CS-FRAD-LVL-23 | Carli Suspension Radius Arm Drop Bracket For 3.5 Inch Lifted Ford F-250/F-350 4WD (2023-2024)
Radius Arm Drop Bracket For 3.5 Inch Lifted Ford F-250/F-350 4WD (2023-2024)
Description
The Ford Super Duty introduced some new challenges, specifically pertaining to caster. The steering assist and Ford’s 1° – 3.6° allowable caster range seems to work alright for those equipped with stock, relatively low-mileage Super Duties but, once a lift or oversized tire enters the equation, the handling at this low caster specification leaves us wanting.
– Drops Pivot Point For Ideal Arm Angle on Carli 3.5″ Lift
– 1/4″ Steel Construction, Powder Coated Finish
– Bolt-on Installation
– Fitment: 2023+ Ford F250/350 4×4
When lifting the front of the Ford Super Duty 3 – 3.5″, the factory caster is reduced by approximately 1.5°. For the Ford Super Duty, we provide a 2° caster shim which is enough to restore this caster and add a touch more – unfortunately, this “touch more” is rarely enough for proper tracking. This leaves us recommending our Adjustable Radius Arms proven to add an additional 2.5° of caster (when maxed). Combining the Carli Arms and 2° shims results in a Ford Super Duty on 37″ tires that holds a lane, and returns to center after a turn, better than a stock truck.
nter the 2024 Super Duty – Ford made ONE change to the platform… They added an outer axle-mounted guard to prevent debris from entering the outside axle tube. The issue is in the functionality of the ball-joint mounted caster shims we provide in our 05-23 Super Duty Systems to correct the caster. These shims don’t affect the axial position of the axle, but rotate the knuckle/upper ball joint position rearward relative to the axle’s outer “c” to increase caster.
Given the tight proximity of this debris shield to the axle tube, any caster shim over 1° will cause contact. Unfortunately, these trucks come with low caster from the factory compounded by the loss of caster from lifting the truck (radius arms tilt the axle forward – reducing caster – as the axle travels away from the frame); we had to figure out a solution.
Achieving Proper Caster
With the testing of available caster correction options, we were able to get the truck where Ford wants it, but is that where we want it?
We set out to design a Radius Arm Drop Bracket solution that would be more cost-effective than (and stack-able with) the Adjustable Radius Arms and, hopefully, provide ample caster correction, even with stock arms.
The stock radius arm frame pivot is tricky as it’s a stamp-formed bracket with a deep lip around the perimeter. Normally, we design our drop brackets to bolt to the inside of the factory pivot, form along the bottom of the factory bracket, then shape to fit the factory arm exactly as our 5.5″ drops do. The issue… this is too much drop and would cause excessive caster for the lift height and an upward radius arm angle at ride height.
Back to the drawing board, our engineer thought outside the box (well, outside the factory bracket). Avoiding the above constraint all together, the Leveling Drop was designed to sandwich the factory bracket from the outside, allowing us to achieve the proper drop height.
To make this work, we pickup the same rear support as our 5.5″ drops, then our bracket sandwiches the factory bracket. To accommodate the “lip” on the factory bracket, we provide a thick spacer that keys into the Carli drop bracket taking up the gap on the outside, then a thinner spacer to take up the same slack on the inside and finally, a dual crush sleeve to provide inside support to the factory bracket. The exposed bolt shank represents the location of the two ears of the factory bracket when installed.
This color-coded picture is from the rear perspective. The bolt-heads represent the OUTSIDE of the frame rail. This would mimic the view of the driver’s side bracket installed from the perspective of the rear, driver tire.
Application List
Details
- CS-FRAD-LVL-23
- CS-FRAD-LVL-23
- Carli Suspension
- New
Categories
Shipping Information
- Item Requires Shipping
- 37.0 lbs.
- W11.0000” x H7.0000” x L21.0000”
- Free Ground Shipping | Exclusions Apply*