The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 1956 Chevy 4500

Does anyone know whether there are more modern suspensions that bolt up to a '56 chevy 4500? I would like to get a nicer ride and better stopping with disc brakes.

For a "nicer ride" you could have new leaf springs made to suit your needs. A good spring shop like Eaton Detroit Spring may be able to help you out there.
It'll still be a big truck and won't exactly ride like a car.

For disc brakes check out this Tech Tip: http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/bigbolts/p30swap/
The same approach could work for your truck.

What do you plan to do with the truck, how will you use it?

Grigg

Hi Grigg, it's actually a short school bus and I will be making it into a cruiser. Wouldn't an IFS be a nicer ride than a straight axle with leafs? I have not worked on something this big before so it is a bit new to me.

Don't know, but depending on the execution of both I think it could go either way.

Personally I like the simplicity of an I-beam, that and a truck is supposed to be a truck, so simple, strong, and truck like is fine with me.
I'm not an advocate for IFS swaps, but I'm not completely against them either.
The way I see it is as long as whatever you decide on safely fits your needs then do it well and have fun with it.

There are a number of vehicles out there with leaf springs front and rear that ride quite well. I suspect original looking springs can be made to ride nicely, but would not be so good at carrying a load.
Will your bus ever be full again, if so then you probably shouldn't use any weaker springs, and probably don't want a weaker front axle either.
It is a large vehicle, with that in mind make safe decisions as you go.

Grigg

So let's say I redo the axle with new leafs. Is it possible to change the spindles to convert to disc brakes and get an 8 or 10 lug bolt pattern for modern dually wheels? My current size is a 20" wheels. I would like to go with a somewhat hot rod look and get some classic 22.5 wheels with low profile tires. Here is a link to some pics of modern trucks with bigger wheels.

http://www.americanforcewheels.com/big-rig-duallies.html

Click on the chevy truck, far left and third one down, and see the oversize wheels. I wouldn't want my bus jacked up in the air, but the larger wheel will give it a squattier stance and still maintain the stock ride height.

56-59 Chevy 1.5 and 2 ton trucks came standard with 22.5" wheels, but were most often ordered with the old and familiar 20" tube type. I've got a set of those 22.5" 10 lug wheels on my truck.

Read about your choices here:
http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/wheels/

I looked into making adapters from the 10 lug on 7.25" circle up to the 10 lug Semi truck size, but there isn't enough room to make it work, at least I didn't see a suitable way to do it.
If you dropped down to 8 lug axles the adapters would be a little easier to find and quite expensive but so are those aluminum wheels.

Grigg

I'll have to do some checking on what 10-lug spindles and hubs will fit my bus. Then I will be able to pin down a direction to go. I'm thinking after your suggestion on keeping the straight axle and leaf suspension that if I can just change out the spindles that would be the easiest way to go. Still more thought to go into this. Then there is the power steering....

most people that want ifs swap the entire frame out for a chevy 67-91 drw long bed or crew cab chassis. the 1+tons are wider than the ifs suspension setups and wont just bolt in. you would have to widen it 2-6"

Just adding my 2 cents here. I drive a current era school bus daily. Each of the buses I've driven for my employer still use a straight axle and parallel leaf springs. The non air brake versions use 4 wheel disc brakes (and 10 bolt semi wheels). They also have power steering.

If you truly want an IFS, look at early 60s big bolts. Our 1962 fire truck (it is a C-60). I was honestly surprised to see that it came with an IFS. I always wonder why if an IFS is so great, why did GM switch back to a straight axle?

They switched back to straight axles because they could never solve the front end alignment issues. If you aligned it loaded, it wore tire empty and if you aligned it empty, it wore them loaded. The heavy loads caused the variations that weren't problems in the small IFS trucks. Toward the end, government and school districts wouldn't let us bid any more and forced the changes.

I have recently learned many of the newer big bolts like the GM school buses and Stepvans still use a straight axle. I think I will be looking more in that direction. I do like the idea of going modern with a similar setup as original. My buddy just came over today and checked out my bus and we now have a goal to get the thing running and driving and an interior in by next year's Goodguy's show in Puyallup. I hope to be driving it in a couple of months. As rough as it is cosmetically, it will be a blast to have it moving under its own power.