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Our '06 2WD F-150 has been a fun truck and we've done some mild suspension upgrades over the last year or so. But, we were ready to take the performance up a few more notches. We were looking to add a long-travel front suspension and immediately turned our attention to the guys at JD Fabrication in Escondido, California. Jesse Nelson and Dave Dinsmore have been building off-road hardware and vehicles for more than a decade. Along with doing full custom work, they offer a handful of long travel kits for 2WD and 4WD trucks.
We were after one of their '04-and-up 2WD F-150 kits that widen overall track width by 8 inches and offer 16 inches of usable wheel travel. Their kits have been proven in use for a number of years now. In fact, one of their F-150 kits was used during early prototype development of the Ford Raptor.
The kit comes quite complete with 4130 chromoly boxed lower A-arms, billet aluminum or steel boxed upper A-arms, custom lift spindles, heavy-duty tie rods, and shock mounts with an over-the-engine crossover tube. FK rod ends and uniballs, Crown Performance brake lines, and all other hardware are included, as well. The kit offers the option of running a coilover shock along with a bypass shock, and a hydraulic bumpstop. We opted to use Bilstein coilovers with Eibach springs, combined with Bilstein bumpstops.