Should I remove some leaves from my springs?

[thebird00]

This truck isn't a rock crawler, but I wanted to get a little extra flex out of the suspension. And I know 12 inch springs and flex is an oximoron. Would it be safe to remove 2 of the bottom leaves from the spring pack. Would this make enough of a difference in flex to even bother. I'm replacing shims so I'm gonna have the packs apart anyway. There are 6 leaves in the pack now. What do you guys think?

 

[txfiremank5]

It would probably be ok to do. It would be up to you to use the best judgement of what leafs could go since you can see them etc. But it's no different than any other pack. I would expect some slight lift decrease, but probably not much, depending on leaves removed. But it will would more than likely soften them up a bit.

In my case I plan to remove the bottom leaf of my 6" TC EZ rides. Since they are a 4 leaf pack it doesn't leave me many options there. But my hope is to get a slight increase in flex, and maybe get them to sag just a bit closer to 5". I have not installed them yet, but those are the plans for now.

 

[425 Xpedition]

I removed the bottom leaf and it helped the ride.

 

[ntsqd]

The short leaves have the most influence on ride quality. Only downside to removing them is that you can cause the lowest leaf to start to kink on the spring perch. I'd keep an eye on them if the shorties are what you opt to remove.

 

[thebird00]

Thanks for the input. Would better ride quality also equal better flex? If the flex isn't improved much I may just keep them in to avoid the kink issue. I thought about just removing the bottom leaf which is only about ten inches long.

It flexes decent now but it's mainly just the frame twisting. It's a mud truck but I drive around in skidder ruts where some land has been logged out. That's probably about as close as this truck will get to rock crawling.

I had thought about taking it up to Uwharrie national park here in NC, but I'm not sure about how the trails are up there. Thanks again for the input.

 

[ntsqd]

Think about each leaf separately. Put each of them upside down on a pair of blocks set at the tips of the leaf. Then stand on them in the middle. Which is going to flex the most?