Anyone tried the superduty rear spring swap?

[Obes]

I've been running the pro-comp 22415 spring pack on my 2013 EB with stock hangers and they have been great so far. About $300 from 4wheel parts for the pair. Gave me approximately 7" of lift above stock and matches nicely with my MG kit giving a proper rake

[TheLetterJ]

As I'm overdue for rear springs this topic interests me. Spending $1800+ on custom springs seems a bit steep considering my particular usage/application. I'll spend it if that's my only option, but using a more common/cheaper production spring would be fine by me, assuming the dimensions work out.

Obes: any chance you could take a picture from the side showing your wheel being centered? Also, could you measure from the center of your wheel/axle straight up to the fender? How long have you had those springs on your van, and how much have they settled?

[Obes]

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

As I'm overdue for rear springs this topic interests me. Spending $1800+ on custom springs seems a bit steep considering my particular usage/application. I'll spend it if that's my only option, but using a more common/cheaper production spring would be fine by me, assuming the dimensions work out.

Obes: any chance you could take a picture from the side showing your wheel being centered? Also, could you measure from the center of your wheel/axle straight up to the fender? How long have you had those springs on your van, and how much have they settled?

I've had them on about 6 months, they have settled a quarter of an inch. They are at 28.25" from centerline to fender lip right now.

[TheLetterJ]

Awesome, thanks for doing that! I'll have to see how my current setup compares. Are those 35"s? It looks tall enough to not be a problem, but have you experienced any rubbing? What's your shackle angle like, still pretty close to vertical?

[TheLetterJ]

Hmmm... now you've got me thinking. Your 7" lift estimate is pretty accurate. Your van sits 4.25" higher than my sagging springs with a 3" block. Though that's much higher than I want, now I'm wondering if a stock Superduty spring would provide ~3" of lift, based on your 4" lift springs providing 7" on the van?

It's funny how everybody and their brother used to have a Superduty, now I only have one friend with one, and being the newest generation (with longer springs), I can't use his for measurements/referrence.

[BrianW]

On my previous 1998 E250 2wd SMB I installed a new “generic” five-leaf pack from ATS Springs here in PA. Cost was something like $550 including new hangers and hardware. While not fancy like Deavers, etc., they rode well and gave a decent bit of lift. You might look into local spring places and consider going that route. You can kinda see the difference in the pic below; the white van has the new springs.

[BrianW]

Another view of the white van with the five-leaf pack.

[jeff.depaul]

Originally Posted by carringb

SuperDuty springs are about 3" longer than 92'+ E-series springs. I had a set on my van for a little while (about a year). They mostly fit except I could see that under heavy spring compression the stock shackles interfered slightly with the hanger-bracket. My fix was just to upgrade to Sulastic shackles. They moved the axle back 1.5" which was fine for my drive-shaft, but might be too much on a lifted van. My main issue with tire-chain clearance with my dually fenders, so I ended up making a hybrid spring-pack using the 2 of the leafs from the Superduty pack and adding them to an E-series pack.

carringb, do you have a thread where you made the custom leaf spring packs?

[carringb]

Originally Posted by jeff.depaul

carringb, do you have a thread where you made the custom leaf spring packs?

Sorry... I've never really gotten around to putting together any build threads

It's pretty straightforward though.

My donor leafs were from an F250. Both packs were disassembled, and the E-series pack stayed the primary pack. Below the longest and 2nd longest leafs, we just added "in-between" springs (2 per pack) taken from the F250 pack, then bolted it back together with a longer center-pin.

[ScrapIron]

Just for comparison purposes. These are rear spring brackets for an econoline and a ford f350. I dont see how the front brackets would work on a van.

Top picture is the econoline, lower is the f350.