The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Tons 'o Fun 63 gmc 2500 rear shocks?

Im in the process of putting together a truck, "Frankenstein" is the name it acquired.. lol. Anyhow the rolling chassis I got was from a fire co water truck. No body with the chassis unfortunately. But I also noticed that there were no shocks on the rear, nor a crossmember or frame mount to mount then to?? The brackets are still on the differential housing tho. My question is, Whats supposed to be there? Or is this common?

Common? Yes, given the application. You'll probably want to add an upper mount, since it's not a fire truck anymore!

That's what I figured. Any ideas on an upper mount?

Wrecking yard. Find a bad frame on a half ton and torch the crossmember out with the frame rails and rivets in tact after you measure the mounting location. Take it home and get the rivets out. You'll likely find that the rivets are a bit larger than 3/8. Try a 10mm or 7/16 in the hole. Mark your hole location and drill! Install with grade 8 bolts. Some will just measure an existing truck and weld some channel or angle iron in its place and attach some shock mounts. Not recommended, though. Always bolt instead of weld. Welds create stress and crack.

Thanks for the info. I have another frame with shock crossmember but wasn't sure if there was a feasible alternative to that. I wasn't sure on welding 1 in, but will avoid that now..

You can duplicate it and build your own crossmember. Just bolt it in, though.

Gotcha

Any chance you think on finding something like the bracket in da pic? probly easier to fab it up I guess?

Back in the day that I worked in truck shops we did much frame work. Heavy truck frames are often bolted together rather than riveted. Many frames and replacement frame rails had a caution sticker that ominously said "Do not drill flanges or weld to rails," a caution I have observed since. In retrofitting my 1-ton for rear shocks I made brackets out of spare spring leafs bent at a 90 with a couple of bolt holes torched in them. Then I found a convenient bolt hole already in the frame and bolted on the bracket. Drilling bolt holes in truck frames is not fun unless you have a magnetic drill press for the purpose. On aluminum frames we used a clamp affair to hold the drill. One caution is to make the bracket to take a shock with an eye on top rather than a stud. Your choice of shocks will be much greater. The AD 1-ton RPO for shocks used a forged bracket that riveted or bolted to the frame and used shocks with eyes top and bottom. Keep an eye out for that bracket.

Will do and thanks for the accurate info.

I also thought about after I find a bed for this truck to mount the tops of the shocks to a bed crossmember or an attaching point of some sort on the bed specifically? Im not sure exactly of the pros and cons of doing such a thing tho??

NEGATIVE Ghost Rider! You'll rip it to shreds in short order!

Ha alrighty then...