Leafspring: # Of Leaves Needed??

[prairie]

Doing a shackle flip on a Chevy K30/1 ton for primarily fun use, but may pull a 14' bumper hitch livestock trailer once in a while.
Want to remove some leaves from the rear spring packs, but don't know how many and which ones to remove. Have several sets of K30 and CUCV spring packs, and all have nine leaves, plus the heavy overload leaf on the bottom.
Plan to remove the overload leaf, and probably a couple more to start with.
Any advice?

 

[xenomarine]

I would leave the overload unless you plan on doing no towing. A shackle flip generally reduces the effective spring rate of a leaf pack because of the change in how the shackle moves. Put in the shackle flip and see how you like it before messing with your leaf packs. Do everything you would with the truck normally and see how it responds. Nothing is more annoying than doing a modification then having to undo it a short while later.

 

[blazinzuk]

This is how a poor guy tunes his suspension.

Leave the overload. Start with the short leaves see where that goes. Since your not just tuning for comfort and flex your gonna need to hook up to that trailer every time you make a change. Good shocks a must

 

[K85 Octane]

both ^^ are correct

I removed 2 leaves out of my 7 leaf 3/4 ton packs. Put them back in a month later. Thought it would be smoother and more flexy, but ended up saggy and bouncy. Now I'm looking to put a couple MORE into the pack, for that poor guys set up.

Ideally, I would like to change my 4" flip to a 2.5" flip and run 2" lift 56s. That gives me a little more arch in the springs and the ability to order a more custom pack, instead of running fairly flat 56s.