Junkyard front springs

[1971ford]

Since i can't afford to swap the Skyjacker 2" leveling springs up front yet (all my major money has to go into the race truck) I've been thinking of swapping another stock pack up front from a newer vehicle.

Any stock trucks have the same length front springs that will swap right in and sit the the truck 2-4" higher?
Any superduty's or anything?

Quite a few stock leaf packs on craigslist, maybe i can score a set and have a budget lift. Other alternative was to disassemble the packs from the main leaf and build my own using various leaves from other trucks as i did in my race truck.

[averagef250]

The 6 leaf highboy pack is the tallest front spring pack out there. 99-04 superduty springs are close. 6" super duty springs are pretty close to 4" highboy springs. The SD springs are a little longer though so not a bolt in deal. 80-98 springs are nowhere close.

[1971ford]

So what do you have to do to make the SD springs fit if i was to stumble across a set of 4" SD springs. Longer shackle? Not sure how much of a length difference there is

I'll check out my packs today. I'd like to just rebuild them with more leaf's but the main leaf really just needs more arch to begin with.
What do you think about just having the main leaf arch'd a little at a spring shop, and then various leaf springs underneath from other vehicles (i'd be swapping leaf's out and into the pack for a while until it sat and rode how i want).

[averagef250]

If you found some superduty lift springs you could probably use the SD pack under your shorter highboy main leaf and get a mystery lift spring.

Longer shackle= bad idea. You screw your caster. If you cut the front crossmember off your frame and build a new one to get the shackles correct at ride height with the SD springs and redrill the spring bolt location to put your front axle in the right spot you got it.

How much are new 4" skyjackers, just the front springs these days? Been 10 years since I bought some new, but they were like $250 from 4wheelparts back then. I'm sure they're more, but even at double that for the pair that's not a bad deal all things considered.

I'm not thrilled about anyone hacking thier front crossmember out. I've done it, built it bigger, faster strong, yada yada and came to regret it down the road when I didn't exactly see eye to eye with what I used to think was the right way to do things.

Just saying there's nothing wrong with the factory frame. That front crossmember is plenty strong and looks much better than 95% of poorly fabbed crap people replace it with. If you end up keeping the truck awhile and want it to be nice someday you may regret irreversable frame cutting.

[fireguywtc]

I paid just under $600 for my skyjacker front end leveling kit. I shopped around for quite a while and that seemed to be the going rate. The kit included all new bushings and hardware.

I think I had found a place that advertised springs for around $250 per pair or spring (cant remember which), they had been discontinued. Skyjacker was the best deal I could find.

[1971ford]

If you cut the front crossmember off your frame and build a new one to get the shackles correct at ride height with the SD springs and redrill the spring bolt location to put your front axle in the right spot you got it.

That's what i planned on doing.
I am going to fabricate a new front crossmember not because there is a single thing wrong with the stock crossmember but strictly because I want a tow hitch receiver there for the ability to slip the winch in the front or back of the truck, and being able to keep the stock bumper and having a winch... or simply pulling it off and running no winch on the street.
I'm hoping the new receiver/crossmember won't be anything near poor quality, should be pretty bullet proof and nice looking.

As Bill said, the 2" springs are about $600. I need to focus on the race-truck so that's why I'm trying to raise the truck on a budget.
I just put National leaf packs in the race truck and have the old packs i put together, left over. I might see what i can do with those. I'd get the ride height but not the ride quality of the skyjackers.
For the rear i am going to either flip the hanger or just add a few leaves, not sure yet.