So after my 7 hour trailer pull from my place to Northbay, I've been looking into the Explorer leaf swap. I then started looking for prices on new sets and stumbled onto an Explorer forum where they were talking about swaping the entire pack minus the main leaf, and adding the leaves from an F150 pack. So then i got thinking whether, instead of buying both the Explorer and F150 packs, if I just bought the F150 pack and added it to my Ranger main leaf if it would give some of the same advantages (or better than) adding just the Explorer leaves. Has anyone tried this or heard anything of what I'm talking about, or would it be worth me giving it a shot and see how it is. The worst that could happen by me trying it is just wasting a bit of my free time, but with innovation comes failure. So any thoughts and opinions would be great. Thanks in advance.
Ken

 

i think the f150s are wider then the rangers'. i remember reading somewhere that fullsize chevy's fit our trucks. wait for others to chime in.

 

ya at first thats what i was thinking, but these explorer guys are putting the f150 leaves into there packs, and the explorer springs fit on our trucks so that means the f150s should too. I know they said the main leaf was to long and thats why they were swaping it out. Thanks for the response tho, maybe you'll have to come up and give me a hand on a weekend sometime haaha

 

uhhhh, i think there are more dedicated members that are closer. sorry about you luck...*shrug* LOL

 

f150's also just bolt in, they're just a good bit stiffer so you never really read about it. building a pack of f150 and ranger is gonna let you set the springs up just how you like, but you may build em a couple times before your happy with the set up

 

ya i guess i should just try it and see then. when i was reading on the explorer site they did talk about them being alittle stiffer, thats why they were only taking a few out if each pack to make what they liked, and they were doing it because of the sag that they were getting. Thats why i started looking into it more was because the whole point of me swapping to the explorer leaves was to get rid of my sag so it seemed kind of pointless, but i guess this will be my project that i've been looking for and i'lll let yas know how it turns out. Thanks for the response

 

idk what they talking bout the f150s i know of only have three springs plus the overload.

 

i got a very good look at the rear leaf springs from a ford F150 ( xl ) model

they are 2.5 inches wide , and they appear to to be the same length from main eye to shackle eye

they also have more of a arch to them

the Xl model is just the regular cab with short box

even if the eye to eye are off , you could always get them re-arched to match ranger EYE to EYE leaf spring measurements

 

ya, maybe i should just try the straight swap, how are your explorer leaves working for ya?

 

well the spring place did a load test on the leaves when i dropped them off

they could not even handle 400 lbs load

so they asked me what the ranger was rated for , i said 1280 pounds in the box , and that is what they rebuilt them for ,

as for how are they working , GREAT , but the rear end is not sitting high enough

i will have to install air bag helper springs after all