Smoother ride ideas.

[Sutter1stgen]

Well when talking on the phone with RCCummins89 I tend to think outside the box. We talk about firstgens, complain about them, and talk of there good traits.

One real gripe we both have of them is they don't ride as nice, nor flex as well as some of the newer trucks. One way to fix this is to put Chevy 63" rear springs in the back, cheap? Yes. Easy to install? Depends on the fabricator.
Then there is the kelderman air ride rear, not as cheap, but rides super smooth, and is fairly bolt on if I remember. Just the opposite of cheap.

Nothing has ever been brought to my attention as to "how to make the front ride better". So while talking it hit me!
"Why don't they make a compact version of the kelderman for the front? Cost? Space? Complexity? You know what why doesn't someone put a quarter elliptical spring set on the frame? And then attach the two spring eyes with the shackle?"
It seemed like a real good idea, so I drew it out for some of you guys to chew it over. When I get time I'm going to build a expirimental setup that can have the pitch and leaf count adjusted.


Just thought I'd throw it out there to some of you smooth ride desiring guys, of all ages lol.

[ihredneck]

Interesting idea, May just work if you can keep the travel of the link down enough for clearance.
May need to beef up the frame where the 1/4 spring would go though, that would be some extra moment force that I don't think it could handle

[DMan1198]

This looks like it would definitely smooth the ride out some. I wonder if you'd end up with a lot of wheel hop from it though. Something else may be needed. Perhaps adding a cal-trac type lower link would be the key to eliminating possible hop

[Sutter1stgen]

I ended up installing some 52" Chevy springs up front. I moved the front hanger forward 2", and I made the rear shackle 2" longer and dog legged to clear the rivet on the frame. Truck rides nice in the front. Took about 3 hours of work, start to finish, but well worth it. It just seemed like a tried and true setup, and all I was out was time.

Oh and the ride height was maintained to that of a 6" rough/tough country lift. Which I believe their kit is about 4".

[CumminsPower59]

Got any pictures of those springs set up under your truck? I've wondered about running those springs...

[Sutter1stgen]

Moved the factory perch forward 2".

Dog legged shackle. 5" center to center on the holes.
Mounted up and clearing the rivets. It dropped my rear spring eye 1" overall which actually have me some more caster. But the truck actually tracks well. Sorry for the poor craftsmanship, our plasma was down and required me to get old school with oxy/act. Lol

[CumminsPower59]

Looks pretty slick. What application did you use the springs from? How many leaves are in that pack?

[Sutter1stgen]

52" Chevy rear springs. K5,k10,k20, k30 trucks used them.
6 leafs but I have some removed soon

[CumminsPower59]

Right on. Thank you.

[Fred_M1010]

Moved the factory perch forward 2".

Dog legged shackle. 5" center to center on the holes.
Mounted up and clearing the rivets. It dropped my rear spring eye 1" overall which actually have me some more caster. But the truck actually tracks well. Sorry for the poor craftsmanship, our plasma was down and required me to get old school with oxy/act. Lol

Great idea!
I did the same to my K30, and I've been thinking of doing the same to the Dodge.
Do you have crossover steering, as well?
How does it handle when cornering? do you have an anti-sway bar?
And do you have any pics of the shackles and rear of the springs when mounted?

52" Chevy rear springs. K5,k10,k20, k30 trucks used them.
6 leafs but I have some removed soon

K30's never had them.
All K30's and even some K20's had 56" springs in the rear

[BILTIT]

K30's never had them.
All K30's and even some K20's had 56" springs in the rear//i1153

Yup, and the 56's have an offset centre pin. I had them in my K20 camper special.

[Fred_M1010]

K30's never had them.
All K30's and even some K20's had 56" springs in the rear//i1153

Yup, and the 56's have an offset centre pin. I had them in my K20 camper special.

yeah, the ones I installed in the front of my K30 where actually 56", and the offset centre pin isn't doing much good for the caster and pinion angle change on droop
It isn't too bad on that one since it's a dedicated trail-rig, but next time I'll use 52's instead...

[Sutter1stgen]

Good to know.

It has a slight bit more of side to side sway. But it's not bad. I run no sway bar ether. I'm going to run a WFO concept king pin spring eliminator kit along with their X over kit when I he the funds. I'm sure the truck will handle and track way better.


We shall see how she sways if and when I go with the 63" in the rear. Lol

I may try factory flat springs with some leafs removed first though.

[Fred_M1010]

I'm guessing that the oil pan resting on the the jack stand is an optical illusion

The pic is a bit dark, but for some reason it was brighter in my phone.
So now I get what you said about the rivets, and why you made the shackles L-shaped.
If you get a lot of side sway, you could try to tie the shackles together, cause I think long shackles are a big culprit when it comes to that.

Mine where even longer though:


If you do any wheeling with the truck before you install crossover steering, make sure to get limiting straps for the axle, otherwise the angles will bust your drag link ends in no-time.
Don't ask me how I know that...


I've seen this mod on a lot of Chevys, but then it's usually to get a lot of flex when going offroad.
So I'm really interrested in how it works, when it's primarily to get a softer ride.
So please report back now and then with a report on how it's working

The drawbacks that I'm aware of is more sideways wandering, and that can actually be worse with crossover steering, since that pushes the axle sideways...
In my K30 it feels like the first 1/4 turn on the wheels just pushes the axle sideways, and then it starts steering
But then again, it has really soft springs with the clamps removed, and as I said really long shackles...

[Sutter1stgen]

I've made some long shackles before, that required them being tied together. I'm just not a fan of welding across, my factory shackles were cracked on both sides, on the inside shackles. Lol.

My old 66' Chevy was a clean build which taught me what likes flex and what doesn't.
X over is the way to go.

There is quite a bit of axle movement with the factory steering, except it front to back. I didn't know this until I watched my boss's kelderman front air bag walk back and forth as he worked the wheel. Lol

And yes it's a illusion. I was actually jacking the truck up, checking for spring eye to frame clearance. But trust me I've seen some people do some wild things. Lol