05+ superduty dana 60 solid axle swap question

[Coonburger]

I've been trying to do some research on swapping a super 60 in to a 1989 k1500. I haven't found a kit that does it yet I am assuming it will require the use of coil overs and some kind of 3 link or 4 link. Any of you fabricators seem it done or know of a kit for it or could give rough rough estimate of the work that would be involved? Thanks tons

[Hypoid]

I thought all (most?) Chevy 4x4 trucks had a passenger side drop, the Ford has a driver side drop. I had to do a quick search to confirm:

[Coonburger]

The IFS transfer case is drivers side drop. So when ya swap in gotta get a drivers side drop dana 60 axle or 44 but we are going 60 for fun stuff.

[TjSteveA]

Look at Artec industries. I know they have them for Jeeps but not sure if they have other options as well. That’s what I’m most likely going to use on my super 60 build. There are a few different companies that make them

[Trevor?]

Do you mean a dana 60 out of an 05+ superduty or a super 60 out of a 05+ F450 or F550?

I am not a fabricator, but I swapped a 05+ superduty axle into my van, so I spent some time trying to wrap my head around all of this.

I could very well be wrong on some of this, but I think the super 60 is used on the F450 and F550 medium duty trucks. I think I read somewhere (maybe pirate4x4) that the short-tube is a little longer on the super 60 compared to the F250/F350 axles. The super 60 has a 10" ring gear (instead of 9 3/4") and larger u-joints but you have 10 bolt unit bearings. I think I read somewhere that the knuckles are the same as the regular superduty 60 so you may be able to swap a set of unit bearings from the regular 60 for a 8 on 170 bolt pattern. (edit: this is wrong... already found one hole in my understanding here) The inner C's may be different as I think the super 60 gets a little more steering angle at full lock. Again, I am not 100% on all of this.

Either way, the OEM suspension mounts are intended for a radius arm suspension on both axles, and the driver-side bushings are integrated into the diff-housing casting. I hear its a real chore to cut them off for one of these truss kits. Not impossible, but I suspect you'll run out of sawzall blades and 4 letter words before the job is done.

I retained a radius arm design for my solid axle swap. Its not too flexy, but it was much simpler than trying to do a custom 4 link. I think one of the van conversion companies uses the factory radius arm mounts for a 4 link and i don't hear very good things. There could be a number of reasons why but I suspect it's the axle-side geometry.

https://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/general-4x4-discussion/834088-info-ford-super-duty-dana-60-axle.html
174 pages on superduty dana 60s. Its a lot to dig through.