Moose McClatchie
Member
Is there a way replace the rear axle with one from an F 150. I have a 2014 XLT EL?
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Anything's possible with a skilled fabricator and enough money.
The 07+ Expedition has an independent rear suspension while the F150 has a solid rear axle. It'll be a full custom setup.
Leaving out the details, remove the stock stuff, cut out all the mounting brackets, get the new axle positioned in place, figure out what leaf springs might work and where, fab up places to mount the spring mounts, weld on spring mounts, figure out what shocks work and get them mounted, measure/order a custom driveshaft, plumb the brakes, figure out the parking brake setup, make sure the computer is happy with the new setup, test and tweak, etc.
You could alternatively go a 3- or 4-link setup and use coilover shocks, which would involve fabbing a crossmember and link mounts to keep the axle positioned under the truck instead of using the leaf spring setup. That approach will require stripping the F150 axle of all the mounts and welding on new stuff once you sort out the geometry and position of the links and mounts.
What are you hoping to accomplish through the swap?
The biggest problem is the shape of the frame. The IRS is what allows the totally flat interior when the seats are folded and the lowered load floor compared to the SUVs with a solid rear axle. There’s no space for the rear axle to move up and down in the Expedition as the frame is nearly flat and doesn’t have the “kick up” that the F-150 does to make space for the axle tubes. The rear axle shafts go through the frame, so you would have to do some significant work to eliminate the pass-through for those and retain the frame strength. The driveshaft tunnel is also not designed to allow movement of the driveshaft, so if you physically got a solid axle under the truck, there would be clearance concerns with that as well. As @mjp2 stated, anything is possible, but I’d wager you’d be halfway to a good Super Duty in the costs to get it under the truck. These trucks are simply not designed to accommodate a solid rear axle so it would be a total re-engineering job.I was looking to get away from the Independent rear suspension. I hate the way it feels when I’m towing my trailer. I use WDH with anti sway but I can feel the rear dancing as I call it back and forth not a lot like a tail heavy load just a little back and forth movement. I find it annoying.
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I guess I will just go buy a new F 150 it sounds like it might be cheaper lol. I’ve upgraded the tires and shocks. I will look into the sway bars. The reason I bought this was the seating capacity with a 9000 pound towing but it just feels weird when towing I eventually get use to it just takes half a trip to re a quaint myself with its idiosyncrasies
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I tow 7500 pounds. Use a good weight distribution hitch, anti-sway and upgrade your shocks. I put Bilstien 5100’s on and it helped the rear end feel a lot when towing. Or follow the instructions above. LOL
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