Real men to real things? Heh heh heh...
Okay.
The reason I want a softer ride is because I live in New Mexico, the land of undeveloped roads. Even the paved roads, which is probably only about half, are often potholed and very rough. I am south of the border here, you could say.
My '52 GMC will definitely not be a pavement queen. I want to be able to drive the hell out of it on and off road. It's just that real men don't need the kidney damage, if you know what I mean.
I know I will never get the ride of a new truck, and that's okay. That isn't what bothers me. What bothers me is how badly my truck handles when it has some speed built up and it goes over some of these bumps. It is a real handful and has threatened to skip itself right off the road. When I looked at my springs, I could see why it rides like a rock.
I checked Speedway Motors, which does sell the 1/2 ton springs, and found out in this thread that they will fit a 3/4 ton too. But Speedway seems to want an awful lot of money for their springs. They're about $340 bucks. I mean, if that's the typical price, I'll pay it. But I was able to get new springs for my '68 Firebird for almost half that much, and couldn't believe they wanted that much for them.
Having the old springs re-arched is a possibility too. And the stuff you put between the leaves is an excellent idea. I'll keep the rear springs and restore them. But the front could use about half the leaves, I think, without seriously compromising anything. And if I can get a 50% improvement in the ride quality, I'd be very happy.
In my opinion, folks can keep their new trucks. I love the looks and simplicity of my old truck, and the supergranny gear so that I can go do some serious off-road 4-wheeling. That's also why my GMC won't get a perfect spit-shined paint job. I'd just scratch it all up anyway. No, my truck's always been a worker. Not a pavement queen nor a trailer queen. And it HAS gotten trophies when trailer queens didn't, just because I think people have seen it was no trailer queen and they liked it.
Stay cool, and Happy Thanksgiving.
