The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Lowering A Straight Axle

Greetings. I am currently building a 1952 1/2 ton with the stock straight axle. My search of this forum for inexpensive lowering options brought up the repeated suggestion to simply remove leafs from the spring packs. My question is, does anyone have experience with how many and which leafs to pull. I want it lower but don't want to deal with frequent bottoming. I will probably use lowering blocks in back. If you have personal experience with this technique I would love to hear how it worked for you. Thanks - Larry

nope, but welcome to the bolt,,,,,,just came back from Okc and El-reno Monday,, what a great trip..

back on topic, my 52 used Patrick's lowering stuff,,rode great but like you say, you do have to pay extra bucks for it..

I am sure someone will chime in and give you a tip..

glad to have you aboard,
Fred

I think I actually talked to you and your wife at Remington Park last Saturday. My boys and I stopped to look at your car while heading to the swap meet and the two of you walked up while we were leaving your car. I still have pics of your car on my phone!

I be George, we took pix of your two sons while we were walking back to the car and to see the softball games.......what a neat deal..

just goes to show,, you never know when you might meet another bolter,,

how cool is that

you and your kids #13

I sold redryder in Feb to a guy from Tulsa, hating to but I wanted the rod and did not have room for both, the 52 truck was a great truck,, a lot of fun in it..

would you like me to email or pm that pix of you and your kids

Have you checked out the new "stock" drop axle from Brother's? It uses the stock springs and lowers the front 3". $480.00.

You can't use lowering blocks to lower the rear of an over-the-axle leaf spring truck rear end.

On both my 54 1/2 tons i used lowering blocks in the rear,,and a 4" drop axle in the front.
If youd like,,i can send you some pics.
Marty

Joker, what are the odds of our paths crossing like this? It would be great if you would send the pic to my listed email. I bought a few items at the swap meet that day, but nothing for the 52. tri5trucking, I have seen that axle and wouldn't mind a simple solution like that. However, my goal with this project is to build as cool of ride as possible for as little money as possible. I got the complete truck for $400 so I'm off to a pretty good start. And Baldy, you're right about over the axle springs nd blocks. Most of my trucks are 60-66 and have the trailing arms under the axle - easy to lower with blocks. Although my 54 wagon also has the torque-tube rearend and UNDER the axle leaf springs, I'm not sure if this truck has OVER the axle or UNDER the axle springs. I'll need to look when I get home. -Larry

Larry, I will be glad to send it, you have a great looking bunch of kids..

maybe we can meet next yr at the little swap meet in El-Reno Ok

Thanks delux54panel, send the pics to my listed email. What size blocks did you use? Any frame clearance issues in back with the blocks?
Larry

I don't think the little Chevy trucks went to over-the-axle springs until 55 2nd, so lowering blocks would work OK for the AD light pickups.

Larry, you can also use the search , type in lowering blocks, and get some ideas from previous post such as

this one

here is a pix, not a good one, but a pix after a shop installed the blazer rear end, then lowered it by welding a piece this way,,, the other stock rear end had patrick's lowering blocks on the rear.

rear end pix

Pulling a few leaves out is about all you can do and that won't lower it much.

You can get some trick springs that will lower it 3" (click here)


Or you can get a dropped axle for a few inches. (click here)

Or, you can do both like I am going.

Brian

Welcome fatstreet! I removed some leaves from the front and got about a 2" drop. If you count from the shortest leaf on the bottom (make that #1), I pulled #1, #2, and #4. I wanted more drop so I bought some monoleafs then had them dearched. It's down in front about 5" from where I started. Good luck, and have fun!

Thanks waldo53. Those are the kind of specifics I'm looking for. Would you happen to have any side shots of stock, 3 leafs and dearched monoleafs for comparison? What size tires are you running?

Of course one thing you have to watch out for if you remove a bunch of leaves is "spring wrap" when the axle rolls on the spring.

Brian

fatstreet; I don't have any pictures of the various front spring combos I tried. I think there's a couple of pictures of the rears I did on my signature link. I just put on a new set of P215/75R-15 radials. They ride and handle great!

Here is an article you might like to read - it's about lowering a TF truck by removing leafs.
http://www.chevytrucks.org/tech/TF_lowering.htm

By the way, be very careful if you undo your springs. Use a C clamp on the stack while you remove the center bolt, then slowly release the clamp. There is a lot of tension on those old leafs and they can fly apart and inflict great bodily harm.

you can lower your truck a lot by using smaller tires and or rims or lower profile tires

That was a good write up on the TF lowering. A 3 inch drop for free is my kind of deal!

Actually, I have found that removing a few carefully chosen leaves makes the truck ride smoother, less bounce.

Axle wrap on the front wouldn't be an issue from removing leaves except possibly under heavy braking. I doubt it would be noticable, because the leverage the axle has on the springs isn't changing. (Like it would with the addition of blocks.) I don't see the potential downsides out weighing the cost (free) of removing a few leaves from the front, if you don't like it you can put it back the way it was and be out no money. Then you can look into other options like a dropped axle. If you put a dropped axle in, it will decrease ground clearance by how ever much drop it has, may or may not matter to you...