With the new wheels and tires, we needed a new way to carry the spare. It no longer fits in the location where the stock one did. The exhaust is in the way.
The plan is to mount it to the drivers side rear door. That one does not get opened and closed as much, so adding the weight to the door is not a huge deal. The hinges on the door are super beefy, the same ones used on big refrigerator semi trailers, so I think they will take the extra 250lbs ok.
The basic plan is a “basket” the tire will sit in, with long legs that will spread the load across the panels that make up the door. It will get through bolted to the door, and the tire will get a couple ratchet straps to hold it in place.
The basic plan
I used 1×2 steel, .125 wall I believe. Some odd angles were needed to match the tire profile. A couple of gussets were added for strength.
Metal cut and tacked Painted and ready to install on the door.
It was bolted in place with polyurethane sealant, and lots of bolts. Getting them all drilled and everything lining up with sealant everywhere was a fun project. You can see the lifting eye I added also in the picture below. This lets me hook a come along to a pulley for lifting the tire. Much better than trying to man handle it up there…..
Bolted in place.Completed
Getting the tire up is still a chores, but the mount is solid and works very well!
The factory F450’s came with 19.5″ wheels and dualies in the rear. Great for heavy loads, not great for mud and snow. It sticks between the duals and creates one big tire. The factory wheels are also a 6″ wide wheel, no room to go to a larger tire either.
So, super singles! A single wheel and tire in the rear, that is larger, but also has a weight rating to carry the load. I found a set of Huchinson wheels that were designed for a armored vehicle. Unfortunately they still use the 19.5″ commercial tires, but the price was right and its a good tire size for our truck. Any bigger and it would take a lift and a lot of cutting. The good news is they are aluminum and beadlocks! Which means we can air down if needed, unlike the factory wheels.
New goodies! They are pretty.
Once the ordeal of having them shipped was done (the got lost…. multiple times) and they were on the back of my truck I was excited! Then reality hit, they are big. Its only a “couple inches” on paper but man are they huge.
Old vs New
The new tires are a bit over 35″ tall, the original ones are about 32″. Does not seem like much on paper, but looks like a lot in person. But it should work.
Back on!
They fit in the back! The singles replace the “outer” dual. This makes the track width a little different front to rear, but it has not seemed to cause any issues.
On all four
The front are a bit tighter fit…. They rub at the back of the wheel well.
Needs some clearance,
A little grinder work and a heat gun on the inner fenders and they fit much better. The drivers side still rubs a little, but not much and long term I will likely fit different fender flares in the front that make much more space.
Finished product
Overall they are very nice, not a huge ride improvement on the road as the tires are still quite stiff, but they roll over little bumps and rock off road better. I was worried about losing some stability in the back, side winds especially, but there have been no issues at all yet. It drives nearly exactly the same.
Since we now have the air bags in the front, the rear needs help. The stock springs are way under rated for our weight, and the airbags work, but ride harsh. So I contacted a spring builder to make me a set of custom progressive leafs. Long story short, they made the first set the wrong size, and the second set with no lift…. I decided if you want it done right do it yourself.
So I set about with a plan. Take some parts of the OE spring packs to me a zero rate spring. Just adds height, no capacity or rate change.
New springs (V2) correct length this time, but no lift. My god are they heavy.
New Springs – Pretty but not quire right….
So after they were installed, we figured out they provided no lift. So I came up with a plan. Use the block and the anti wrap leaf from the OE pack to get some height.
Salvage these two pieces.
The OE Springs got broken down giving me ~1.25″ of lift height.
Useful parts on the bottom.
Then came the fun of trying to jack up a big heavy truck, in my gravel driveway… (I had paid to have springs installed twice already, I had to DIY this time). Luckily my neighbor had a big pile of 4×4 chunks of various projects, so I was able to make cribbing to hold the truck up. It had to be held from the frame so I could remove the axle from the springs. The plan was to remove the Ubolts, lift the truck off the axle so I could roll it out of the way, install the new spring parts and the put the axle back.
Lifting the truck
Got one side in the air, Ubolts removed, and went to roll the axle out of the way. That’s when I was reminded I have a limited slip rear end. Can’t roll one side….. Enter ratchet straps, webbing a second jack and cursing.
I was able to just get it forward enough to get the center pins out. Once they were out I went to slip the parts in and the new center pins would not fit. The spring builder used a smaller pin than Ford. I had to drill through the entire spring pack for the larger centering pin. But it worked, and we got the new old bits in place.
Blocks under the new springs. New center pin in!
Then it was just reverse procedure to get the axle back to the correct place and lower the truck down onto it. Then repeat on the other side. Longer U bolts were made for both sides and we took it out the following weekend. Much better ride, still not much lift after it all settled in.
In a quest for better ride, I have decided to ditch the front coils and go with a Kelderman air bag front end. This kit replaces the coil springs with an air bag, this gives infinite adjustment for load/weight and a supposed better ride.
Kelderman Kit
The first hurdle is how to get the entire front end of the truck off the ground on a gravel driveway….. I have 6200lbs on my front axle, not a crazy amount, but enough to drive the wheels of my jack through a piece of 3/4″ plywood…. Trying again with no wood works, but now the jackstand has sunk. Eventually with some grading of my gravel driveway, two jacks and some jackstands and the front end is ready for work.
Wheels off.
Next up, lower one of the jacks so the spring bits can be removed. Springs and the lower coil buckets are taken off. I hit a surface little rust with some zinc rust paint.
Out with the old.
Discarded parts
The upper bracket needs three holes drilled to hold it in place. The steel is thick and hard. Not a fun upside down drilling project, but take your time and its ok. If your doing this be very careful, there is a large wiring harness right above the upper area your drilling on both sides. Don’t hit it when you break through!
Brackets in place
The brackets simply bolt in place of the coil, and the airbag is bolted between them. One long bolt holds the air bag to the lower mount seen looking awkward above.
All together
All together with the air lines ran. I simply ran them up next to the battery on either side. Its just manual fill for now. I ended up around 80psi. You simply inflate the bags until they are 7.5-8.5″ tall. I went with 8″ which ends up about 1.5″ tall overall than stock.
At 80psi/8″ tall with the weight of the truck on it.
Front end of the truck is defiantly a little taller, the jury is still out on ride quality…. I need to play with pressures a bit. Overall no worse than before and 1.5″ taller.
More little things have been getting done. Just little projects as I can fit them in. We have been using the truck a lot!
First I added LED strips under the bed. It was always dark trying to find things down there. Its bright now!
LED strips under the bed.
Made a new switch mount for the inverter and lights. Which somehow I have backwards…. Just remember on=off….
Inverter and light switches
Then I installed a 12v compressor. This is for being able to air up the bags, the tires as needed and blow up floaty toys etc. Its a 100% duty cycle Puma, with a small one gallon tank.
Strapped in place by the back door.
I wires it with marine tinned wire, and a resetable circuit breaker.
The rear axle has helper air bags, they are great for heavy trucks! I generally run about 70 psi in them, this helps keep the rear end higher, and also off the overload springs. Makes for a better ride with a heavy rear end.
Here you can see the overload springs are not touching the perches with air in the bags.
With ~60 psi in them.
And here is what it looks like with 0 psi in them.
Zero psi, look at the upper spring.
But when they were installed, the fillers (the air valve like your tires) were installed right on top of the air bags. This meant climbing under the truck and sitting by the rear axle to fill or even just check pressures.
Lazy installer’s filler location
The fittings used are quick connect, so I deflated the bags, and went to work taking the valves off. I used DOT 1/4″ air line to extend them back to the back bumper. Much nicer to be able to check pressures and fill now!
Skifari is a trip lead by a good friend of mine each year. We camp in a ski area parking lot, ski there during the day, then drive to the next one. Repeat for a week. It’s a great time and we had amazing snow all trip this year! We had 10 people in 6 rigs. We started at Mt Baker, then headed to Sasquatch BC, followed by two days at Whistler.
Heading up to Baker after work for the first night got very interesting. It was dumping snow, and they had not run the upper area at all that day. 6-8″ of snow were on the road. Once we were ~1/2 a mile from the upper lot, we came across a small slide that was covering the road to a ski area. I stopped to see how deep and packed it was to see if we could cross. As soon as I got back in the car and touched the gas the truck followed the crown of the road sliding right into the snow bank. We were stuck, right in an avalanche Chute. I dug the side of the truck out and used the maxtrax under one front and one rear wheel. I was able to pull forward a bit, but it still was sliding along the snow bank. Luckily we were traveling with friends who were able to winch us back to the center of the road. But we were still slipping all over trying to move. I started to put on chains and a second slide released and hit the truck. Luckily we had a lookout watching the hill and took off running when it let go. Scary as hell bit we made it out ok minus a few buried tools…. We got very lucky that it was a small slide.
Stuck
Feverishly working to get out of the slide area
That’s all we got for pictures, we were working as fast as possible, and once the second slide let go I just hit the gas back down the hill, one chain halfway on…
But we made it back down to the main lot and parked, it was almost midnight at that point. We had a tiny fire, a couple beers and crashed.
Baker had good snow, 10-12 ish inches overnight, pretty damn light, but not compared to the upcoming days.
Family ski day at Baker!
After skiing Baker we headed North, crossing the border up into BC and parking at Sasquatch mountain. Its a little 3 chair place, but there was no one there and the snow was the lightest fluffy pow you can imagine. It was great for the kid, she usually has trouble in pow, as shes ~55lbs, she just gets stopped, but it was so light she could keep moving relatively easily!
The whole Skifari gang parked at Sasquatch
Its going to be a good day.
Sasquatch Pow
Nice terrain for a little place
Next we headed to Whistler. Long drive day, but not too bad. There are always a couple on skifari. We stayed at the Riverside RV park. Whistler is VERY anti camping in their lots, so this was the next best thing. Close to the upper village and parking at blackcomb mid station worked awesome. We would roll out at 7 and have breakfast up there.
Parking lot lunch!
Whistler Camp site
Some fun trees at whistler.
A normal Skifari evening, a nice little fire, a few beers and great friends to chat with. Such a great time.
Time to replace the front shocks to match the rear. Over big whoops in the road the front end would bounce a little so they are getting tired. I went with Bilstien 5100’s just like the rear end.
Old Vs New
Getting them out wasn’t too bad, getting the new ones in was harder…. Trying to collapse them enough to fit and hold them with zip ties.
New and shiny
No its not rusty, its red grit that Oregon DOT spreads everywhere in the winter. it works well and is very grippy, but man it makes a red mess.
Not enough miles on it to report how they work yet, but I will update it after a few thousand miles.
Let me start with Mt Bachelor is awesome for ski bumming! They park you right in front of the parking lot, close to the lifts, have a 24 hour bathroom, and showers! You have to pay for the showers, but still they are nice. Its $20 a night to stay there.
Parked right up front!
Ski conditions weren’t great, but we made the best of our time. Went to town, did some climbing and a day of tubing too. Bend is great for visiting lots of breweries!
Tubing! Can you see the big blue truck?
Freezing rain made for short evenings outside, and icy days of skiing, but its still better than working!
Icy tire in the morning.
The drive down and back was uneventful, I try to keep the truck at 68 or less. It will go faster, but 68 is ~2250 RPM’s, which is getting up there, and it sucks down more gas the faster you go. Two passes past Mt Hood had some snow, but nothing terrible and we made the drive in a day.
