I have the beast in front of the shop, I jacked up the backend with a wagon jack about 6 inches to get it somewhat level. I't's going to take some fanagling to get the old hanger pins/bolts out...the "bolt" part needs to slide out towrads the frame and there's no clearance to knock'em out, so looks like I'll have to cut the rivets out of the old hanger, lift the backend up real high and take'em off the springs.

OnceI get a bolt/pin out I can find/make some material to the hangers and get the new shackle mounts located and ready to mount.

I'm going to try and get it apart this afternoon, and then maybe after softball tomorrow, get things placed and ready to mount.

 

When I replaced the bushings in my springs last year I had the same problem getting the old bolts out. If you jack up the frame and let the rearend droop they will come out though. Not that it was quite that easy, but it does work. Or you could unbolt the front of the spring and let the rear slide forward.

 

I think this setup is a bit different than yours though...instead of having spring, bolt and two hangers, it has this "pivot" setup on the rear, kinda tough to describe, I'll get a pic and see if I can upload it.

 

This worries me - the spring mounts have to be ridged side to side, or the truck will become unstable at higher speeds. It will tend to whip side to side. Perhaps we can brace the mounts with a rod across to the opposite side?

Whatever you do, make it STOUT!

Do you have an old truck frame you can weld to the bottom of the existing frame?

 

I've got the pivot in the rear of the rear spring too. With the spring above the hanger, right?

Like this? (I just went outside and snapped a picture real quick.)

<a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f111/bigskycowboy/My%20Rigs/?action=view&current=IMG_1927.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f111/bigskycowboy/My%20Rigs/IMG_1927.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

Ours is different, it has a "double" pivot, hopefully I'll get some pics up today, my camera is talking to my CPU right now.

Clint, it'll be plenty stout, no worries there

 

Let's see if this will work?

 

Oh damn...it works!

Tough with the light, but you can see it's quite different than your truck...

My plan...pull the existing mount...add a new one, but have the hangers go "down", not "up", once the hangers are in place I'll weld a piece of stock between them...ala an "H", for stability.

Be sorta like the old muscle cars hangers you've seen in days past...should give us another 4-6 inches of lift in the but-end, and get the truck more on plane.

 

You putting a 2" rake in?

 

Not sure yet...I kinda like AJ's idea of having the rear lower than the front for transfer...something when I gte it all stripped off and ready to set up we can decide on.

I'll probably get things setup to be just level as possible (after empting out the bed), then hopefully (depending on how things work out) should allow us to changhe the hanger-thing...tech term...raise/lower it a bit for our liking.

 

But, if youlook at the pic I posted...figure the "hangers" are about 2 inches...so...if I flip it all with a new mount, we should get about 6 niches in the rear (which we need).

Depending on where I nount the "main hanger bracket", we can go up/down a few inches, plus change things with the length of the "hangers" themselves.

 

I hate the idea - makes the truck look like a female dog in heat - dragging her rear end to scratch what itches!

You want more weight, dump a bunch of big rocks into the box - or one of AJ's Chevy's!


This is a redneck truck, not some Blackstone Cruiser we are afraid to get dirty.

 

Besides that, what good does it do to transfer weight to the rear? Make the hitch and rear bumper into a better plow?

Whatever weight you move to the rear, you take from the front - and we need it to stick also.