Coils vs. leafs

[BamBamblazer]

This may have been asked a million times but i have never noticed it. Has anyone ever went with a custom coil spring instead of leafs? I think it would work real good, but it would take a hell of a coil to spring a 6000 pound vehicle and make it work right. The coils i believe might be able to give excelent flex if you could figure out the right springs. Just kind of wondering if anyone had done or seen it on 73+ chevy's???????

 

[Chaddy]

coilover's

Yes they can definetly hold the weight and I'm actually doing a four link with struts in the rear and coils up front......should work nice

 

[sled_dog]

struts??? off of what? What kind of travel do you expect with struts?

brand new Ford F250 and 350s are coil sprung front. It doesn't take an insane coil to support weight, just different design specs.

 

[CyberSniper]

My friend runs some really long super flexy affordable coils on his F150. I'd probably pony up for coilovers if I already had that much money tied up in 4 link.

 

[Chaddy]

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/home.php?cat=34 these are struts with lots of travel

 

[blazerpro79]

or take the coils from a newer z71 tahoe or sub... those flex well i would imagine!

 

[down4thakrown]

i think there was a chevy on here built real nice for sale with coils in the front. it had awsome flex. and i could of swear i saw it again when some one posted it up saying its a good start for them but he said somthing bout fixing the suspension??? its like a yellowish biege with black utility toolboxes on the side. i think it was p/u cab on a k5 frame.

 

[sled_dog]

i think there was a chevy on here built real nice for sale with coils in the front. it had awsome flex. and i could of swear i saw it again when some one posted it up saying its a good start for them but he said somthing bout fixing the suspension??? its like a yellowish biege with black utility toolboxes on the side. i think it was p/u cab on a k5 frame.

big94GMC owns that now, I believe its brown though. It has coilovers up front and 1/4 ellipticals out back.

 

[sled_dog]

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/home.php?cat=34 these are struts with lots of travel

you plan to support a fullsize truck with Air Shocks?? Have you looked into how much weight they actually hold?

 

[Chaddy]

Yep they will hold! It's a coilover without the coil and you can compress them to fit your ride. 1 of my buddies builds rock buggies for a living out here in utah and my friends have a couple blazers here that have links, coils, and struts and they work awsome. In fact we are goin to vernal utah to the rock garden to test 1 of them out today.

 

[SCOOBYDANNN]

I was going to put those "struts" on my stripped down pickup (barely a cab) no bed and tubed front clip and I was BARELY at the weight limit of an air shock. no way a full body would work with those.

 

[sled_dog]

Yep they will hold! It's a coilover without the coil and you can compress them to fit your ride. 1 of my buddies builds rock buggies for a living out here in utah and my friends have a couple blazers here that have links, coils, and struts and they work awsome. In fact we are goin to vernal utah to the rock garden to test 1 of them out today.

Sorry but can we call it an air shock? A strut doesn't really support weight, its just a form of shock design that acts as part of the suspensions structure also.

Are you talking Coilover setups or AirShocks? I can't see a full body rig running Air Shocks, if you friend doesn't know that, tell him to call PolyPerformance and find it out. THe weight limit is about 1000 lbs per corner. And to reach that limit you need a high dollar compressed nitrogen setup, lots of tuning and its basically unrecommended these days.

Running Air Shocks with springs is an entirely different story, then a spring is supporting weight and the shock doesn't have to support as much.

Coilovers are yet another story, the spring supports all the weight and for a full size they are simply the way to go when compared to air shocks. Research the subject a bit, nothing sucks more then to do something and realize its not going to work when its too late.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/PR-Airshox/index.html

BillA ran them on his Chevy based buggy, hes since removed them and gone with coilovers. He discusses the weight issues in the article. His stripped down rig was just under the weight limits for them.