Lifted trucks with big tires are where it’s at, and 8-Lug HD Truck was founded on these high-performance trucks. Some feel they sacrifice ride quality and safety, but with so many great products available these days, ride quality, function, and safety can be maintained. A while back, we proved this fact by installing a Full-Traction coilover conversion kit to replace the stiff, 8-inch-lift front leaf springs. We did not change the rear of the truck, since the stiff rear leaf springs (7-inch lift) seemed to work fine with the new coilover front, and 90 percent of the time we’re carrying a 2,300-pound camper.
| 2001 Ford F250 Bringing Down The Beast rear Angle
The Full-Traction coilover front suspension ended up about 1¾ inches lower than the rear and obviously gave the truck some rake. Recently, the Super Duty transitioned into more family camping and mountain snow trips. The truck was also getting to the point of needing replacement tires, as the 37s were more than 7 years old and starting to develop dry rot. Then all of a sudden it hit us: We had to bring down the beast—not only to make the truck ride and handle better, but also to make it safer and a little easier to get in and out of.
After doing some research on Super Duty rear leaf spring options, we were soon focused on Deaver and a set of 5-inch-lift F50s. Deaver Spring has a great reputation for manufacturing excellent-riding springs, and they are made in the United States. Deaver also sells high-quality U-bolts, hardware, and bushings to make gathering the right parts easier. We wanted to go with a set of slightly smaller tires than the previous 37s, so we chose 35x12.50x17 Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ radials to fit our existing rims. By keeping the same rims and reusing the rear Bilstein shocks, we kept the swap costs down quite a bit.
The 35-inch tires brought the entire truck down about another inch, and along with the new rear springs, the truck now sits level and has a suspension lift height of about 6 to 6.5 inches over stock all around. When the camper goes on we now have to inflate the airbags to level the truck, which is just the way it should be. To get help with the project, we headed over to Off Road Unlimited in Burbank, California, on a rainy day (as you will notice in some of the photos) to do the rear spring swap. Since we went from a 7-inch to a 5-inch-lift rear spring, we also needed to swap out the 3-inch spacer in favor of a 1-inch spacer on the ORU leveling bag setup we installed several years ago.
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Springs, Tires, and Testing
Whenever possible, we like to give our readers feedback on how the parts we install actually perform. Luckily, we had a 700-mile trip planned to the Sierra Mountains in California, and the Super Duty ended up staying in four-wheel drive on snow and icy roads for almost a week. The following month, we put on the heavy camper and headed to the desert with the rockcrawler in tow on another long trip. Both the rear Deaver springs and the Mickey Thompson Baja ATZ radial tires performed way better than we expected.
| 2001 Ford F250 Bringing Down The Beast camper
The F50 (5-inch Ford Super Duty) rear Deaver springs are built with 5160 American steel, using thinner leaf material, diamond-cut inner leaf ends to minimize shear points, anti-friction pads, and full military-wrapped spring ends. All these attributes create a more flexible, progressive leaf stack with a smoother spring rate throughout the suspension cycle. Deaver Spring owner Jeff Crosby personally helped us choose these springs after inspecting the Chevy, which might be why the truck ended up at the exact ride height we were looking for. The ride and articulation was superb compared to the last set of rear springs, and when the camper was on the springs it let the ORU leveling airbag setup work to its potential and actually level the truck. The travel on the springs is so good that we are going to put on limiting straps to keep the airbags and shocks from being overextended at full drop-out!
We have been a fan of Mickey Thompson tires for years, and the latest ATZ offering did not let us down. Choosing the 35x12.50x17 M/T Baja ATZ radial still gave the truck some height status and really worked well with the 4.10 gears we installed several years ago to keep the rig in the optimum rpm range. The Baja ATZ radial is a great hybrid design between an all-terrain and a mud-terrain tire with a D-load rating and siped tread lugs. The numerous and larger sipes make it the best tire we have ever used in the snow and on icy roads, and it also worked extremely well in the dirt, rocks, and sand. Unfortunately, we were not able to test these tires in the mud but suspect they would do fairly well. The tires also handled great on the street and had very little road noise and vibration for such an aggressive tread. To prevent irregular wear it is important to have them professionally balanced and rotate them at least every 10,000 miles.
| 2001 Ford F250 Bringing Down The Beast off Roading Snow
