Tom,

DISCLAIMER - I am not recommending this as a solution, I am simply retelling a story from personal experience.

I once owned a 1964 F350 flatbed truck with solid front axle and heavy duty leaf springs. I added a set of integrated helper springs to the rear end thus raising the tail of the truck about 3 inches. This gave the truck a noticeable rake to it and I decided to raise the front end to match the rear. I went to the hardware store and bought two 5 pound steel sledgehammer heads. I then went to the local spring shop and got 4 new ubolts made that were 4 inches longer than the originals. I used the sledgehammer heads as lift blocks between the springs and the axle. The eye for the handle in the sledgehammer head acted as a hole for the head of the spring retainer bolt to fit into and keep the sledgehammer head from slipping out. Plus the sledgehammer head was high carbon steel and very strong.

The moral of this story is that my $20 solution lasted until I junked the truck (over 10 years) and I never had a problem or a safety concern with it. I ran that truck hard and overloaded it every chance I got.

Story time over.

BigMac
Thanks Dan