Composite leaf springs?

[diesel4me]

Ferds too..

I've seen fibreglass leaf springs in the rear of Ford Ranger pickups too,in later years..not sure how they hold up under abuse,but I've yet to see a broken one..bet they sag fast under weight compared to steel though,and I personally prefer METAL holding my axles under my truck!..

 

[dyeager535]

Composite or fiberglass leafs are not new. GM used them on the Astro/Safari Vans for a while. At least in the case of those, they did not emilinate spring wrap. (found that out in a rental van and an "accendential" neutral drop from 4,000 rpm)

And just about every Astro that has these shears the springs. Vehicle still runs/drives fine, but on close inspection, you'll find them more often than not, broken. Thus they make replacement STEEL springs.

Didn't read the link about these springs, as the GM stuff was/is fiberglass, and may be a whole different animal than the composites being talked about, to be fair.

 

[retroblazer]

Fiberglass springs

The only drawback to using them off road is that if you score them or deeply scratch them, they will break or facture at that point. I looked at using them fifteen years ago, only to find out that desert great Walker Evans had done an extensive amount of work with them, only to abandon them because of these issues.