Short bed?

[Mike-M]

So, I love my IDI, its everything I hoped for so far, and it does its jobs perfectly. My only real complaint is the turning radius. I have a '90 ext cab long bed, and I live on a narrow dead end street. If any cars are parked in the street, I dont have enough room to back my trailers into my driveway. I either have to wait for my neighbor across the street to leave, or I have to unhitch and use my jeep to back the trailers in.
I came up with 3 possible solutions:
1. Grind the steering stops so the wheels turn a few degrees farther. Did it on an old jeep, dont know if its doable on the 250.
2. Short bed conversion. Z cut and fishplate right behind the cab looks easy enough. I think redoing the lines would be the hardest part. And I think this would require giving up the dual tanks :/
3. 4 wheel steering. I could build a center diff LP steering D60 easily, but I think the cost of the hydraulics would far exceed a bed swap.

Anyway, im leaning towards 1 and 2 right now. Do you guys have any other ideas?

 

[DesertBen44]

Sounds like your not afraid to do some serious modding, so ill throw it out there
05+ superduty axle swap!

these axles sell for way less then a d60 (at least around here) you would gain rear disc brakes,and the front coil springs allow for a better turning radius

guy over on PSN does it and sells a kit to do it, think it ends up lifting the truck 3 or 4 inches in the process though, his name is obswiz, might be worth checking out.

I hope to do mine like that someday, tired of the high prices just to swap in an old dana 60

 

[rob93]

^^This. I do not have any first hand experience with the swap, but I read it has huge gains in turning radius. You end up with basically the same suspension setup as the 05+ trucks. Unless our steering box is a limiting factor, it should turn just as well as the super duties. Should ride a hell of a lot better too!

 

[Mike-M]

Checked out the steering stops today, was pleased to find theyre adjustable with a 3/4" rather than a grinder. I turned them in by 6 full rotations till the u joints began to contact, and then I backed them out 2 turns from there. There is plenty of meat in the u joints that can be ground out for a little more, but I think thats about the limit of what the stock pitman arm can do anyway, so Im gonna leave it like this for now.
Before, I had 4" of clearance between the tire and the leaf spring. After, I have 2.5", which I feel is a pretty substantial difference. I havent done any testing yet out there in the real word yet so I could be wrong.


I spent last night looking for a short bed on craigslist and surprisingly didnt find many. What years will match up? Looks like some time in the early 80's up until 98 for the 250 and 350's, and F150 beds possibly until the mid 90s somewhere?

 

[Mike-M]

Sounds like your not afraid to do some serious modding, so ill throw it out there
05+ superduty axle swap!
these axles sell for way less then a d60 (at least around here) you would gain rear disc brakes,and the front coil springs allow for a better turning radius
guy over on PSN does it and sells a kit to do it, think it ends up lifting the truck 3 or 4 inches in the process though, his name is obswiz, might be worth checking out.
I hope to do mine like that someday, tired of the high prices just to swap in an old dana 60

^^This. I do not have any first hand experience with the swap, but I read it has huge gains in turning radius. You end up with basically the same suspension setup as the 05+ trucks. Unless our steering box is a limiting factor, it should turn just as well as the super duties. Should ride a hell of a lot better too!

Definitely an interesting idea. the new fords really do ride nice. I cant afford to go up 3-4" though, I park in a garage at work thats already as close as I can handle.
After my research today, our steering box or pitman arm will be the limiting factor well before the leaf springs will.

 

[lindstromjd]

You don't have to give up dual tanks if you go short bed. Lots of F150 short beds still had dual tanks. The front is just smaller by about 2-3 gallons, IIRC.