kehyler

I think the title pretty much says it all, I'm curious who makes the 9.75 inch rear axle (not the heavy duty payload variant) in our F150s, and also what is the GAWR that said manufacturer rates the axle as?

acdii

As far as I know Ford makes all the axles up to the Superduty, and then they Use Dana for them. Pretty sure the 9.75 and 8.8 are Ford axles.

smokeywren

Today, I don't know. About 15 years ago I cared about the axles in F-250, so I looked in the Ford Source Book (available in the fleet manager's office).

Back then the rear axle in all F-250 with single rear wheels (SRW) was Called a "Sterling" axle, because it was designed by Ford and built in Ford's axle plant in Sterling Heights, MI (North of Detroit).

But all the rear axles in Ford DRW trucks were Dana 80 axles manufactured by Dana Holding Corporation.

http://www.dana.com/light-vehicles

There are more specs than you could ever want to know in Ford's Body Builder's Advisory Service (BBAS) pubs.
https://madocumentupload.marketingas...7b24a&v5=False

But I don't see the answer to your question . If I needed to know, I would go to the Ford house and borrow the hard-copy Ford Source Book and find it in there.

shutt40

The 9.75 is made by Ford at the sterling axle plant

kehyler

Interesting, happen to know a link for the BBAS book for 2018 models?

chimmike

I would have to assume the weight ratings are computed according to SAE standards.

smokeywren

No. I cannot make heads nor tales of the fleet.ford.com website. But maybe this will get you started:
https://fordbbas.com/publications
Then click on "Body Builder's Layout Book"
Then scroll down to 2018
Click on 2018 BBLB - F-150

Steve83

That's indicated by the first digit on the top line of the axle tag (for Ford-designed axles):


(phone app link)Since Ford designed it, Ford designed it to meet a particular GAWR, so it's what Ford says it is on the VC label:


(phone app link)

Gladehound

This is completely aligned with my last reading of the PA code. Interesting because Ford can take the same axle and rate it differently in different truck configurations. According to the article in the link, the original 9.75" Ford / sterling axle was rated at 4,500 pounds. This axle was first used in 1997. The current 9.75 has obviously different gusseting around the differential housing. Other than that I don't know if anything else is different or if the rating was affected by any changes. The highest rating that the new 9.75" axle gets in any F150 is 4050 with Max Tow. The 9.75HD is rated at 4,800 in the HDPP.

http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/tr...75-axle-build/

This link confirms the same.

http://www.f150hub.com/drivetrain/ford-9.75.html

There seem to be many variations of the 9.75 Ford / Sterling axle with the heaviest duty version being found in some Transits and rated for 7275 pounds.

https://faroutride.com/wp-content/up...capacities.pdf

Given all this, I have no way of knowing what max GAWR any particular 9.75" Ford / Sterling axle in any F150 was designed for other than going by the rating on the door sill - other than to say if your F150 has the same model number axle as the Max Tow with the 4050 RGAWR than it obviously was designed for at least that much. The axle in the HDPP was obviously designed for at least 4,800. It would be interesting to see the model numbers of the axles in the Transits with much higher RGAWRs than the F150s.

kehyler

Yeah, I'm curious if we can have some reasoned speculation as to whether or not the RGAWRs of our F150s have been derated some.