Have any of you lowered your d250? I'm currently in the parts gathering stage of my drop. I've been told that with van LCA's and an axle flip that the front end will sit higher than the rear. So, my big question is. Will heavy duty 1/2 ton springs support the weight of my 360 without bottoming out every time the front end moves even the slightest bit?

 

you may want to check your current control arms and compare them to van LCA because i think since you have a 250 they may be the same as a van's. that trick may only work on the 150's. lowering a 250 would be pretty silly anyway. they are meant to haul weight. i would never put the same amount of weight in a truck that has had an axle flip performed as i would with a stock truck.

 

I can second that. I'm nearly positive that the van control arms and the 250/350 arms are the same. If you put in stock height 1/2 ton springs, they should be shorter to compensate for the different arm, so you may get some drop. I doubt they are going to be that much weaker in the front. I don't think the weight difference between a 318 and 360 is very much at all. My d250 only weighs about 4400lbs empty. That can't be too much more than a longbed auto v8 d150. Bear in mind that a quoted new curb weight is likely to be lower than the actual measured weight, due to gas, oil, accessories, options, etc.

 

If I'm not mistaken. My truck weighs in at a little over 8000lbs. My 1/2 ton weighs in at 4300lbs.

 

I toted just as much wit my double cab Chevy after flipping the axles as I did before I dropped it. Only difference is it squats a LOT closer to the ground lol

 

I think you may be mistaking gross and unladen weight. My truck has a gross weight of 7500 lbs, and a (mostly) unladen weight of 4400lbs. Unless you have a quadcab longbed diesel with power everything, 8000lbs is probably your gross weight, not your empty weight.

If you do have your truck weighing 8000lbs on a scale, you may want to look at what some of the diesel guys are doing for drop springs.

 

Do what you want but I thought lowering 4x2 pickups was as out of style as Britiny Spears. I second the thing about lowering a 3/4ton truck but oh well. It can LOOK cool but will not be able to haul as much weight if you drop it. However, if you don't haul more than half the rated weight that is not an issue anyway. I have never hauled full capacity in my 1974 Chevrolegs 3/4 ton 4x2 truck in 7 years of ownership so there's that.

 

i personally find only short bed trucks look good lowered.

 

I don't mind the look, but its simply not something I can pull off. I frequently use 90% of my truck's ground clearance, and at least 100% of its weight capacity, so anything that doesn't make my truck taller or stronger is not going to work.

From my understanding, so long as you don't heat or cut the coils, or remove any leafs, you shouldn't lose any capacity. I'm not sure about the effect of the axle flip though, if it made the U-bolts on the axle hold all the truck's weight, instead of just securing the axle against the spring. With airbags, you should probably even be able to gain capacity.

What about airbags? Seems like a quick google images search for lowered dodge diesels shows a lot of trucks using bags up front. Though lowering my truck isn't my cup of tea, I am interested to see what does and doesn't work for our heavier duty trucks.

 

and that is kind of why i think short bed look good lowered. you can't really haul much in a 6.5' bed without leaving the tailgate down. i hate having to leave my tailgate down.

i definitely would not want to trust 2000+ pound on the u bolts. last time i weighed my 81 it was only about 3800# with me in it and the GVWR was 6000# or something like that. i don't haul much weight very often but when i do the back end is usually level with the front.