It's no secret that we beat our trucks. Most of them see more re placement and aftermarket parts than six trucks, but luckily we are constantly able to try out new parts to replace the stuff we beat on. after five years, our fiberglass-laden Super Duty is still looking pretty good, but its purpose has been somewhat mixed over the years. It's seen its way to Moab, Utah, been driven as a highway cruiser, mobbed through deep mud, and prerun through roads so rough you wouldn't want to take an IFS truck through them. needless to say, Super Dutys do not have the most supple suspensions known to man, and if we wanted to use ours as a giant chase and support truck, some changes would have to be made.
The body was already taken care of, with hannemann fiberglass fenders and bedsides coated in an L&G Customs paintjob offering coverage from debris flying off the tires. The interior was set to go (with the exception of a rollcage) with MasterCraft Baja RS seats in front, a MasterCraft bench in back, and a full Sony system with flip-down monitors. The crew cab configuration offered a ton of room for hauling gear and people, and after all these years, we finally got our truck down to Executint in Mission Viejo, California, to tint the windows and keep the cab from displaying us like a giant aquarium.
We still have to install some stout bump-ers capable of taking severe blows, add a winch, make some provisions in the bed for equipment, and build a rollcage, but for now we wanted to turn our attention to the suspension and tires to try to squeak out a better ride from our mammoth piece of metal.
Since the truck had been residing in utah over the last couple of years, we were going to have some serious seat time driving it back to the Southwest, and we wanted to use the opportunity to feel out a new coilover suspension capable of handling desert abuse while still being able to hold up a diesel. the skilled hands at Mount logan off-road offered to help install a fabtech 4.0 Dirt logic coilover conversion kit before the truck left the state, enabling us to get used to the 8-inch height and new 41-inch radial iroks all the way back to California. now we know what you're thinking: 41-inch tires for a support truck?! When our publisher told us what size he'd ordered for us, they sounded a little large to us as well. But we have to say that we've been very impressed with the way they've held up to freeway driving, dirt rallying, and how "normal" they look in our fiberglass wheelwells. overall, this package really performs, with the Dirt logic coilovers offering a substantial amount of shock dampening for such a heavy truck. one thing we have learned is that it's imperative to keep a close eye on air pressure with tires this big. if one is low, the amount of slop available in the sidewall is much more than you'd ever want to deal with at high speeds.
Fabtech supplies a new track bar frame bracket to reinforce a mounting point that will see a severe amount of stress when off-road. | 
Steel frame brackets bolt to the '04-and-earlier trucks to convert the leafspring suspension to a coilover version. Big 2-inch-diameter control arms pivot on 1-inch spherical bearings and attach to the supplied axle brackets. | 
Tubular coilover buckets are bolted to the framerail and provide an upper mounting location for the Dirt logic coilovers. the optional hydraulic bumpstop has a bracket that bolts in just under the shock's remote reservoir on the frame. |
With all the suspension height we had and the enlarged fender openings, we are actually able to stuff a 41x14.50r18 irok tire up into the body. the tire sounds enormous but doesn't look out of proportion on our overly big support truck. | 
Fabtech also provided a new 2-inch-diameter track bar, complete with 1-1/4-inch rod ends to allow the front end to oscillate as effortlessly as possible and in the correct arc to keep bumpsteer to a minimum. | 
Fabtech supplies giant axle brackets that bolt in place of the factory leaf springs and u-bolts. The axle brackets are integral to the kit, allowing the mounting of the control arms, the coilover, and even offering a reinforced point for the hydraulic bumpstops to contact. |
In the rear, 2.25 remote reservoir Dirt logic shocks soak up the hop. you can get your lift height from either a block, a replacement leaf spring, or a longtravel replacement leaf spring. We somehow screwed up and ordered our kit with the standard replacement leaf instead of the long-travel one. the standard replacement is better if you're still using this truck to haul heavy loads, but since our loads will remain fairly light, we'll opt for the long-travel leaves next time. | 
Billet sway bar links fitted with rod ends allow the retention of the factory sway bar and let the links twist without bind. in the corner, you can make out the fabtech 2.25 hydraulic bumpstop that slows down the suspension immensely before it bottoms out. plastic ends keep noise to a minimum each time the hydraulic bumpstop touches the axle bracket. | 
The staples of the fabtech coilover conversion kit are the 4.0 Dirt logic remote reservoir coilover shocks found in the front end. With 9 inches of stroke that can be tuned and valved to your liking, the shock has enough travel to suffi ce for a support truck. The body is electroless nickel plated and fitted with billetmachined ends using Com 12 bearings with 3/4-inch through-bore. one-and-one-quarter-inch inductionhardened chrome shafts compress into the body of the shock. the weight of the 1-ton truck and diesel engine is suspended by 6-3/8-inch-od coil springs. |