Lowering 08 F350 Rear Suspension

[donpop36]

I have an 08 F350 4x4 CC LB SRW. With my previous 5th Whl trailer I had 6-8" clearance between my bed rails and trailer. I've just traded trailers and with the new one only have 4" and this makes me very nervous. I have looked at Ford TSB 07-7-2 which deals with raising or lowering the rear suspension height. I've tried searching on the forums but seems everyone usually wants to jack their truck up for off road use, bigger tires, etc.

My question is this: Has anyone lowered their 07-08 F350 CC LB SRW 4x4 by installing the 2" blocks and NOT changing their shocks or anything else. I have rear air bags to level truck and the only thing I use it for is towing the 5th Wheel or occasional driver. Never leaves hard surface road. I've done a lot of measuring and come to the conclusion the present shocks will work and I don't anticipate any drive line angle problem. I can make the change with switching to 2" blocks and new U-bolts fairly reasonable but don't really want to go with new shocks, etc. Would appreciate your guidance and comments. Thanks

[gmoore]

I did the change on my '05 for the same reasons. I changed the blocks and the u-bolts, not the shocks. No problems.

Check your trailer, you may have adjustable jake plates for the leaf spring eye bolts. I had to lift the trailer 1 1/2" along with changing the axle blocks, to get the trailer level.

Another thing that I did, was removed the overload spring and perches. While towing my 34' Alpenlite, one end of the overload spring would ride on it's perch, the other end would be 1/2" from the perch. Hitting seams, dips, and bumps in the road, the non touching end of the overload spring would slap against it's perch. Not a big deal, but annoying.

I installed airbags mainly so my head lights would not blind on coming drivers while towing at night. With 30psi in the bags, 80psi in the rear tires, the truck and trailer ride extremely nice. Once disconnected, I air down the bags to 5psi and the rear tires to 55psi for normal driving. I have on board air (Viair + 5gal tank) for airing up when I hookup while camping.

Good luck.

[donpop36]

gmoore:

Thanks for your reply. My hitch/pin is adjusted to where the trailer tows perfectly level. It is 40' pin to ladder. I am familiar with the flipping axle procedure but not an option. My wife has a prosthesis on her right leg and it is a real challenge to get up the steps now. Changing blocks to 2" seems the way to go. I'm glad to know you did it without problems. Thanks again. Don

[donpop36]

I want to thank all of you for your previous comments. I finally got the new 2" blocks and U-bolts installed yesterday. Wasn't that hard to do but had a grandson helping. It actually took longer to remove and reinstall my airlift suspension brackets to get to the nuts than it did for the change out. I have now raised my 5th wheel hitch 2" higher, the trailer is still level and I gained the additional 2" bed clearance I was after. I had plenty of blocks and safety stands to put under the spring assemblies to hold the truck up and a small floor jack on each side of the axle to raise it the 2" after removing the 4" blocks.