2008 F150 FX4 Leaf Spring Upgrade
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Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 84
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From: New Orleans
2008 F150 FX4 Leaf Spring Upgrade
Leaf spring upgrade is misnomer. I have 110,000 on the truck and the squeaks were, well squeaks. The current had the FX4 stock spring pack with the 3 leaves. I have Rancho quick lifts, Hellwig front and rear sway bars, and Hellwig air bags on the rear. I regularly tow a boat and camper on the weekends thus the air bags.
I purchased the spring upgrades from General Spring for slightly less than $500 to my door including new shackles and bolts. I wanted to upgrade to a stiffer pack for the towing. I live in Louisiana and the porpoise effect from the bad roads drives me crazy. Lastly, my truck has very little rust. If your vehicle does have rust plan an few extra days to tackle those problems and you might want to have a welder and metal at the ready.
There are quite a bit of youtube videos on showing the sequence of this swap and they are very good but they are typically on the stock replacement. There is a particularly amusing one laced with explicatives that everyone will identify with ;-) Yes, you will need to cut the bolts that have the nuts away from the center of truck. A cut off wheel works well on one and a sawsall on the other; have a few blades and wheels at the ready; if you don't have an appreciation for working around the gas tank then this project is not for you!!! Since the available videos are good I'll focus on my particular challenges. On both sides, when you remove the rear bolt put a piece of wood between the spring and bed. I forgot on the first one and had to pound the obligatory dent back into place.
Remove the Hellwig airbag brackets and let them swing from the top.
The new spring pack is 5/16 thick but it is a 2" lift. If you leave the FX4 lift blocks in place this swap is a 2" lift so if you do nothing to the front end the rake is pronounced. Removing the blocks leaves the truck pretty close to level. Because I removed the lift block my old Hellwig brackets would not work. Hellwig sent me new brackets free of charge and I used the bolted tabs from the old brackets to make them work.
U-bolts, if you want the lift you will need new U-bolts. Depending on where you life these may be hard to locate. Plan accordingly. I used my original bolts and nuts but added some blue loktite.
When I maneuvered the new springs into place the axle would not align to the alignment holes. I used a come along and winch strap to pull it into place. If you're just doing a straight swap you may not have to concerned about this problem.
I am very please with the upgrade and ride.
I purchased the spring upgrades from General Spring for slightly less than $500 to my door including new shackles and bolts. I wanted to upgrade to a stiffer pack for the towing. I live in Louisiana and the porpoise effect from the bad roads drives me crazy. Lastly, my truck has very little rust. If your vehicle does have rust plan an few extra days to tackle those problems and you might want to have a welder and metal at the ready.
There are quite a bit of youtube videos on showing the sequence of this swap and they are very good but they are typically on the stock replacement. There is a particularly amusing one laced with explicatives that everyone will identify with ;-) Yes, you will need to cut the bolts that have the nuts away from the center of truck. A cut off wheel works well on one and a sawsall on the other; have a few blades and wheels at the ready; if you don't have an appreciation for working around the gas tank then this project is not for you!!! Since the available videos are good I'll focus on my particular challenges. On both sides, when you remove the rear bolt put a piece of wood between the spring and bed. I forgot on the first one and had to pound the obligatory dent back into place.
Remove the Hellwig airbag brackets and let them swing from the top.
The new spring pack is 5/16 thick but it is a 2" lift. If you leave the FX4 lift blocks in place this swap is a 2" lift so if you do nothing to the front end the rake is pronounced. Removing the blocks leaves the truck pretty close to level. Because I removed the lift block my old Hellwig brackets would not work. Hellwig sent me new brackets free of charge and I used the bolted tabs from the old brackets to make them work.
U-bolts, if you want the lift you will need new U-bolts. Depending on where you life these may be hard to locate. Plan accordingly. I used my original bolts and nuts but added some blue loktite.
When I maneuvered the new springs into place the axle would not align to the alignment holes. I used a come along and winch strap to pull it into place. If you're just doing a straight swap you may not have to concerned about this problem.
I am very please with the upgrade and ride.