mine had the stock 7(or 8 rear, cant remember) front and rear, and they were bracketed together and not gapped like overloads. they went from longest to shortest. i did however, think about and tried this on the front when i was messin around. i removed all the shorter ones to make a short 3 stack, then i put on the shortest one then the longest one like a overload. it dropped good and didnt seem soft, think i was in the neighborhood of monos b/c i was 1-2 inches off the bumpers before i removed them. since i put the drop axle in, i am running the 5 longest. but it seems a bit soft if i stand on my passenger side board bracket, but drivers side is good. it did come up a inch over the way i had it. i am still just messin around with it til i get it right where i want it. i would rather keep all the longest insead of remove every other one. but i will keep a open mind, keeping some of the short ones distributes it evenly? are the shorter ones stiffer? or less lenghth is like less leverage to work them? i will probaly be tearing it all apart again anyways if i dont like it after i get a sway bar in.

 

I understand what innercity is talking about. The smaller leafs seem to have more tension, stiffening the springs rather than the long springs which are flexible under pressure. Thats why they recommend removing every other spring versus the first three small, or three long etc. the combination of every other, still give you a pretty good ride without sacrificing loading and driving capacity. It sounds like I'm waiting for innercity to come up with the right combination. Of course, he knows where I stand about tearing into my suspension. LOL.....

 

Just a thought. In the old days (1970s), if a guy had a truck that was too stiff on the rear suspension, he just threw in some sand bags. The extra weight would smooth out the ride. I wonder if weights could be set in the frame to give the rear some extra mass so that the springs could be fine tuned. It may be that some of us will find 4 springs too little and 5 too much. John

 

Walsh, when I mentioned removing the second "helper" spring I was talking about the front axle. I know this thread is referring to the rear springs but Oileaks had asked about his straight axle and which springs to remove to lower the front and get a softer ride. This was advice I got from a spring shop that made my new main leaves for my front axle.

As for the rear springs, I think you definitely want a couple of the springs that have the "clips" that fenders refers to, as they keep sideways movement of the springs to a minimum. I think you can soften the ride by using the longer of the springs, stiffen the ride by including the shorter of the springs.

Also, I have read that you can improve the "movement" of the springs by grinding down the top edge of the end of the spring so that it doesn't dig into the spring above it. The spring shop here I talked to didn't think it would make much of a difference. I can definitely say though that my front axle springs had worn areas (on the bottom side) that probably wouldn't have happened if the top edge of the spring didn't contact the one above it. Does anybody have any experience/thoughts with this???

Kevin

 

Grinding the ends couldn't hurt, but the teflon buttons are the ticket so the spring ends don't dig in. If only it were easy to drill spring steel. And it is definitely preferable to keep as many long springs as you can. The offroad lifting crowd has tested this extensively.

 

Let me run this thought by you guys: Let's suppose that I go to 4 springs and it seems like it may be too low. (IE: the fenders rub slightly when I hit a hard dip) If it's margainal, couldn't I gain back 1/4" by inserting a piece of plate steel cut out to accomadate the U-bolts? Just wondering. John

 

Sure John, that would work,same way some of the old lift kits worked, as long as your happy with the ride , that will raise ya 1/4" Ofcourse I'm asuming your axel is below your springs.
Mike

 

Yea Mike, Mine are on top of the axle, so I think I'm going to hold that thought as plan B, just in case. Thanks, John

 

i ran out of threads on the u bolts and used washers, but i suppose bushings would be better.

 

Jag has a good point here. Just like lowering blocks on trucks or vehicles with the housing above the leafs, the same principle works with axles which are underneath the leafs such as most of our trucks. If the truck is too low, a half inch block placed in between the leafs and rear end will raise the vehicle half an inch without sacrificing ride. Works for me! If the rear end is above. The plate will lower the truck half an inch. Best part is, you don't have to remove leafs or replace leafs, which is a lot of work.

 

its a lot of work to continually take it apart in trial n error, but if its already apart it aint that much work to grind out the retaining bolt down the center and the bolts through the braces and go to town, then replace it all with new hardware.

 

Good point! Now,,,,,,,, why didn't you give me that advice when I did mine? LOL......

 

lol...........

 

FWIW- I was considering monos at one time & spent a fair amount of time talking with owners of mono-equipped trucks. All were fairly much in agreement that the ride sucked & the benefit was primarily in the lowering of the truck. However....the guys with big block-powered trucks were MUCH happier, at least with the front monos. They apparently need a lotta weight to work. A couple of guys told me that they basically (as someone noted above) threw sandbags in the truck to make the back livable (one guy mentioned throwing his wife in the back; having seen her, I thought she was about the equivalent of a FE with air conditioning. Probly worked pretty good. However, I digress.)

The only OE application of monos that seems to work well is in Corvettes. They're heavy enough to work well & the owner's expectation of an acceptable ride is probably different than the average person.

 

Yet another possibility...but kinda expensive is "dual parabolic" springs. I saw a Posies ad for "dual parbolic" springs and called them up. They told me that the ad was a little ahead of time but that they were about to get it all sorted out. They suggested that they would lower the suspension similar to monos but would ride better and offer a little more progressive spring than monos. The gent I spoke with also mentioned that the dual spring of course had a safety margin that they monos lacked and that some people were concerned about that. He is sending some info - they ask $330 for the front pair and the rears are not yet available. He suggested that spring steel could be drilled with a carbide bit and that it was tough but do-able. I spoke with an old racer buddy and he told me he'd drilled springs or buttons with a concrete bit because they're carbide tipped. Said the hole was not perfectly round but that for the purpose it didn't matter and the buttons didn't seem to mind. Worth a try and I'll let you know how / if it works as I have my front springs apart right now and think I'll try it on one of the leaves I don't plan on using.

Leaks