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Sulastic shackles anyone???

MajMike

MajMike

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Who here has installed Sulastic shackles on their K5?? My wife really complains about the ride (and thus hates the K5) so anything I could do to better the ride would be helpful to me in being able to keep making it the truck I want it to be. Thx, Mike.
 
Before dropping 4 bills on those, what brand of springs and shocks do you have? Do you have a lift? Poly or rubber bushings?
 
Do you have a link to these? Are they a rubber hinged shackle like the old "velvet ride"?

You should do some reading up on what makes these trucks ride nice. First you have to make sure everything is actually working right as-is. For example, are you hitting the bumpstops all the time? If you have the quad shocks up front, your first move will be to rip one off each side.
 
Hmmm . . .

My setup is stock, with replacement AMP springs, bushings look good (replaced when springs replaced I guess). Have new Rancho 5000 shocks and new Rancho stabilizer, only two on the front.
 
I've never heard of AMP springs and can't find them in my search, can you post a link of their specs or where you got them from. The Rancho shocks may be too stiff (wrong valving) for the Blazer, again couldn't find specific valving info for them. You could remove the shocks and take it for a test drive to see if it's the shocks that are too stiff. If they are I'd recommend Bilstein 5150's. 4 of them would be the same price as those shackles you mentioned.
 
that looks like a revolver iirc... more about flex, than ride quality afaik... you should be able to get a good ride without a snake oil product like that.. and 2 shocks up front is fine..


are these new amp springs all around? you feel a worse ride from a poor front setup than the back usually...


as mentioned get some good bilstiens on it, and take some pics of your front and rear spring packs for us....
 
yeah, I looked a little further after..

I get it, but stand by my "you don't need a gimmick" for a smooth ride answer..
 
And it's only for the rear axle. Most K5s have soft rear springs already - a shackle like that is probably targeted more at the unloaded HD truck market. The poor ride quality is probably coming from the front anyway.

Would I pay $380 for those shackles? No way (Maybe for $80 if I had a HD truck). You could do Bilsteins at all 4 corners for that money. You could also get a set of EZ-ride front springs or be a good ways toward custom leaves. All better places to put that money.
 
They might actually be worth it for something like my Duramax where the springs are super tight, but to change them, you sacrifice towing. These shackles bottom out under load and act like a standard shackle. For a K5, I agree its better to build quality into your suspension than throw gizmos at it.
 
With good shocks and good spring your ride will be much more enjoyable.

I look at a rough country shock as a very sub par shock.

Hell in my eyes a bilstein 5100 should be a standard style shock...


I may be biased because of the suspension setup that i have, but it works fantastic for what it is.

IMO if you want the best of leaf sprung suspension, you go ORD alcan springs and a quality shock. Expensive yes. You are talking about $2k in springs and bushing and shackles, plus another $400+ in shocks. To do all 4 corners.

As of now I have custom springs up front, about $900 with all ORD shackles and bushings, and I have stock 52s rear with a shackle flip. It works fantastic for driving. In the dunes I do not love my rear suspension but I think another set of custom springs will change that.

I found a set of 4 svt raptor shocks for $700 (less than what you would pay for 4 fox 2.0 resis) and the suspesion works much better than I fell 95% of lifted leaf sprung rigs do. It works much better than it did stock as far as road driving as well. Offroad driving is massivly improved from stock.

In this video you can see the front suspension working very well, (try not to notice the amount the tcase moves or the vibration sounds as my driver side engine mount was blown at this point and the engine was bouncing on the frame....)

You can see that the suspension sucks to the ground the entire time (except when airborn)


I am not trying to convince everyone to run this setup, just showing that soft springs and good shocks will make a massive difference. I hope to have a much better video this summer to show what can be done with an all leaf sprung rig.

 
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rampage said:
I've never heard of AMP springs and can't find them in my search, can you post a link of their specs or where you got them from. The Rancho shocks may be too stiff (wrong valving) for the Blazer, again couldn't find specific valving info for them. You could remove the shocks and take it for a test drive to see if it's the shocks that are too stiff. If they are I'd recommend Bilstein 5150's. 4 of them would be the same price as those shackles you mentioned.
Click to expand...

http://www.truckspring.com/Search.a...82/Model:K5-Blazer&a=Product-Type:Leaf-Spring

Looks like they have changed names since the ones were put on my truck, but the above link has replacement stock springs for K5's and other Chevy products.
 
MajMike said:
http://www.truckspring.com/Search.a...82/Model:K5-Blazer&a=Product-Type:Leaf-Spring

Looks like they have changed names since the ones were put on my truck, but the above link has replacement stock springs for K5's and other Chevy products.
Click to expand...

I don't see any mention of spring rate in their description so they must not be too proud of it, but based on the price alone I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that your springs are the problem since they are half the price of Tuff Country EZ-rides. But diagnosing something over the web is just an educated guess. Like I mentioned before, remove all the shocks and take it for a test drive to see if it's still rough. Just note that your truck may handle differently so keep that in mind when around others.
 
Hmmm . . .

rampage said:
I don't see any mention of spring rate in their description so they must not be too proud of it, but based on the price alone I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that your springs are the problem since they are half the price of Tuff Country EZ-rides. But diagnosing something over the web is just an educated guess. Like I mentioned before, remove all the shocks and take it for a test drive to see if it's still rough. Just note that your truck may handle differently so keep that in mind when around others.
Click to expand...

These are supposed to be OEM replacement, should they still ride so rough? Who makes the best riding springs (iyho, with as little lift as possible)?
 
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I can't say since I've never heard of that manufacture and they don't list any specs. Lots of things can be done to steel to make it more flexible or rigid. Just because they claim it's an OEM replacement doesn't mean it is, it's just a marketing gimmick. I'd be wary of this statement though:

"At TruckSpring / Michigan Truck Spring, we obtain our leaf springs from various sources throughout the world."
 
Why did you replace the springs to begin with?

I would say the BEST riding are custom leaves, like what ORD sells. You can pick the exact ride height you want, too. Other than that, for stock height you want stock springs. Lots of guys here get rid of them. In general, if it's called a "lift spring" it doesn't ride vary nice, although the bad ones are much worse than the good ones. Even the softest "lift spring" will ride worse than a stock spring. The exception is when the stock springs are so sagged you keep hitting the bump stops. Then stiffer is actually an improvement.
 
Check the condition of all your spring and shackle bushings.

Also do you still have a sway bar? I just removed mine and it improved the ride quite a bit. Far less jarring over bumps. I'm not sure how a stock suspension will do without one though. I'm sure someone can chime in on that.
 
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