Winch Truck Questions

[cncmachinist]

well if you really want truck space we took a 01 f450 with the CAT c6 under the hood

i stretched and extended the frame and put a 12' truck bed made out of 350srw and the stock 450drw beds welded and finished into a long bed with plenty of room for tools and material and it still turns pretty good for its size.

[Bob Miller]

Frame

If you are going to load the 3/4 ton pu frame more than the 8600 gvw limit, you had better strengthen the frame as I have broken my frame before.
One ton frames have a deeper web and wider flange than 3/4 tons frames.
Good Luck,
Bob

[Desertrider33]

If you are going to load the 3/4 ton pu frame more than the 8600 gvw limit, you had better strengthen the frame as I have broken my frame before.
One ton frames have a deeper web and wider flange than 3/4 tons frames.
Good Luck,
Bob

In the particular year/model trucks we are talking about, the frames are the same for the F250/350SRW/350DRW pickups, except for the front section of the 4wd F250 frame, which is made to accept the TTB Dana 50 front axle, where as the F350's use the monobeam Dana 60 front axle. From the engine cross member rearward, the frames are the same. F350 chassis-cab frames are different than pickup frames, but we are talking strictly pickup frames here.

The whole rear of the 250/350 pickup chassis are the same, except for the DRW axle, spring packs, overload spring bumpers, DRW brakes, wheels, tires and sway bar (and the 4" tall versus 2" tall riser block under the rear springs, which was only used on the F250/350SRW 4x4 models, 2" for the F250's and 4" for the F350's). These are all bolt-on parts and easily changeable.

The F250 and F350SRW are nearly identical, except for the overload springs and sway bar that came stock on the 350SRW and were optional on the 250, so there are some 250's out there that are exactly identical in the rear chassis to the 350's, with exception of the 2" taller riser block under rear springs of the 4wd models. F350DRW pickups in these years were not available with 4wd, so the riser block is not present on duallies like it is on the SRW 4wd's.

He will need to use longer u-bolts and add in his 2" tall rear spring riser blocks when he swaps in the axle from the 2wd dually pickup, to retain his truck's current rear ride height and front/rear nose-down unloaded stance. I would advise at this point though to swap to the 4" riser blocks from an F350SRW 4x4 instead of using the F250's 2" blocks, so the truck will sit at the same 2" higher rear ride height that the F350SRW 4x4's sit at, versus the F250's. This allows 2" more drop in the rear springs under load before back end of the truck drops below level.

This was the reasoning behind Ford giving the F350SRW a 9200-lb GVWR versus the F250's 8800-lb GVWR because, the additional 2" of rear unloaded ride hieght, together with the standard upper aux overload leafs, allowed the F350SRW truck take more 400 lbs more weight on the rear axle before dropping below level than the F250 trucks could take. The rear 5-leaf main spring packs, aside from the overload leafs, are the same for the F250 and F350SRW, in these years.

On my F350SRW 4wd, I swapped out the stock 5-leaf packs for heavy duty 7-leaf packs using 3/8" thick leaves, versus the stock 1/4" thick leaves, in addition to a much thicker bottom overload leaf than the stock spring packs had. My springs are rated 4300 lbs per pack, versus the stock springs' rating of about 3000 lbs per pack. I kept the stock single upper overload leafs and the stock 4" riser blocks under the main packs.

The new heavy duty springs sit at pretty much the same stock ride height when unloaded cause although the packs are thicker (taller) the springs have less arc, so the spring eyes are close to the same position as stock in relation to the bottom of the pack. When loaded though, the springs don't drop much at all, so the truck stays level or slightly above, even with the rear axle loaded up to 7500 lbs, which is 1250 lbs over the capacity of the axle itself.

The truck rides hard when unloaded, but rides very firm and controlled with the heavy load. My truck normally weighs close to 11,000 lbs in daily use, though it weighs only about 7000 lbs with an empty bed. Most of that weight goes on the rear axle. This is the reason why I want the DRW axle. It is rated to take the weight I am loading the truck to and the brakes are slightly larger and should stop better. Though I'm not expecting them to be a HUGE difference, every bit helps.