The time has come here in the great rust belt of northeastern PA for me to replace my leaf springs. Alas, 18 years of pounding on our beautifully maintained roads (heavy sarcasm) have murdered the bushings and cracked an eyelet. Like any red blooded american i have procrastinated this for as long as i could, but the u bolts are getting scary thin from corrosion and theres no way any of this hardware is coming off without the tried and true oxy acetylene liquification method.

I have a pair of stock leaf packs (3" wide springs) and shackles on the way via rockauto and 6 shiny 5" 5/8 grade 8 bolts (6 point for the love of mercy! Not a torx head!). I've been looking for u bolts for my application (which is stock 4wd height for a 2500, I'm assuming) but it seems they're usually a custom order. I'd like to replace the stock plates as well, they look pretty crusty. They might clean up, but it seems all the nasty crap likes to collect in the soup bowls where the bolts go through. Enter the u bolt flip idea.

I'm looking for a complete kit with the u bolts, nuts, washers, and plate. The u bolts will wrap around the bottom of the axle directly, and the plate will sit atop the leaf pack, sammiching it all together.

The only site I've found with an appropriate kit is dodgeoffroad .com. however, I've read some poor reviews about their service in the past. Has anyone purchased from them recently? What was your experience? Are there any other reasonably priced options out there? Thanks

My truck is an 01 ram 2500 4wd. The stock u bolts appear to be about 14" tall, 3-1/8" wide, m14's maybe?

 

Dodge Offroad is horrible. What most do is order is the u bolts through rock auto and make the own steel plate (I would go 1/4in thick)

EDIT: I found this: https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F29 3036259418

 

The link wouldn't show anything. What's the name of the listing? I can probably find it by searching for that.

Rockauto was out of stock of the 3" wide u bolts for my truck. Perhaps i can find a factory setup with a dana 60 that has the correct u bolts for the inversion?

 

Here is a screenshot of the listing

 

That looks promising. Thank you. I'll post updates on my progress.

 

You are welcome

 

So i wasn't sure about the length of the u bolts so i sent them a message asking that and giving them more info about my truck. They said that kit doesn't fit and they don't carry one that does

 

These u bolts are available on rockauto under a 97 f350, which I'm pretty sure also had a dana 60 rear axle option. Husky spring part number UA207R. 14" length meets my requirements, and 3-5/8" width looks like the larger option for the axle tube. Can anyone confirm 3-5/8" width on a dana 60 axle tube? Sure looks right to me. If so, my only issue is finding or making a top plate.

 

I realize I'm necrothreading here but run far away from Husky u-bolts on RA! Got a set where the nut was either not threaded or poorly threaded. Made in India garbage. U-bolts are important and there's a reason the Huskys are very inexpensive for what they are. Trust me, if you handle a lot of u-bolts you'll find the Huskys just somehow feel "cheap" in-hand

 

For anyone using the search function in the future, i ended up ordering a set of u bolts, nuts, and plates from WFO concepts. I'll attach a copy of my receipt. Of course, prices may have changed since then. The parts weren't listed on his website so i called and he admitted he had many things that were not yet on the site, but he did stock everything i needed. The bolts were extra long, which would be great for a lifted vehicle but i just wanted to make sure i wasn't coming up short. After torquing them in place with loctite i cut off the excess. Years later, all is still peachy.