twin I-beam and Sky Off road reverse shackle kit.

[85blueox]

Does Sky Off road's reverse shackle kit work well with twin I-beem front ends?

[AmericanSavage]

I do not know if they do.  Give them a call.  They do have an excellent fix for the spindle to fix the wallowing out of the linkage though.  I think highly of them.

[Nothing Special]

"Twin I Beam" is 2WD and has coil springs.  There are no shackles to reverse, so no, it doesn't.

If you're talking 4WD, then it's called "Twin Traction Beam".  I believe that Sky says you can use their RSK with TTB, but I'm not sure why it would be any better than stock.

With a solid axle the front leaf springs are usually positive arched, so with the shackle in front the axle tries to push forward as it comes up.  It's often coming up because it's hitting a bump, so pushing forward pushes it into the bump harder, which is why moving the shackle to the rear gives a better ride.

With TTB the leafs are pretty flat, so the wheel tends to move pretty straight up, and actually back if anything. So moving the shackle to the rear would seem to be a wash at best and might screw up a terrible suspension even more.

[85blueox]

Sky told me to get drop brackets off their website.  I tried for days to get them on the phone and finally they answered and gave me that info.



https://www.skysoffroaddesign.com/collections/85-91-f-250-350-front-suspension/products/1980-1997-ford-f250-4wd-with-2-front-lift-kit-and-4-bolt-mounting-tuff-country-axle-pivot-drop-brackets-pair

[85blueox]

starting the install today, wish me luck.

[Gary Lewis]

Good luck!  My experience with Sky was great.  Hope yours is as well.  

[ArdWrknTrk]

Those are the ones!  👍

[85blueox]

They tell me it does but you have to buy additional parts.

[ArdWrknTrk]

The question also depends on 250 or 350.

250's have a negative arch, and only about one inch before the bump stop, but they retract on a bump.

350's before '85 or so wstill had twin beam but positive arch springs, and would poke forward into bumps.

You can see the height difference in the pitman arms.

Moving the pivot down is the only way to control alignment and spring twist.

[85blueox]

Here is my progress so far:

Fir a twin I beam you have to but(Sky recommends) Tuff Country’s axle pivot bracket pair.
My trucks previous owner just shoved two extra leaf springs under the spring shackles.  The result was a really bad front wheel toe in.
Then you have to take off the bumper and grind off the rivets, then get the front shackle bolts out.  No point in trying to pound them out, I tried with a 5lb sledge and only got tired.  After cutting the bolt I had to step drill the hole to 7/8s.  Next step is weld the new sleeve in and cut out the back pins.
I’ll upload a few pictures.  I’m about 10 hours into it so far.


You can see my hangers were also shot.




The new Tuff Country drop brackets

[ArdWrknTrk]

Looking goooood!  

I'm glad I was able to get my shackle bolts out a year or so ago when I replaced my spring bushings.
Thanks to Gary's generosity I had a really nice pair of shackles to put back in, and I didn't see any bad pitting, so I could reuse the bolts I had.

Many thanks to Gary who worked with SKY on this kit.
I live vicariously through his efforts to improve the ride of Big Blue.  

[Gary Lewis]

I like it!  You will certainly appreciate the change and all of the work will be well worth it.  

[85blueox]

It really went on well, they didn’t have any instructions for the twin I beam but I called the boys at Sky.
Looks good and seems to drive well.  Still waiting on shocks since the ones they sent were wrong so haven’t driven it but a few yards.

The drop brackets were the most difficult because of cramped areas to wrench on.

[Gary Lewis]

Glad it worked out for you.