The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Leaf springs

Several companies offer front and rear multileaf springs designed to lower your truck. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with these. I have a 54 3100 truck that I just bought and am starting to think about projects.........thanks

I'm also interested in this. I'm in the process of lowering my '54 Suburban using a 3" dropped axle and am wondering if any companies make a new 2" drop front spring pack.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dirty

I've wondered about suspension travel with a lowered spring. It seems the front end would bottom out easily if you lowered it much with springs, while a drop axle would leave you with the full amount of travel.

I went with TCI. ...an easy install and great tech support.
http://www.totalcostinvolved.com/product.cfm?ProdSubCat=39&vehID=20
I bought the leaf springs, the shackles, the 5 hole plates, the U-bolts and nuts,cost about $390.00. Then I bought my shocks from
Pete and Jakes. http://www.peteandjakes.com/
Also from P&J I got shock studs and shock mounts. They cater to F$%* cars and trucks but the products are high quality and some will fit our trucks. Oh, and I fabbed my upper shock mount using a 2" pipe. http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2405234580099708909IEzOyh

Does no one lower their ride by heating up the leaf springs with a torch anymore? Not that I would recommend doing something like that, but didn't the "oldtimers" do it that way?
Bluedawg

they sure did but with varying degrees of sucess. I remember a friend doing it and had to "re-visit" the attempt several times before he got it sitting "even". Worked though.

I'm amazed at the current style of "lowering" vehicles. My friend calls them "road sniffers" but hey, I can remember back in my days the thing was how HIGH you could get the front end of the 55'ish chevs or how LOW you could get the rear bumper!! Aw, those were the days.
I can stand just about anything but the puke mufflers. Makes me want to throw up!

When I was a kid we would use lowering blocks for the leafs and either heat the front coils or cut them.

I remember when the "rake" was popular and we would raise the rear. I remember my 51 Chevy two door of which I raised the rear by putting 4" wooden blocks between the spring eyes and shackles. It raised it alright but the ride was tooth jarring. That lasted about 2 days and a few headaches.

Monoleafs !

Easy to install, lower front by 3-1/2" and never bottom out.
Also higher load capacity, safer and smoother ride than multileaf springs.

Cheapest way to drop the rear are lowering blocks.


...never heat suspension or steering parts!
Spring shops can de-arch leaf springs the right way for little $$.

I am actally working with a company right now on installing composite(not metal) mono leaf springs front and back.

These will lower the truck some, and more significantly cut the unsprung weight from 142 pounds of springs down to only 25 pounds of springs TOTAL (all 4 leaf springs). That should improve suspension performance a LOT.

We have the springs alreayd made, and are now working on the metal mounts to ensure they will fit the stock spring mounts, shackles, pins, and bushings.

I should hvae more to post in afew days.

Jim G

I al;so went with the TCI setup for the rear leaf springs.The entire kit was around $600. with sway bar.It also came with very good instructions. Mine is a 55 2nd series o I had to flip the rearend.The new springs are 5 leaf,which are now below the rearend.New spring mounts shackles, shocks,shock mounts,etc. plus sway bar.I used the TCI IFS in front with power R&P steering.I think the truck looks good.It rides and handle very good.

i went with chassis engineering they offer a bolt in kit.2 1/2 springs with teflon buttons,upper and lower shock mounts,shocks,spring saddles all hardware and very simple instruction.you actually use some of the stock holes to help align everything.very easy to install.i also got the sway bar option.it was 479.00 for the kit and 129.00 for the sway bar.got almost a 5" drop in the rear and the upper shock bar makes a good mount for the fuel cell............dave