Hello, i have a 1972 chevy c50 that i have been using/fixing/upgrading. Anyway my gvwr is 24,000lbs and my truck weighs about 9000-9500lbs depends on how much fuel I got and if I have a passenger. So I should be able to haul 7 tons according to the gvwr. However 5-6tons is really about all I can haul due to the sagging effect and my rear tires to fender clearance. But even with 5-6 tons, if the loader at quarry isnt a pro and puts the load to one side or the other, im leaning like a cholo. I recently put a "new" rear end on my truck I did have the h150 rear end, upgraded to the t170 rear end that is a two speed rear end that gave me more gears to play with and about 5-6mph increase. I can now drive 55ish on the highway, before my max speed was 50ish. And when I did this axle swap I got the bigger overload leaf pack from doner truck that had 3 leaves and my previous axle only had a single leaf for the overload. When I got this installed my truck(loaded) sagged less in the back but still sags but my tire to bed clearance is more open but if I hit a bump at highway speed it gets really close. I really would like to be able to haul the max load for my truck which was 24000lbs before the axle upgrade it might be more now with the heavier duty rear end but I'm still gonna go with the 24000lbs as the max capacity, that I still cant do. But I really would like to get to that safely, and I'm wondering how can I go about this goal effectively and somewhat cheap. I can fabricate stuff with welder and torch if need be, I just dont know anything about air suspension, or air brakes cuz I know bigger trucks run the brakes and suspension off air.
I've been looking into these air helper springs but not sure they meet my weight class. I've found them up to the one ton trucks which today some one ton trucks are basically the same weight class but not sure if it will work. Wondering if anyone out there has any experience with this kind of thing on a medium duty truck like mine that just has spring suspension?
