Smoothing out Smooth ride springs

[thrashingcows]

Well I decided I would getting the front end to ride a bit smoother with the help of the thread below and user sevnt300 and his findings. Those "smooth ride" parabolic springs I installed during the 4wd conversion really did not smooth anything out in the ride....actually I think it made it stiffer.

Well Sevnt300 over in this thread...http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/foru ... 21/page10/ ....Post #138. He has a cummins long box crew as well with these springs was not happy with the ride either. He did a lot of R&D work to finally come up with a ride he was comfortable with.

So first I had to pull apart an old set of rear springs and find two leafs that would be 34" long and allow an even 17" on each side of the center hole. Think it was the 3rd leaf up from the bottom.

One side already had a hole for the spring clamp and was 17", the other required about 3" to be cut off. Then I had to tapper the tip.



I then went down to the shop that sold me the Smooth Ride springs...they are local....and picked up some new wear tips and spring clamps.



The rubbers that came with the new spring clamps would not work with their style, so i used some neoprene sheet I had to cut out some new ones that would.



Then I had to drill three 1/2" holes in each spring. One for the wear tip, and two for the new spring clamps to lock into. I positioned the spring clamps 6" back from the wear tips.



Tossed on some paint and got ready to do the swap.

[thrashingcows]

Did the spring prep last week in teh evenings. So decided since I had a couple days off I would tackle the swap today. Took about 5 hours from start to finish.

First was to get the sway bar end links off, and the shocks as well. Then remove the U-bolts. Once all the was off I could start to jack up the truck to give me enough clearance to loosen the retaining bolt in the center of the spring pack and remove the lower spring.



Ready to remove lower spring.



Here is a comparison of the second spring in this smooth ride set-up, and the new one that is going in.



Of the 3 wear tips on the lower springs only one was still in place and secure. The others had broken loose.

[thrashingcows]

Transferred the two plates from the original pack to the new spring and installed. Required a couple clamps to compress the spring so I could get the threads started on the center bolt. Then it was just snug everything up and make sure all the plates and springs stayed in alignment.



Then once both side were done I had to lower the truck back down and get everything to line up. Had to go back and forth taking a few inches out of each side to slowly lower it back down. Once the weight was on the springs I installed the spring clamps. Then finished re-installing everything. Only had to cut about 3/4" to 1" off the U-bolts to make up for the difference in spring pack thickness.

All done and ready to go.

[thrashingcows]

I measured from the ground to the top of the wheel well arch before I started, and after I was done, lost exactly 1.5" on each side. And I can say the ride is like night and day!! I used to cringe every time I ran over a manhole cover in the road....now it just absorbs the bump and you barely feel it.

I couldn't be happier with the ride so far. Although I've only put a couple miles on it, but so far so good!

[DMan1198]

Interesting. For some reason this really made me want to go to a radius arm front end with coils or airbags.

That's some really good work though, and I'm glad it worked how you wanted

[dpuckett]

How does it handle corners with the better ride? I would like a little better ride, but I can take most country curves at 20mph faster than the yellow signs recommend, and would like to keep that ability.

[DMan1198]

I think as long as your sway bar is in good shape the softer ride shouldn't hinder cornering ability enough to slow down

[thrashingcows]

I have not noticed any difference in the cornering. I think before the suspension was so stiff that the sway bar was just along for the ride. Now that the suspension actually has some travel, the sway bar is actually doing it's job.

Sway bars are the only area I will use poly bushings. They makes a big difference over the OEM rubber sway bar bushings.

I've put 500 miles or so on it so far and have to say that I'm so much happier with the ride quality.

[BILTIT]

Do you know if anyone has tried that spring pack with just the single main leaf?