F150 springs in bronco installation

[00gyrhed]

I asked a question a few weeks back about the use of F150 springs for a minimal suspension lift. The majority of people who responded said to buy springs from a reputable vendor because technology had changed so much in the last few years. Most of you also said the ride would be intollerable. After a lot of research and several calls to vendors, I decided to order a set of springs from what I thought was a reputable modern. The springs were advertised as 1.5-2.5 inches of lift. I called them and explained my situation, old springs, plate bumper, whinch, etc, and that I wanted 1 inch and no more than 2"of lift from where the truck sat. They told be this was the best spring for me. I also specifically asked if these were just F150 springs.

The springs arrived while I was out out town and my teenage son thought he would do me a favor and install the springs for me. There was a "tail' on the bottom of the spring which he ground off enough to fit into the spring cup. It isn't much and if polished with a flap wheel and painted would go unoticed. (He is learning that most EB stuff does not bolt right in, so he figured what the heck). When I got back he was all happy becuase the truck was way up in the air. Over 3" of lift over what I had with the stock springs. I can understand that with the wieght on my vehicle front end and old springs lift was goig to be hard to predict, but twice what I wanted is a little much.

Imagine my surprise (not really surprise more of a burning bitter bile taste in my mouth with a desire to throw something hard at someone) when I looked at the end of the box and there as big as life was part number CC816. For those of you that do not know that is the Moog (and several others) part number for the heavy duty 4WD F150 front spring. Had I simply went with the lower capacity CC810 from the local Autozone I would have a better ride and probably the preffered ride height.

I called the vendor and they will not take them back because they had been installed. Which I partially understand due to the grinding, but they would not have been installed without grinding them. I paid $120 for these springs that I could have bought at Autozone for $69. If they had not represented these springs as special made for them for the EB I could live with them not taking them back, but they misrepresented the product, and a CC810 would have been a much better hieght and better ride.

I will not gvie JBG anymore of my bussiness, and thought I would share this those of you that expressed an opinion on my thread.

After the installtion I found a guy locally with the CC810 springs installed in his bronco. He got about an inch of lift using the CC810. With cheapo shocks it rides really nice. If fact with the cheapo shocks I have in my bronco the CC816's don't ride too bad. I actually preffer the ride of the CC816to the stock springs, it just isn't what I wanted, or what I thought I was paying for. They ride as good as most half ton trucks of that era. and ride much better than my 96 F250. It just has much more lift than I wanted. It now sits slightly nose up and any justment I make to the rear will keep it out of the garage.

In summary I would say that many of you with 2'' lifts are running F150 springs in your broncos and don't even know it.

 

[jdrambo]

Thanks for the heads up I am looking for about the same lift as you 1-1/2 so it seems I need a set of cc810's thanks for the post!

 

[Cooter_76]

Oh man, what an unfortunate story. I had some hand-me-down F150 springs (not sure of the part #) on my Bronco for about a year, along with some 2'-2.5" add-a-leafs. I got about 1 1/2" of lift in the front. It rode OK, but no where near as nice as my current WH 2 1/2" setup.

 

[broncnaz]

A simpler question to ask is who makes the springs. That will answer most questions. Then you can ask here before actually ordering. But I can understand that you may feel you were lied to but the parts book may have listed those springs under a EB they may not have cross referanced them to see i they also fit a F150. Most of the venders have custom made springs JBG leans more on the standard companies(superlift) which never made specific EB front springs. You probably could have contacted any of the other venders and gotten a better spring. There is a ride differance between F150 springs and good springs with the extra weight of your EB probably helps your ride. I have a set of HD EB front springs for use with a snow plow they rode pretty good also and raised the front about 1in. Shocks are also a big part of ride quality.

 

[DirtDonk]

I'm kind of bummed for you too 00gyhed. Though I'm kind of understanding of vendor mistakes, mis-boxed this, mis-shipped that (been there plenty of times) I hate it when you actually ask a specific question to make sure that you get the right parts, and either the person at the other end doesn't know the answer, or lies outright.
But what I really hate is if someone doesn't know for sure, they should never say for sure. The first thing (or it should be) that you learn as a parts person is to look it up. It's pretty easy to go to the F150 listings when a customer's asking a question that you don't know the answer to, and just look it up! Hell, it's probably on the same page in the book anyway! So your guy should've said yes, they're also for the F150, or I don't know, but let me look it up real quick.
Dunno. Maybe I've been doing this too long. I didn't know it my first day either. But it didn't take long to figure it out. And I NEVER said yes when I didn't know. Guess that's more from the school of Mom and Dad than "salesman's school" though.

One thing that may have messed with the salesman though. As soon as you said winch and bumper, he was already looking in the "heavy-duty" section, like he knew he should, to carry this supposed "massive" amount of additional weight. And since those Cargo Coils are variable rate, that can be the right thing to do. Even if it really isn't all that much weight to add and your Bronco is lighter than an F150 to begin with. Another thing someone working there should know.

I'm on the fence as far as the return goes. Yes, you now have installed and "modified" parts. But as you said, you can't even tell they're going to be the wrong ones until they're installed, and you can't install them without modifying them (which in my mind means they shouldn't be sold as Bronco parts in the first place). Sorry to buck the trend, but if I'd sold them to you I'd have taken them back. And I've refused to take parts back before plenty of times as well. It always depended on the circumstances. Like when the customer gave me the wrong information and his Warn hubs were wrong for the vehicle and he was so mad that he destroyed one of the hubs with a hammer before he brought them back in! He actually wanted me to refund his money too. I told him I'd have been happy to even if they were greasy and not all packaged back up nicely. But smashed? I don't think so...
This is different though. In my opinion anyway. Did you talk to a manager?

Oh well. Maybe someone else will need some heavier duty coils for their lift? Or maybe you know someone with an F150 perhaps? Make 'em a deal and get that front end back down to where you want it.

Paul