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Time to build a suspension... (looking for input on springs)
- Thread starter campfire
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- awesome suspension
If you pay for it, I will put in the work for links.
For that matter, if anyone else wants to pay for them, I would be ok with that, too. 
I never said that crossover is for offroad trucks, just that the benefit needs to justify the time and money investment.
Yes, I want more up travel. And definitely a softer landing than I'm currently getting. Not afraid to move shock mounts.
Why does everyone seem to hate the stock rag joint?
I'm not thrilled with my current rear springs. Replacing them and keeping the rear shackles will be easier and may be cheaper than buying springs AND a flip. But what benefits are there to going one route or the other?
I've never really trusted the rag joint after my '77 K2500 decided to have the rubber completely tear apart on my way home from dropping off a 2 ton load of scrap,a big straight 6 detroit diesel out of a dozer I hauled 3 miles to the scales..
The cab mounts had enough slop to let the cab lift up off the frame some when they lifted the engine off with a magnet on a crane,and I went to make a u-turn a short distance away after leaving the scrapyard,and the steering wheel just spun freely
..I was lucky it happened there and not further up the street where I'd have been going 50 mph..
Did I overload the truck ?..yup--no question..would the rag joint have failed if the cab mounts were solid.?..maybe not...but off road flexing of the frame could well tear the rubber disc apart, even with good solid cab mounts and the rubber also is flexible enough to make the steering feel "loose" even with good tie rods and ball joints..
I have been looking at the rag joint on my '82 K2500 with an evil eye,it appears to be reaching its end of life,and I should go look for a cherokee u-joint shaft for it..plowing puts a lot of stress on the rag joint when the cab tries to keep going after you ram a snowbank..
The cab mounts had enough slop to let the cab lift up off the frame some when they lifted the engine off with a magnet on a crane,and I went to make a u-turn a short distance away after leaving the scrapyard,and the steering wheel just spun freely
..I was lucky it happened there and not further up the street where I'd have been going 50 mph..Did I overload the truck ?..yup--no question..would the rag joint have failed if the cab mounts were solid.?..maybe not...but off road flexing of the frame could well tear the rubber disc apart, even with good solid cab mounts and the rubber also is flexible enough to make the steering feel "loose" even with good tie rods and ball joints..
I have been looking at the rag joint on my '82 K2500 with an evil eye,it appears to be reaching its end of life,and I should go look for a cherokee u-joint shaft for it..plowing puts a lot of stress on the rag joint when the cab tries to keep going after you ram a snowbank..
I'm looking through shocks this week. Where did he find 2.0 Fox shocks for $500, and what length of shock did he run? I was under the impression that these shocks were too bulky to fit in the front shock mounts. Did he rework the shock mounts, and (if so) what did he do?
I've found nothing cheaper than $150 apiece.
http://www.shop.com/Fox+Racing+Shox...8&cadevice=c&gclid=CICM-cmxms8CFUw9gQodo1UAyg
I built custom adjustable mounts for the front. Just using 10" travel 2.0's if I remember right. I just went through the fox catalog and picked the extended/collapsed length he needed. Made custom mounts for the rear to, but ended up using the stock mount after the lift.
You fabbed and welded the brackets AND installed the springs in 4 hours? I feel really slow now. 
You fabbed and welded the brackets AND installed the springs in 4 hours? I feel really slow now.
No I made the mounts, for when it was stock height. I made the brackets so we could reuse the shocks when we did lift it. When the lift was put on all we did is drop it down a few holes.
Where did he buy his shocks from?
I want to say amazon. I doubt he will remember. He probably doesn't know where he set down his coffee this morning.
Fair 'nuff.
I'm now looking at custom spring options. So far I've found 4 companies advertising custom thin leaf packs. For my application I have gotten the following quotes for front spring pairs:
ORD wants $680
Alcan wants $580
Atlas Lift Spring wants $525 (http://www.mcssl.com/store/atlassus...0k1500-suburban-4x4-performance-front-springs)
and
Custom Suspension wants $500 (not clear what their leaf thickness or spring rate is, just that they use many leaves instead of few)
I've found some others that make normal springs, but finding soft and flexy springs seems to be a niche market.
1.) Are there other companies I should look at?
2.) Has anyone used one of the non-ORD companies? I know ORD has good stuff, and I've (barely) heard of Alcan, but I've not heard of the other two. The first 3 all do a good job of identifying the issues that standard lift springs have, the cheap guys may or may not know what they're doing. Kinda hard to tell without some field data.
ORD wants $680
Alcan wants $580
Atlas Lift Spring wants $525 (http://www.mcssl.com/store/atlassus...0k1500-suburban-4x4-performance-front-springs)
and
Custom Suspension wants $500 (not clear what their leaf thickness or spring rate is, just that they use many leaves instead of few)
I've found some others that make normal springs, but finding soft and flexy springs seems to be a niche market.
1.) Are there other companies I should look at?
2.) Has anyone used one of the non-ORD companies? I know ORD has good stuff, and I've (barely) heard of Alcan, but I've not heard of the other two. The first 3 all do a good job of identifying the issues that standard lift springs have, the cheap guys may or may not know what they're doing. Kinda hard to tell without some field data.
My opinion here.. if you do custom springs do not cheap out.. 680$ is a deal considering deaver wants no less than 800$ out here and atlas 1200$ for custom springs..
remember with custom springs you tell them all the things you are after and they make you a spring and recommend a shock and boom done the leaf spring fairy drops off a heavy ass package at your front door
@miniwally
how much flex are you after??
remember with custom springs you tell them all the things you are after and they make you a spring and recommend a shock and boom done the leaf spring fairy drops off a heavy ass package at your front door
@miniwally
how much flex are you after??
Unless you have a way of weighing your truck the little extra you spend going the ORD direction will be worth it.
Just like with about anything else experience counts.
Just like with about anything else experience counts.
Weighing the truck is no problem on my end (I have at least 3 public scales within 5 miles of my house). ORD clearly knows what they are doing, and they're already bound to get a bunch of my dollars (
). My conversation with Alcan makes me think they also know what they are doing (they were also quite thorough in gathering a profile of the truck, its mods, and its weight distribution). The other 2 are dark horses. I have no idea what their information-gathering process looks like, I haven't talked to them.
No actually weighing it. Corner to corner side to side on something fairly accurate.
What type of scale? The kind they can weigh a semi on. Even our local dump weighed me within 75 lbs on my exit when I had a minimum of 400 lbs of garbage.
Race scales are the only thing I would trust for custom springs
What type of scale? The kind they can weigh a semi on. Even our local dump weighed me within 75 lbs on my exit when I had a minimum of 400 lbs of garbage.
Race scales are the only thing I would trust for custom springs
And yes Alcan knows what they are doing as does Deaver spring.
If it were me I would still use ORD
If it were me I would still use ORD
Ok, I don't have that kind of accuracy. It's going to come down to guesswork at some point, because I don't know the weight of any potential future mods. At some point I hafta pick a number and run with it. Until the weight changes again.
If they're both good at matching springs with specific rigs, and there's a $100 difference, why would I spring for the ORD springs? Are they better in some unquantifiable way?
It's totally quantitative, ord is going to be able to estimate your sprung weight much more closely because they have been building rigs just like yours for years.. bill at alcan is a great guy but I can guarantee that he's not seen near as many chevys as Ord has. Annnd they're a CK5 vendor. That has to be worth the 100$ admission price. Ask @Deuling he's got their springs.. I've never heard him complain and his flexed awesome!
There's plenty of evidence that supports the claims.. not just some website or some add or random guy on the phone. There is quite a few guys using their springs on here so that's enough for me as a consumer to pull the trigger vs going to alcan and possibly getting something you didn't want.. custom is no returns... be damn sure you are up front about all your expectations.. even the small stuff
There's plenty of evidence that supports the claims.. not just some website or some add or random guy on the phone. There is quite a few guys using their springs on here so that's enough for me as a consumer to pull the trigger vs going to alcan and possibly getting something you didn't want.. custom is no returns... be damn sure you are up front about all your expectations.. even the small stuff
Don't get paralysis by analysis
