I recently bought an 1979 F350. Starting to fix it up a little and discovered while changing out the shocks that there are none in the rear.
I see no evidence of there ever having been any either. I wondered if no rear shocks could have been from the factory.
Anyone here that knows if any older F350 might have come with no shocks in rear purposely?
Is that a guess based on extensive experience with older F350s?
It was my first take too but then after a close examination I can find no evidence of removal. I see holes in frame that probably held the upper bracket but I suspect the lower bracket would have been welded to axle housing. Is that correct or do they use some kind of bolt on lower bracket too.
If welded to axle housing is the norm them I see nothing indicating removal. Not even a small bump left.
On Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:06:28 -0500, reader rearranged some electrons to form:
Not likely.
After some heavy google/images searches I've found enough seeable images of ford rear ends to see that the lower bracket is not welded but appears to be held by a heavy u-bolt.
So apparently some felt a need to remove the raer shocks.
Trust me, it had shocks when it was built. Either you overlooked the mounting brackets or someone removed them or swapped out the rear axle.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
\ While I am not familair with that model, they all had shocks from factory as did every vehcile made and appproved for use on US roads. Some used brakes welded to axle, some have brakes attached to leaf spring plates and U bolts but again, they all had them.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
Yeah, I see you are right. I've found a few pics on google and can see the lower bracket was bolt on job so apparently someone felt a need to remove the shocks and brackets long ago.
Can you think of any reason someone wouuld remove them?
It has a sort of homemade mount of a flat bed and fifthwheel ball on a very heavy plate that is mounted to the frame with eight 3/4 in ubolts welded together to make the span across the frame.
The bed itself sits ontop of 2 4x4 boards cut to match the contour of the frame and again mounted with heavy ubolts.
I'm guessing maybe those shocks were in the way of all that or something.
Articulation of axle in suspension on uneven ground. Shocks typically top out and limit downward axle travel in suspension on a truck.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
Way back when, I did work in the evenings for a lawn service company. he had a '79 F-350. No shocks on the rear. Upon investigation, I found out they were built that way from the factory. They don't really need them anyway.
Negative. They were built without them.
Not the '79 F-350 cab chassis. Came from the factory without rear shocks.
nope. wrong.
Hehe... and here I was buying the posters saying they would have had them.
Thanks for clearing it up. I had noticed it was a hard riding old dog but just wrote it off to the heavy suspension.
Going back to the lawn company for a moment. Back when you worked there was that F-350 relatively new?
Some how I question this. I do not know how they could legally sell it in US that way as it could lead to control issues. Possible, maybe but still strange.
----------------- TheSnoMan.com
Yeah as a matter of fact, the guy had the cab chassis (with no rear shocks) and he also had a F-350 pickup 4x4. The pickup he bought new, and the cab-chassis was purchased used in about '84. This was in about '82 to '92 that I did this type of work. (boy those were the days) I installed about
650 Meyers snow plows in that time period also.Shocks have nothing to do with control. Especially on a one ton truck. Shock absorbers primary duty is to hold the tire on the ground in the case of an imbalance situation.
I'm going to sort of pirate this thread and steer in a different direction in this post but first:
Did the 4x4 also have no rear shocks? What year was it?
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Since I've got your ear for a moment: You mentioned the snow plows, and that made me think you would probably have a fair bit of experience dealing with 3/4 and 1 ton vehicles.
Maybe some experienced knowledge of hitches and towing capacities. Not just the specs but real life towing situations.
I bought the old truck for a specific task. I'm currently moving from Indiana to Georgia. I own 2 of those shipping container boxes like you see on trucks and ships. Mine are the smaller 20 ft variety.
I had a special 14,000 lb capacity trailer (16' flatbed dual axle with elect brakes on both axles and 4' dovetail) built for this task as well.
An empty container box weighs in at 5,000 lb. I will have another approx. 3000 to 3500 more lbs in them so a total of about 8000 to 8500.
I'm not really sure what the trailer weighs but it must be something like 2500 lb. So probably totally out around 11,000 - 12,000.
Lets say no more than 13,000 for sure.
The old truck is rigged up with a ball fifth wheel that sets just ahead of the rear axle. And the trailer of course was built to match with gooseneck connection.
So getting to the point here, in your experience will the old 1 ton ford have any problem pulling that load? There are a small range of low mountains to cross (the Smokies) about 100 miles north of Atlanta.
The part with the grades is only about 20-30 miles.
Trailer brakes will be spanking new and the truck had a full brake job about 1 mnth ago. The truck has one of those auxillary brake controlers for the trailer brake, under the dash.
The duals are all new rubber (8 ply load range D). The frontend has decent but not new rubber and is also 8 ply Load range d.
The question is going to be engine and tranny. The suspension will handle it, the brakes if all new will handle it with in reason, meaning no Indy 500 style driving. If the tires have more than two years o them, replace them. Heat is the enemy. Hot shots back in the day were nothing but 1 ton trucks pulling 28' flat bed trailers on down sized suspension and tires, and we pulled some pretty hefty loads on them. What you have to keep in mind is if your total gross weight goes over 26,001 lbs, or the trailer grosses over 10,001 lbs, you have to have a class B CDL, and cross the scales, and abide by hours of service regs. Our rigs used a standard fifth wheel hitch though, and the bed extended over the truck frame, no goose neck, and we had the "pin" just in front of the rear axle, maybe 8 inches.
Also your trailer is 16 ft, your load is 20 ft, your going to get hard looks by law enforcement with that 4 foot over hang, and may not be able to drive before dawn, or after dusk, much the same as a big rig pulling over size load and may require "permits".
If it were me I would avoid going over the Smokies, the grades can be worse than you might expect, I love the area, vacation there when I cant get up to the Adirondacks. Coming south I-24 through Nashville to Chattanooga and grab I-75 to Atlanta and you get rolling hills, no mountain grades. That kind of load I would prefer Vacuum over hydraulic on the trailer, not electric if dealing with grades.
Whitelightning
Thanks for the detailed input and desciptions.
That sounds like the way I always go, picking up 75 a ways past Chattanooga.
I always like lake Nick-o-jack.
But unless I'm remembering wrong there are at least 2 fairly good grades on that route.
About the overhang. I planned on using a set of addon lights mounted on the end of that overhang. Something serious looking. That is, not half rigged as afterthought. Although it is in fact an afterthought.
I had the trailer built at 16 feet with other jobs it will do in mind. That was probably a mistake but my thinking didn't get jogged about it until it was built.
I haven't actually even seen the trailer yet but the guy building it followed the specs I gave him of course and the job is now done.
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