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52s vs 56s in the front and why??

twoslo4five0

twoslo4five0

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i know i know its been beat to death but i really need to make a decision on what to put in the front end of my truck so i can start serching for parts...

which spring and why???

also i will be running 38s if that helps any with the decision...
 
I am going with 56s becouse...

I have them already
you dont need to redrill the rear shackle hole
 
dleroy43 said:
I am going with 56s becouse...

I have them already
you dont need to redrill the rear shackle hole
Click to expand...


Same deal here, plus for me I only need to keep one extra set of springs around, cause I run 56's on the rear too.
 
same thing for all the above points with me. My front and rear packs are a couple leafs different, but close enough to use the old u-bolts, so I carry the thicker pack of the two, and I can slap it in to get me off the trail. Just to clarify, I would put new u-bolts on when I got home, it would just be to get off the trail.

so it looks like 3-4 votes for 56's, and none for 52s.
 
one more for the 56's. I like not drilling rear hole and awesome flex. Went with the High crossover and that made me get a yj pitman arm to correct the steering.

blazer040.jpg

liftkit007.jpg
 
I really like my 52"s but for a mostly trail truck I'd run 56"s just cause their easier. I'm not sure how streetable 56"s are on the street, but my 52"s can be kinda sketchy but not nearly enough to make it feel dangerous. Sure if I wanted to I could turn the wheel and roll my truck whenever but I dont want to so I dont. I was thinking tho, would it work to put 2 extra shocks up front that were normal length that are pretty stiff to make it handle better on the street and then remove them for the trail to get full travel?

BTW shocks make a huge difference with longer springs, I ahve the procomp es 9000's and I broke one of the shock mounts wheelin and drove back with one shock, and yeah it was sketchy

And also if I wanted more than 4" lift and was going with lift 52"s/56"s I'd go with the 56"s since theyll be stiffer anyway with the lift and should be fine

Flex with 52"s with 7" shackles and 14.5" travel shocks (I think they limit it but my 15.5" travel ones didnt give me the uptravel i wanted)
Image2.jpg

Image0.jpg
 
dleroy43 said:
I am going with 56s becouse...

I have them already
you dont need to redrill the rear shackle hole
Click to expand...

I'm going with 52's because

I already have them
I already moved the shackle hanger for my current 8" lift springs.

*EDIT*
just measured and the springs I have are 56's. :doah:geuss all that work moving the hangers was wasted.
 
Last edited:
chevysmithz71 said:
I'm keeping mine. I have heard of guys having to replace them sooner when not running overloads.
Click to expand...
I ran mine and first and hated it. It only allowed like under an inch of uptravel and would hit the overload on the street and it sucked. Took it out and its way better. Need bumpstops now tho
 
I'm running 52's because they came from the rear of the truck and were replaced recently. Only had two trail rides on them. Also I'm running the overload but I cut it down (took a few inches off each end). I could use the little lift that the overload gives seeing as how im running 42's on about 4.5"s of lift. And drilling the hole for the shackle hanger is no big deal
 
56s make for an easier swap, ought to droop more (all else being equal) and they don't reduce approach angle at all due to the offset center pin hole. Pretty much makes them the easy choice between the two.

j
 
So all you have to do is move the front hanger forward and install new shackles or does a 56" spring swap force you to crossover steering? How far does the axle move? I have heard none and I have heard 4.5", which is a ton. If you didn't have crossover steering, could you run a swaybar to make it more street friendly?
 
You need to run crossover with either 52s or 56s. If you run the 52s and not set them as far forward as most you might be able to get away it. Basically you will get so much flex from these its just kind of lame to keep stock steering.
 
Fwiw

FWIW you can use the stock shackle hanger with 52s. Just use a regular HD shackle like ORDs 4". I went that route because I had both. I might change it down the road it ever goes further than the end of my driveway though. It made sense to go this route because it seems like you can have problems with too much flex. The front is still flexier than regular length lift springs an the rear has 64s (freebie) in the back so articulation is readily available.
 
NorCalKid said:
How far do 56"s move the axle forward?
Click to expand...

Same as 52s. The extra 4"s is behind the center (or offcenter in this case) pin. 52s have the centering pin in the middle at 26"/26". 56s are at 26"/30" for clarification.
 
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