I have a 98 f150 5.4 4x4 and want to put a plow on it but dont want to tear up the front end what can I "beef" up or upgrade to minimize problems

 

What are you going to be using it for - residential or commercial ? I have had a few plow trucks and I haven't had one that liked having a plow on it, the lighter the plow the better off you are.
High quality grease-able ball joints help. But plowing's pretty hard on any truck.

 

its all in the way you push snow, you cant expect to hit a snow bank at any speed over 15 MPH and not do damage to your front end, any bigger than a 7 1/2 ft blade will be very heavy, I wouldnt go over 7ft myself, crank up the T-bars a few turns to help handle the weight and try to find a poly blade, its a few pounds lighter and wont rust and there is no paint to flake off and look ugly

 

Ok what is the most common failing points? And itl be mostly residenchal

 

3 years plowing straight doing large residential and some commercial and i haven't had to do anything but normal maintenance on the truck, like already posted it really all depends and how you plow, most guys get someone elses company truck and they beat the hell out of it because its not they'res to repair...... i can recommend a plow for you that weighs only 370 pounds and is full hydro, i am a personal friend of the owner and and creator of the plow and its being used to plow oil rig sites in alaska and other places around the world, No drilling or anything to mount it to your truck...... they have a mounting bracket for every application that bolts directly to your frame using the factory holes already on the truck, typical points on plow trucks to fail are upper and lower balljoints, tie rod ends. If your going to plow you don't have to go fast..... completely stop before shifting from forward to reverse and vice a versa, keep up on your normal fluid and filter changes and dont drive like a bat out of hell while plowing! If you want info on the plow....... let me know and i can most likely get you deal too! Good luck and happy plowing if choose to do it!

 

Western is good as you need parts for it every year if you plow quite a bit. New edges and power connectors + lights. Mounts- dismounts slick between storms you can store the blade. Beat hellout of it and you crack the cyl mounting from slammen a curb. Cracks are perty much the name of the game in all plowen areas.

 

My front bumper weighs like 250 and was on all year round when I ran ifs never had a problem seems that ford actually did have some good parts up front never really dropped the front end even over time if your running stock tires would doubt you would ever see any problems