The Cliff Notes: Full Systems are signed off, Coils should start shipping late October, Full Suspension Systems November/December.

The LEVELING Commuter, Backcountry and Pintop Systems are DONE. These will be available for the following:

  • 2011-16: F250/F350 4×4, 6.2 Gas, 2.5″ Front Lift
  • 2017-19: F250/F350 4×4, 6.2 Gas, 2.0″-2.5″ Front Lift
  • 2020+: F250/F350 4×4, 7.3 Gas, 3″ Front Lift

We will not be doing a taller lift for the gas trucks, ONLY the leveling lift heights. Sway bar, Leaf spring, Radius Arm, Differential Guard and Steering Stabilizer options will be shared with the diesel platform!

Follow the TFL guys as they continue to document their journey on our first production GAS specific system!

Gas Super Duty R&D

It’s been a long time coming… As long as we’ve been in the Diesel-Equipped Super Duty market, we’ve been queried about their gas-equipped correlate. 2005-07, the 5.4L Gas option made no sense as it was often found in work-trucks and the V10 was extremely rare so the platform was ignored. 2008-10 found a boost in V10 sales. The already proven monster of a motor in the newly redesigned Super Duty brought interest from a local customer, Jason Stroud. The V10 was such a pig that it only offered slight reduction in weight over it’s Diesel counterpart. Circa 2011, we threw our 4.5″ Lift Spring in; this platform saw 1/2″ more lift than the diesel but the ride was stellar. Threw some tuning in the King 2.5″ Shocks and off Jason went to slay the deserts of Southern California (still slaying today, by the way).

As it was a simple modification to an existing system and valving, it was a no brainier. Popular? Nope – to date, i can only remember doing the one system but it really wasn’t ever made public. Next up, the 2011 redesign and discontinuation of the monstrous, thirsty V10 in favor of a 6.2L Gas Motor inherited from the half-ton market (Raptor). This motor was designed to be robust with it’s cast iron block while still offering a significant weight savings thanks to it’s aluminum heads and pistons. These weight savings meant 6.2L Gas customers saw 1″ additional lift from the stated height of the Carli Springs designed on the diesel.

This wouldn’t normally be a deal-breaker, especially if the ride was respectable,  BUT Ford decided to lighten the caster on these 11+ trucks. This meant more lift and limited room to correct caster for people adapting our Diesel Kits to their gas-burners. A call into Carli about compatibility resulted in us outlining the extra inch of lift and not recommending installation as we have a very stringent R&D process to ensure perfect compatibility; adaptation to a lighter platform obviously would not meet out standards, nor would light caster with maxed out shims result in a pleasurable driving experience.

Enter the 7.3L Godzilla Motor.

Starting in 2008, the EPA and auto manufacturers began handicapping Diesel equipped trucks. First (actually well before 2008) there was the Catalytic Converter – mildly limiting but only really when adding power – then 2008 Brought the DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter), 2011 then brought DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid). Every step taken in the direction of clean emissions leads to added cost, decreased performance or both. Stack this with the EPA slapping 6-figure fines on manufacturers messing with these emissions controls and you’ve created space in the marketplace for a motor that offers reasonable efficiency compared to the modern, restricted diesels without the $10,000.00 markup. Well, Ford has done exactly that. We’ve always gotten calls on the 6.2L but not near enough to justify a kit for them exclusively – the 7.3L has proved to be a different story. We’re getting tons of calls on fully optioned trucks equipped with the Godzilla motor.

We did, however, want this kit to be backward compatible with the 6.2L trucks as we believe it to be a great motor and it’s in a similar weight class as the new Big Block. That said, Our first step, test the coil spring. We developed a reduced rate coil to test in a local customer’s truck. The Spring sat at 2.5″ of front lift exactly on this customer’s (already) Pintop equipped 2016 F250 QCSB (Quad Cab Short Bed). He was running a GFC (Go Fast Camper) which dropped the rear a touch but the lift was perfect.

This prepped us for the next round – the guys at TFL Truck called us to setup their 2020 F250 XLT – 7.3L with a Pintop System and custom leaf springs for their “No Pavement Needed” Series in which they’d take the rig across the country off pavement living out of the Hawk Camper to be installed. Once we got the truck in our possession – we got to work. The springs installed for a 3″ lift on their 2020; perfect. The entire lineup was prototyped on their truck; Commuter, Backcountry and Pintop were all custom valved to the gas-motor and the new gas-specific front springs.

Once the production systems were complete, the Custom Deaver Springs went in to support the weight of the camper and the TFL crew was off to Four Wheel Camper for the next Phase of the build.