Lowering your truck

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Mon May 22, 2006 4:11 pm

I asked the tech guy at Eaton Springs about removing leafs to lower your truck and this is the answer I got

"Each leaf in a spring is important. A correctly designed spring is one in which each leaf is equally stressed and carrying a protionant amount of weight. Each leaf is supported by the leaf under it and the leaf above it. Removing leaves will disrupt it's design.

Now getting back to the real world, it is done every day. The key is removing the right (?) ones.

To lower a vehicle yet still provide strength start from the bottom up and remove every other one. Never remove 2 in a row.

To learn more about springs go to http://www.eatonsprings.com/techinfo."

MountainMoparRobin · Post by **MountainMoparRobin** » Thu May 25, 2006 3:36 am

thanks Hotfoot, sometimes in our efforts to get what we desire we put aside important safety precautions.
I was just trying to remember the other day about the rule of thumb for removing leafs

meangreen · Post by **meangreen** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 12:42 am

pish posh, i removed two in a row and have absolutley no problems. handles almost exactly the same, just two inches lower

MountainMoparRobin · Post by **MountainMoparRobin** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 5:59 am

meangreen
they don't mean problems it just is a safety issue, each leaf has a back up in case they brake thats why they recomend removing every other one, so how many do you have left in your pack????

meangreen · Post by **meangreen** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 8:25 pm

uhhh 4 left

MountainMoparRobin · Post by **MountainMoparRobin** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:33 am

I'm considering taking mine down to 2 I need to drop it another 4" and I have 4 left also, may end up building my own drop axle instead

mopardwh · Post by **mopardwh** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:13 pm

Hey guys, you say 4 left? got any pics? I'd like to see the ride height...

slick · Post by **slick** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:20 am

Here is where 3 springs and an axle flip will put you....nice and tight with the bumpstops

spikekid999 · Post by **spikekid999** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 3:55 pm

slick wrote:Here is where 3 springs and an axle flip will put you....nice and tight with the bumpstops

how did u lower the front then? cuz i was lookin at mine and u wouldnt b able 2 do a filp on that

slick · Post by **slick** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 6:49 am

I flipped it too....

Post by **Seabee** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:00 am

slick wrote:I flipped it too....

A welder, determination, and a BFH know no impossibilities.

Russ · Post by **Russ** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:56 am

When removing rear spring leafs remember that the axle tries to turn backward when you accelerate and forward when you put on brakes. If you remove two many leafs the spring will flex too much and cause rear wheel hop. You will need traction bars to keep it under control.

slick · Post by **slick** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:07 pm

I put all the leaves back in it...raised it back up about 3 inches...here are some pics of my front flip brackets I made...I don't have it on the road yet, so it is un-tested!

spikekid999 · Post by **spikekid999** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:28 pm

ok but i think ill just put a k-feam under it

slick · Post by **slick** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:48 pm

I think that would be more beneficial...

CLIFF · Post by **CLIFF** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:10 pm

slick wrote:I put all the leaves back in it...raised it back up about 3 inches...here are some pics of my front flip brackets I made...I don't have it on the road yet, so it is un-tested!

Hey Slick......How is the steering geometry? Do you have any pics of the outer wheel wheel on the drivers side? I would love to do this if it works. I was thinking of sending off my straight axle to get dropped but thats like $500 bucks.. This would be a hell of alot cheaper. Is this truck a d200....reason for asking is I noticed it has 6 leafs and I just purchased a new set of dropped springs for my d100 and they only have 4 leafs. When i was ordering them the guy asked me to look at how many leafs was on the truck and it was 4 so i told them 4. Low and behold i got 4! They didnt ask me what engine but i would think a v8 would have more leafs possibly then a slant 6?

Did you have to modify anything on the shackles? how low did it drop the front after flipping the leafs? Any pics of truck before and after?.....Man im sorry for all the questions its just im pretty fired up about doing this myself now that ive seen it done . I have read so many susgestions about lowering it this way but no one here i think has ever actually tried it.. Allways heard it messes with sterring to bad for it to work?

slick · Post by **slick** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:31 am

I really don't have any good pics, but I'll show you what I do have...yes the truck is a D-200...everything steering geometry wise seems to be ok...everything clears turning left to right...the only weird thing is when you start to turn the truck it raises the front a little...I think this is becase the steering arm from the steering box is a little out of alignment now...If it was a little shorter it would probably be better...
for my cradle I used 1/4" steel plate then used some black pipe cut to length to fit between the plate and the original leaf pad then welded the pipe to the plate. I also welded a grade 8 bolt to the bottom of that pad to use as the centering bolt for the leaf springs..I need to change a few things still, trimming the tops of the excess thread on the u-bolts, also to take the u-bolt out of the shock bracket and just use grade 8 bolts through there...I was going to use an airbag set-up, which I still may do if time and money pertmits later down the road...sorry if this is confusing

CLIFF · Post by **CLIFF** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 10:05 pm

I would guess the same setup would work on a d100? I was thinking the Pitman arm would have to be shortened. Thats the reason it raises the truck when you turn lock to lock right? pitman arm hangs down to low? ........Does anything hit?

MountainMoparRobin · Post by **MountainMoparRobin** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 5:19 am

Cliff people have done it that way and reported bump steer thats why I haven't done it this truck is like that

Slick your definetly onto something as Cliff elude's to the arm needs to be either shortened or I was lookin at lengthen it so it would go under.
Slick with the air bags you could go with 1 spring, the bags are stonger than leafs and shocks they are intended to be the main item on suspension.
I talked to air ride technologies in 98 about a kit and with the kit the whole suspension is dependant on the air bags to be the main component of the suspenion. I had considered doing the one suspension arm, as the Jeeps and new trucks do, and airbags, but money is the issue, but I'm going to drop mine this winter for sure, tired of it sittin so high

slick · Post by **slick** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:51 am

I was going to remove the springs, but ended up removing the bags because I need a few things to finish the system and I'm broke right now..maybe later on...does anybody know if the power wagon steering arm is shorter? I know there are a few different lengths, just wondering which is the shortest...

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