we've loaded my girls dads chevy 2500 with around 3000lbs. it can really take a load well. youll be happy i think

 

I got the hangers and springs stripped off the frame last night. I gotta buy bolts today and a decent drill bit or two.

 

I am concerned a bit about the pinion angle, It appears that it will be fairly steep when it is all together.

 

I got the front hangers modified tonight and the corresponding holes drilled in the frame. It appears that the driveline is going to be too long after moving the axle forward 1.5". I may call my buddy Gino Raga and see if he will have time to shorten it on Friday. I got the rear (used to be front) hangers cleaned up and painted.

I welded washers around the spring-eye holes and the mounting holes on the front hangers. Buddy at the spring shop recommended it due to my getting a bit sloppy with the torch when I was cutting them off. No big deal, I was thinking about doing it anyways. I think it looks kind of cool with the little reinforcements welded on there. I will post pics tomorrow, it got dark too fast again tonight to get decent pics.

Thanks 75f350for talking me into this, you had some help from Teds74ford though.

 

I was talking to my buddy at the spring shop and he thought I should weld some thick washers onto the brackets to tighten up the holes on the bolts as they were "wallered" out and loose. He also suggested I do the same on the mounting holes as the torch had ate into the surrounding area a little.

Here is the resulting mayhem. I like how they look all reinforced.




Here is the rear with no blocks.



Tonight I will paint em up and install them. I am going to have to have the drive line shortened to compensate for the shortened wheelbase. Luckily I have a buddy that is really good at making them.

 

I can't get the pics to show up, click on the blue sentences should send you there.

 

Now that is looking real nice. Those hangers are pretty long. Should look real nice once cleaned up and installed.
I am excited like a little kid. Hanging on the edge waiting for the final results. I already know hoe it will work out, just want to see this through.
This is a win win situation all of the way. Except for a little bit of work, this should work out just fine.

 

My neighbor keeps making fun of me. He says when I get old like him I won't enjoy it anymore. I love it, I truly enjoy tinkering on projects like this. My bride says it is impressive how I can tear stuff apart toss up the configuration and make it work again. Before she met me, she thought that when a vehicle was worn out, it was just done. She did not realize one could rebuild engines and drive-train. She has grown to love my old trucks. She practically begs me to take her on drives, just so she can ride in the truck with me. I wish I could afford all the gas in the world so that we could head out into the hills every night.

short story long, I don't see myself ever "growing out of it". My dad still has the bug.

 

I have the bug real bad, and I believe that many or at least the majority of us on this site have been bitten by the same bug.
I enjoy the twilght tinkering and could not imagine a life without that. Perhaps if I get to the point that I dont have the desire anylonger I will know that I am ready for a dirt nap. I ok with that. A life without my old truck would not be much of a life at all. My lady has also been bitten, she enjoys working on these rides as wel, and is impressed when we go off roading and we watch. When another truck or trucks seem to struggle with something she asks if "we can make it?" I just give her that look and open my door. I get out and move to the pass side as she slides over. She moves the seat (little tiny girl) and she puts her belts on. She then makes her way through, often with little effort, she makes a successful pass, up and over the stuff that gave the others such a difficult time. The cheers that she recieves are huge! She says it feels like we just hit a game winning home run. After words she gets to talk a little smack (actually its me talking) about letting a girl outdrive the other fellas. Its all in good fun, but the old trucks dominate where we play and while no two trucks are ever the same, we seem to have built a decent pile of junk.
She has been bitten and now wants to build one of her own. So,,,,,,,,,,we will be building her one to call her own. She usually drives the red truck and I drive the orange one, things happen way to fast to let her drive the orange one. It scares here really. She does not know what to do when she hammers down. Sometimes it really takes some driving skill that she has not quite developed yet.
That being said she will get her own......... Wish I had a money tree,,,,sigh....

 

I gotta quit running erands on luch.......

I dropped the driveline off at my buddies "at-home-hotrod-shop", he thought he could shorten it tonight.

I shortened up the hangers also at lunch. I cut all the extra bs off the top of them so that the bed will still fit on the truck. Clean em up tonight and bolt em on and mount the rears hopefully. I gotta have it pretty much together tonight so that tomorrow night I can fanangle the neighbor guys into coming back over and helping me install the bed.

 

that sounds like a plan. Just for your information, my rear hanger centerline is exactly 62.25 inches from the centerline of the front hanger. I measured the center of the front spring bolt hole to the center of the rear pivot and I ended up with 62.25 inches. Not to be confused with the shackle itself, but the middle where the pivot bolts would go through. This measurement should provide you with a decent shackle angle. I think since you have the front buckled down alread this measurement should get you real close.

 

I was thinking about how I was going to do that all last night (this morning actually) instead of sleeping. My mind won't shut off when I have something like this going on.

I was thinking I would measure the length along the arc of the main leaf and figured that was the longest the spring would ever be. Therefore I set the hanger so that the shackle angle would be shy of maxed at that distance from the front hanger centerline. I would have lots of shackle travel left for droop that way. But I will use your number, it is tried and true.

 

When I took my set up apart to cycle my suspension this was the figure that I ended up with. Now there could be a difference in shackle length and this could create a variable, so perhaps with your method and this value you can find a happy medium. I just threw that number out so you could have a figure to use as a baseline.

 

How long is your shackle CL to CL? Mine is 4.5". I am using the shivy one, it is .5" longer, and the bushings are low mileage unlike the Ford ones I have are shot and in need of bushings. Win-win in my book...

 

Those were the exact reasons why I too used the stock chebby shackles. The longer length was an advantage and the busgings were fine. Heak, as you can see I even used the stock chebby bolts too.
Mine are 4.5 inches as well.