F-450/550

Hi ALl Does anybody know if there is suspension lifts kits available for f-450 or 550 trucks.

Cheers jarno

Reply to
aba
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Off the shelf, NOT LIKELY. Have you actually looked at one, these are not pickup truck parts.

Reply to
My Name Is Nobody

They aren't going to be widely available... *Yet.* They are medium truck parts that don't interchange with the usual F-150 and yes, they will have to design lifts for them.

There are more yahoos, poseurs and losers (micropenis compensation) buying those F-450, F-550 and F-650 "pickup trucks" just to drive them around empty, and I have seen a few that were jacked up well into illegal lift territory - in California your headlights can not be more than 54" above the ground to the center of the lens. (CVC 24400) Saw one that was pushing 72"

The people who have the disposable income to waste on a truck like that have the money to have lift items made custom. And as soon as the big suppliers like 4 Wheel Parts Wholesalers and Rancho see a demand they'll start mass producing the parts.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Ok thanks for the answers, I need one for moving dirt and other stuff off road. Who would be best contact to ask about custom made lifts. 4 Wheel Parts Wholesalers or Rancho?

Jarno

Reply to
aba

If you are going to do *actual work* (Gasp!) ;-) with the truck,

4WPW would be a good place to start - if they don't they probably know who does. But I'd build the truck first and try it on your usual back-road route before adding a lift kit - the higher you go, the easier it is to fall over. Most of the time you don't really need to go up very high, and that's extra work shoveling dirt higher too.

You might be better off talking to an industrial truck outfit in your area - at the least you are going to need a dump-bed conversion kit for the pickup bed, with the scissor lift and hydraulic pump and the top-hinge change for the tailgate. Then get the bed and tailgate lined with steel plate so it survives.

I'd buy the truck as a "Cab & Chassis" without a bed and buy a small purpose-built dump bed for it - they have pre-made ones available in the 2-yard to 4-yard range. They can still skin the outside smooth, paint it to match the truck, and make it look as nice as a pickup bed.

A pickup bed is going to get beat to heck way too fast, unless you are super careful each time you load and unload the truck - and you can't get real work done while being super careful.

With a thin sheetmetal pickup bed you'll be spending days each month pounding out the dents and painting, or you can get a real dump bed and find a few hours a month to touch up the latest batch of paint scratches.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Yes you are right, normal pick up bed are quite useless when moving stuff, I have Dodge 3500 with "normal bed " and every time i use it to move something it is pain in b**t to shovel it in and out. Also payload is not enough that=B4s why I am looking F550. In 4*4 chassis cab with 200' Wheelbase GWVR is 17950lb and payload is 9900, but if you put dumb bed on top of it how much pay load is coming down. Yes I am a bit stupid but I live in Europe so I do not know what 4 yard bed means (in area). Length wise one yard is 0.9144..meters. :=3D).

Jarno

Reply to
aba

"Yard" = Cubic yard = 3' x 3' x 3' cube = .9144m x .9144m x .9144m cube

Reply to
Pete C.

A purpose made steel dump bed isn't that much heavier than the thin pickup bed - the difference between 200Lb/100kg for the pickup bed and

400 - 500Lb/200 - 250Kg for a real dump bed. The dump mechanism is going to be another 100Kg for the cylinders and scissors assembly either way, and if you have to add an electric hydraulic pump to power it add another 10Kg.

Here's a few American sources for ideas, I'm sure you can find someone local in Europe building the same items -

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They are calling them a "3 or 4 Yard" (roughly 3 or 4 cubic meters) because heavy stuff like asphaltic concrete or crushed stone you can only get in 3 yards. Vermiculite soil amendments or compost fertilizer are much lighter, so you can carry more.

The semi-automatic roll up tarpaulin holders are very important - some places the law allows drivers in cars and trucks behind you on the highway to make you pay for their rock damaged windshields, and they'll try just because they were behind you even if your truck didn't toss the stone. But if you take all reasonable efforts to cover your load and not lose any cargo, you can avoid being blamed for things that are out of your control.

If the truck already has accessory hydraulic power from a Power Take-Off on the transmission, you don't need a separate electric pump for operating the dump bed, just a control valve and hoses. You might consider going that route if you want to run a jackhammer or other digging tools, as hydraulic powered tools are a lot quieter and more power efficient than compressed air tools. But you have to have twin hoses to the tool - oil supply and return.

If you already have air power tools, there are high-volume screw air compressors that can be added to the truck and run off the engine - no towing around a separate engine driven compressor.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

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