Mr.Tippyton

I've got a 95 f150 4x4, no lift, and I was planing on putting a Ranch Hand style bumper on the front cause I have the rear bumper already. The gross weight on one of those is about 250 pounds (numbers coming from Ranch Hands website) and I was wondering if that would be too much weight on the front end and would make it sag or wear out the ball joints and I don't want to have to go through the trouble of putting heavy duty shocks and coils in the front end

Steve83

Look at the VC label in the driver's door jamb. Pay attention to item #24 in this diagram (and read the caption below it for more info):


(phone app link)

The BJs can handle it - but the springs probably can't without some kind of help, which would cause the tires to wear faster, and it would affect handling. I swapped to heavier springs AND I still had to add twist-lifters & rubber spacers to hold up my bumper (which is heavier than the one you're considering):


(phone app link)


(phone app link)

If you want to check: measure the current front ride height (at the fender arch above each front tire), ratchet-strap the weight of the bumper (sandbags, bricks, exercise weights, etc.) to the current front bumper, add the spring-helpers (whatever you decide, or whatever you see that it needs), take it to an alignment shop, and have them check if it can be aligned.

To choose my front springs, I looked at the original FGAWR on the sticker in the driver's door jamb, added the weight of the front bumper (& other mods), then browsed the JYs for a truck with that number for its FGAWR and snagged its coils.