Re-arched leafs and drive flanges
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Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,871
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From: Coutts Canada
Re-arched leafs and drive flanges
The lift i will be doing for my 81 mudder is soming up shortly and before i start cutting and welding for the relocation for all brackets, i have a questions about getting the currrent leafs re-arched (as the fronts are a little saggy) Anyway my biggest questions about getting the leafs rearched (there is a good shop that can do it for pretty cheap) is whats the ride going to be like, and for the little bit i will be doing (something 2" or maybe even 4") and also will this affect (other than the added frame to ground height) the performance of the truck in the mud pitts, also this is a competition only truck with the occasional road trip to the local trails.
Also what would the advange of running drive flanges verses running hubs such as warn's?
Also what would the advange of running drive flanges verses running hubs such as warn's?
Post Fiend
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 11,945
Likes: 3
From: Spokane, WA
I have read that the re-arched springs tend to be a little stiff (you might do a search in the 73-79 forum, Torque1st had some info about them a few months back). But I've never used them myself and if this is going to be mostly offroad then I don't imagine it'll hurt anything. What might be a better solution and just as cheap is to just get a set of used front springs from an F350 as these have a decent arch to them vs. the negative arch F250 springs. They'll give you a couple of inches of lift right there.
Drive flanges are pretty close to bullet proof . . . you don't have to worry about hubs breaking on you. The downside is they're locked all the time but for a vehicle used almost exclusively off-road that's not a bad thing. Keep in mind though that a hub almost acts as a fuse for your front axle. If you have too much stress on the axle a hub will break. If the hub can't break then it may be an axle that goes.
If you do get a set buy them from Poly Performance. They're a lot thicker than the Warn flanges which means better strength.
Drive flanges are pretty close to bullet proof . . . you don't have to worry about hubs breaking on you. The downside is they're locked all the time but for a vehicle used almost exclusively off-road that's not a bad thing. Keep in mind though that a hub almost acts as a fuse for your front axle. If you have too much stress on the axle a hub will break. If the hub can't break then it may be an axle that goes.
If you do get a set buy them from Poly Performance. They're a lot thicker than the Warn flanges which means better strength.
Post Fiend
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 8,238
Likes: 3
From: Oregon
re-arching springs also cuts down on their lifespan...leafsprings have "memory" and this is why many times re-arching your springs is advised against. For a mud truck I see nothing wrong with either, though. Ivan covered everything else.
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Post Fiend
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 5,871
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From: Coutts Canada
Thanks, i knew that the ride would be stiffer cause my dad has had this done to a couple old 3-tons (the place that did it would be where i would go to), but i didn't think that the life span would be shortened, but it does make sense once i think about it. But i think that i will get the front leafs from a 1 ton when i do the dana 60 swap up front.
As for the drive flanges i checked them out and i can get the Poly Performance flanges through a local shop for a good price.
Thanks again.
As for the drive flanges i checked them out and i can get the Poly Performance flanges through a local shop for a good price.
Thanks again.
