Many have found that their factory rear leaf springs are soft on their F250 which makes for a softer ride but leads to a lot of sag when towing a trailer or carrying a load such as a truck bed camper. The factory overload leaf springs help dramatically but they engage too late, allowing the rear end to sag too much before the helper spring kicks in.
There are a multitude of mods people do to get the helper springs to engage earlier such as welding tube steel to the ends of the leaf springs. We have found that you can use aftermarket bump stop pads to cause the helper spring to engage earlier. This dramatically increases the rear spring performance and prevents sag when under load. While others permanently modify their vehicles or springs to help the spring engage earlier. A non permanent mod is to simply clamp on bump stops to the end of each leaf spring. This keeps the truck out of the helper spring unloaded while driving, but then engages 2.25 inches earlier preventing the factory sag when under even light loads.
Everything you need can be found on Amazon but parts could also be purchased locally.
You will need:
2x Pair of Universal Bump Stops
Pack of 8 Stainless Steel bolt set
You will need to very tightly clamp each bump top to the end of the helper spring using bolts and washers and a bottom plate to sandwich clamp the bump stop in place. The bolts must be tightened enough to bend the bottom clamp to properly secure everything in place so nothing moves.
Under Load the bump stops will contact the factory rubber pad engaging the helper spring preventing rear end sag and improving handling while towing or carrying a load. Because the bump stops are rubber and the factory pad is also rubber the placement doesn’t have to be exact, however, you want to match each sides positioning the best you c an.
Note that the bottom plate is bent around the helper spring and is tight against the bump stop. The washers ensure that everything is being pushed together more evenly. If you torque things down tight enough the nuts should not back off, however, it is a good idea to check the tightness after use to ensure things are holding and nothing has moved. Another option is to double nut each bolt to prevent the possibility of things loosening.
Note that this does nothing to increase the payload of the vehicle. It just limits sag when the rear end is under load.