Has anyone tried or looked into putting the coilover front suspension from an 04 F-150 4WD onto a 97-03 F-150 4wd?

Seems like it could be alot of fab-work, but wondering if it could be a lesser expensive 4wd coil over solution compared to Dixon brothers or Rock Krawler for 97-03 trucks.

After owning a 97 and now a 2003, I want to do something cool with my 03, but stupid lift laws in Maine get in the way. (No body lifts on ABS equipped vehicles, No tire sizes larger than 2 in over the factory optional tire size, funky maximum front frame heights)

The CV axles themselves seem to be shorter in 04, with more splines on the outboard end. Without digging in too deep, it seems Control arms, steering spindles, bearings, brakes etc, would all have to be converted, (and to 6 lug wheels/ 6 lug rear axle). I'm guessing the fabwork would primarily be to the control arm mounts, and upper coilover bucket. Not sure on on swaybar/steering linkages.

What's the silver bullet that would make this not possible?

 

In the long run I see it being a lot more costly to do this rather than a long travel conversion kit because of the cost of all the fab work, all the new parts you'll need, the fact that you'll need new wheels, etc.

 

if I was budgeting a plan for this, I'd be considering the wheels to be needed on either side of the equation. I wouldn't run my stock wheels on a Dixon suspension for example.

Also, I'm hoping that there would be some CV durability gain (note to self - research the reality of durability between 03 CV's vs 04 CV's) The Dixon system would provide new CV's, but RockKrawler would not

Looking for coil-over performance, without as much lift as Dixon or Rockkrawler provide, and gain durability in the process

Don't get me wrong - If I won the lottery tomorrow- I'd probably just have Dixon build me a truck , but looking for alternate lift/suspension system that could reasonably handle 35's with lots of down travel.

 

As pizzaman was trying to say, It's going to cost more in fab work to do that conversion than it would to just install an LT kit. Even if you did do the conversion, why? It's still going to be a factory setup and not strong enough to beat on offroad.

 

Also it won't give you any added travel, travel numbers are gonna be just the same. It may ride a little smoother but offroad performance isn't going to be noticeably different.

 

theres no way to change it without doing what I did. torsion bars to coilover is completely different. you need a shock mount, different arms and possibly a different spindle. you might be able to somehow make it work but why is the question? and then you would have to figure out what shocks to run and how to keep it cheap and it just gets ridiculous. all that time and money would be really just making your head hurt. if there was a way I would say you could maybe use 2wd stuff, remount the a arm tabs and figure out a way to use your 4wd spindle with the 2wd lower arm and then make a cheap upper arm but again thats just something that wouldnt be worth it.

 

Thanks for the replies. After doing some more review of trucks running the LT suspensions from Dixon and H&M, I'm struggling when looking at the overall cost. I do have good fabricators in my area, and looking at both DBR and H&M, it seems that you pretty much cut off everything and weld up the mounts for the respective setups.

I was trying to figure a way to get more CV durability AND ditching torsion bars, utilizing factory suspension components to cut down cost. After more reading it seems that the 04 CV's don't like more than 2.5 in of lift either, so no gain to use those, even though they are higher splined.

I think the cost of the DBR setup has come down since I looked at it years ago, for my 97 F150. (or maybe it's more affordable / more reasonable sounding to install on an 03)

I guess I'll have to keep saving my pennies.

 

The 97-03 dixon bro kit is reasonable priced for a 4x4 kit that pulls a true 14" of travel. I think it's the cheapest lt kit out there without possible garage fabbing your own or getting a one off kit made.