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Ride Quality: Just a Moot Point?

I wouldn't even bother with a stock spring from any of the left companies. I'd just go custom springs from Alcan. I mean, it's not like it's a $2K difference, it's a few hundred bucks, peanuts.

I have 6" Procomp springs on the front of my K5 and combined with the light 6.0LS, it's terrible. Plan to eventually order a front pair of Alcans.
 
ryoken said:
on a scale of 1 to 10 smoothness for a leaf rig I would rate the RC's a 2, the TC's a 5 and the Alcan's a 9...
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I have the TC ez-ride springs (with horrible shocks) and I'm looking to upgrade my ride. I want the best ride I can get/afford and I don't think I'm getting it now.

I'm going to start with shock upgrades and if that isn't good enough I'll upgrade to Alcans as well. Your ratings are making me think I'll be spending money on springs sooner rather than later. :doah:
 
Zeus33rd said:
I have a full set of 4 Alcan springs on my truck. 8" fronts, 4" rears, w/shackle flip. The set of 4 was just over $1100. (can't remember if that was the shipped price or not). They aren't THAT expensive.

What is the cost of 4 off the shelf springs?
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I think the price is a bit more now. Around the $800 range for front springs. Go with those and a shackle flip in the rear instead of lift springs and you'll be about even with buying 4 "off the shelf" springs.

Like everyone else has said don't skimp on shocks.

Add crossover steering and you'll have a 30 year old truck that rides and drives as good as a new truck.

The TC EZ rides or BDS will be the best off the shelf front springs.
 
MTBLAZER89 said:
Add crossover steering and you'll have a 30 year old truck that rides and drives as good as a new truck.
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A lifted truck with soft springs and no sway bar does not drive like a new truck. The ride can be almost as good, but body roll is completely different.
 
I have black diamond (super lift:dunno:) front springs, and shackle flip rear. I just added some nice fox 2.0 shocks, and that made a massive difference. Still rides like my stock 01 2500HD did, but 11ty times better than it was. Shocks make a huge difference.
 
riflerk20 said:
Just because our opinions of ride quality may differ how would you compare the TC or ORD springs to a 2000ish Silverado?
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I am going to stick my neck out on this and say that I feel that my (short since they are first gen) ORD fronts ride the same as my Dad's 01 Silverado 1/2 ton. Yes , it has body roll, and the rear is still too stiff. (Some unknown aftermarket stuff ) But even with the short wheelbase, I believe that it is very close.
 
GWeakland620 said:
I have black diamond (super lift:dunno:) front springs, and shackle flip rear. I just added some nice fox 2.0 shocks, and that made a massive difference. Still rides like my stock 01 2500HD did, but 11ty times better than it was. Shocks make a huge difference.
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6872xtc said:
I am going to stick my neck out on this and say that I feel that my (short since they are first gen) ORD fronts ride the same as my Dad's 01 Silverado 1/2 ton. Yes , it has body roll, and the rear is still too stiff. (Some unknown aftermarket stuff ) But even with the short wheelbase, I believe that it is very close.
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this helps a lot, thanks
 
I have an '05 Yukon XL 1500 and it rides and handles great. It's like driving a luxury car. I would put the ride comfort - like hitting road seams - of the K5 as pretty close (see signature below). But overall handling and steering the newer truck is WAY better. There's no comparison between no sway bars, big tires, high CG and short wheelbase to a more modern stocker.

If you could have crossover AND a sway bar (or 2?) it would be more fair. But if you had soft custom leaves at near stock height and tires 33" or smaller you could have a real nice road cruiser. At that height you could keep push-pull steering, which is actually nicer (on-road) in some respects and keep the front sway bar.

Now the ride off-road is MUCH better in the K5. Stock IFS rigs find the bump stops hard and often. That's where the "near stock height" I mentioned above isn't ideal, but I think just 2" would be enough to smooth out the fire roads - especially if nice bump stops were in the budget.
 
Blue85 said:
A lifted truck with soft springs and no sway bar does not drive like a new truck. The ride can be almost as good, but body roll is completely different.
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Sure I get that to a point, but very comparable especially if we are comparing lifted trucks to lifted trucks. I don't drive new or old trucks like cars anyway, and IMO on a lifted truck what crossover adds far exceeds anything a factory swaybar does/did.
 
I had Alcans on my 81 Jimmy. Biggest mistake ever...but no hate for the product. I made the mistake of buying a used set specc'd to someone else's truck and intended use. Mine were so soft I couldn't drive it on the street. It had body roll like a monster truck as well as the brake dive and massive nose up on accel.

I should have just had a set built for my truck and my intended use. Truly a custom product.
 
tRustyK5 said:
Mine were so soft I couldn't drive it on the street. It had body roll like a monster truck as well as the brake dive and massive nose up on accel.
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That sounds like fun!:D For like 10 minutes....
 
There were cool things....where we lived we had a half dozen nasty tall speedbumps I used to have to crawl over. They became mere suggestions, at 10 mph I couldn't even feel them.
 
What Shocks did you use with them trusty? I would think going with a firm shock, or even putting quads on up front like the factory setup would take the bounce out of them.

I really need to do something about springs and shocks myself. 6 months ago I didn't care one bit about the terrible ride, I was just happy to have the K5 running reliably with a 6L, but after actually putting some miles on it, the Pro Comps and quad of el crapo lift shocks are starting to take the fun out of things.
 
MTBLAZER89 said:
IMO on a lifted truck what crossover adds far exceeds anything a factory swaybar does/did.
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I disagree. Crossover makes the truck understeer less in corners and lets you steer a lot better during articulation, but does nothing for body roll or any other squirrelly behavior on the road. It doesn't even help death wobble much of the time. But that's for moderate height trucks. For tall lifts I'm sure it's better than drop pitman arm, drop drag link and lifted steering arm with push-pull.
 
rjfguitar said:
What Shocks did you use with them trusty? I would think going with a firm shock, or even putting quads on up front like the factory setup would take the bounce out of them.

I really need to do something about springs and shocks myself. 6 months ago I didn't care one bit about the terrible ride, I was just happy to have the K5 running reliably with a 6L, but after actually putting some miles on it, the Pro Comps and quad of el crapo lift shocks are starting to take the fun out of things.
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Remote resi Bilstien 5150's on all four corners. The Alcans I had were under 200 lbs/inch. Articulation was insane, using a forklift at work I managed 51" under one tire...and I chickened out. I thought it was gonna flop. With springs that soft I think to make it semi-streetable it would have needed panhards front and rear, some massive sway bars, and even then it would have been a handful.

Again, they need to be spec'd and built for your truck and your needs. The ones I got were obviously from a trail only rig. Live and learn...

I'm certain Stephen at ORD could spec out a set that would check all the boxes for you, without any of the pitfalls I went through. :waytogo:
 
Blue85 said:
I disagree. Crossover makes the truck understeer less in corners and lets you steer a lot better during articulation, but does nothing for body roll or any other squirrelly behavior on the road. It doesn't even help death wobble much of the time. But that's for moderate height trucks. For tall lifts I'm sure it's better than drop pitman arm, drop drag link and lifted steering arm with push-pull.
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Understeer less. Isn't that a good thing? I don't own anything lifted over 6". I would much rather drive my truck with crossover steering than stock. Stock steering is fine on a stock rig. I have a couple and they drive nice. A swaybar on a lifted truck just rides like crap IMO. Agreed for a street driven truck an aftermarket sway bar AND crossover would be a win, but I really don't think decent springs are bad at all. It is a truck after all. Now 52s or something like Rene was saying sure their street manners suck.
 
So would BDS with Bilstien 5125 would be the next best to ORD/Alcans?
Too bad BDS doesn't make their spring rate info available.
 
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