Softer ridding suspension w/ a little more flex

[bigrollin76]

sounds crazy but true

defenetly go for the ford 1985-87f-250 shock towers i did it to mine and it rides like a cadillac on and off road. the more you use the leaf springs the smoother they get. you only need dual shok setup for towing thats another reason why your truck rides so stiff. thats about the only advice i can give you.

 

[Storm Trooper]

Damn that is nice, what length shocks are you running in the rear? How did you get so much drop out of the front?

I just run these http://www.desertrat.com/rancho/9000X/RS9000X.htm
I don't run a sway bar, I don't have a shackel flip or 52's.
Anyone needs a set of disconnects, I have a spare set.

ranchos seemed a little stiff price wise.

I won my shocks at Blazer Bash but the 5000's did fine too.
I don't think you need to spend a bunch of money to get it right. Just do one step at a time and don't forget your brake lines!

 

[dcubb]

Hello all, been following the forums for quiet a while but have never posted before. Thought I'd chime in on this one.

My experience with shackle flips is that it screws up the spring geometry. This produces rear axle steer when the vehicle experiences body roll going around turns, (made worse by running without a swaybar). The more the lift, (for example, 4" SF + 2" spring)the worse this is. Of course, on a trail rig this wouldn't be a problem.

I first went with a ORD 4" flip + 2" TC ez ride in rear, 6" TC ez's in front. I was very satisfied with flex and ride quality (soft)(w/Rancho 9000's), but it handled terrible on the street at any speed above 40 mph. Felt like the back end was gonna break loose in a curve. Started really studying the rear spring angle and decided to design and build my own shackle flip and forward spring mount brackets to correct the obscene angle created be the ORD bkt. Ended up fabbing forward brackets that lowered spring eye 3" from stock and rear flip bkts 5" from stock. Not quiet back to factory geometry but a hell of a lot closer than it was. What a difference!!! Blazer is a pleasure to drive now. BTW, this truck is a DD, so good handling at highway speeds and while towing was very important.

Also, I'm using ORD's swaybar disco's so I can unhook on the trail. love em.

I'll post up some pic's of my bkt's in a couple of days if anyone is interested.

 

[marv_springer]

My experience with shackle flips is that it screws up the spring geometry. This produces rear axle steer when the vehicle experiences body roll going around turns, (made worse by running without a swaybar). The more the lift, (for example, 4" SF + 2" spring)the worse this is.

Although I can't imagine the effect you describe to be significant it is caused by lifting the truck - not flipping the shackle.

Consider the case where blocks are used to provide lift. The axle still moves in an approximate arc (front half of leaf spring length changes a little...) about the front eye where it's mounted to the frame.

If you drew a line between the front mount and the axle centerline - Before the lift, this line would be relatively flat. After the lift, this line has increased in slope, and when the axle droops and compresses it goes in an approximate arc using that line as a radius. This is true whether the shackle has been flipped OR blocks were used OR lift springs were bolted on.

Based on this, it does make sense that if you lowered your forward mount then you have lessened the amount of rear steer due to your lift.

Marv