[buckethead47]

My leafsprings are shot, so I'm looking into new springs that gives me better towing ability and bring a little extra lift to the rear end. will adding either of the two give me lift? And if so will I be able to balance the front out by listing the torsion bars? Will the 1 ton add too much lift if any lift? I tried searching and didn't find anything with my questions. Thanks for any input.

 

[dknoerzer]

Not much help but find a truck and start measuring. Should be something at a junkyard you can measure the length and the arch.

 

[Crawdaddy]

3/4 ton suburban springs should fit with no problems. 3/4 and 1 ton pickup springs on the other hand, may not. Both share the same spring width, but if memory serves me right, suburban springs are 52 inches long while pickup springs are 56 or even 60 inches long. But as dknoerzer said, pull out the tape measure and start measuring. Also keep in mind that a spring that's mounted will measure slightly differently from a spring that's laying on the ground and relaxed.

 

[buckethead47]

so the longer leafs will add lift. if my suburban has 52" leaf perches, the 60" leafs may be too big. if the 3/4 ton springs are 56" then the 4" difference will add some lift to the rear end while giving me some extra towing capacity. im going to start doing more research and see iff i can find some leafs for my truck.

 

[Crawdaddy]

I'm not so sure about that. I think all you'd get is very lousy shackle angles and no travel. To move to a different length spring I think you'd have to move the spring mounts on the frame.

 

[tbplus10]

First off I dont think you'd be able to squeeze those 60" leafs in and if you did it would make a horrible ride.
The rule with leafs is you want the perch's to be the same length apart as the spring eyes, the spring bow will give any lift.
Springs should be measured eye to eye straight across, not eye to eye across the spring.
Very few springs are flat or reverse arched, even lowered trucks try to stay away from flat and reverse arched springs because the ride is to stiff.
Chevy did use flat springs and springs with a slight reverse arch on the front of late 70's to mid 80's trucks and they had stiff suspensions with springs that wore out real fast.
Look at aftermarket replacement springs for those trucks, almost all of them are made with at least some arch to them, most times if you replace the front springs you end up having to replace the rears also because the new front spings will give the truck a pre runner look.
Also remember 3/4 or 1 ton springs will only change the spring rate, it wont change the fact you have a lighter duty rear axle under the back end.