but I’m a diy type of guy when possible. Hope this helps
 

liquidlounge

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Looks like I'll be doing the 2011 rear spring swap now. I just located some pretty nice take off springs from a 2015 with 30k on them (looks about right as 95% of the paint is still on them). The guy sold the truck with the lift on it and had these leftover. It comes with the axle brackets and U-bolts etc. Would you use the new style axle bracket that puts the U-bolt in the opposite direction - given that they came with the purchase? Thanks again Addicted for the write up.
 

liquidlounge

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One more question: how did you handle the top overload? by your pics, one spring has the top overload leaf and the other spring does not. My truck has the overloads on it now, are the '11+ springs with the overload leaf compatible with the upper pads on an '01 truck?
 
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