Jack's 2007 Chevy Build

[locrwln]

It was my understanding that the 2wd TB's that I have that are considered the upgrade are "keyed" differently than the 4wd standard TB's. That is why guys end up swapping sides and going front to back trying to compensate for the difference.

I ended up using the 1500 keys on mine as I did run out of adjustment on the driver's side and it was still not where I wanted it. The 1500 keys gave me back my adjustment and I was able to dial the stock bars in. I didn't try the heavier bars when I had the frontend apart, probably should have. My bumper and winch are heavy and I was hoping that the heavier TB's would help support the weight on those higher speed off-road runs as well as be rated for the additional weight.

I'm done with adjustments up front and it works about as well as the limited travel will allow for. Just not enough travel (compression) for those bigger bumps, but without a complete re-engineer, it is what it is.

Jack

 

[justcuz]

Yours being a factory diesel it probably came with hefty bars anyway. I think the numbers stamped in the end of the bars are the last 4 digits of the tag numbers that are on the bars when new. The paper tags on the bars usually don't last long.

You think you may try to piece together a 6 leaf set of springs this time around? Maybe some of the 1 ton leafs will slip in below the upper two leaves for some added weight capacity. How many leafs do the 1 ton springs have?
I'm kind of a spring geek, I love mixing and matching to achieve maximum flexibility and weight carrying capability.
I've even done stuff like inverting the overload to allow the springs to go negative slightly for more compression.

 

[locrwln]

It does have the "heaviest" 4wd bars, which is weird that they offered a heavier bar in the 2wd world.

The 1/2 tons have 3 main, one overload
The 3/4 tons have 4 main, one overload (all springs are a mm or two thicker)
The 1 ton dually springs I have are 4 main, one overload on bottom and one on top (all springs are a mm or two thicker than the 3/4)
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The above is for my series of truck. Eventually, I will tackle the springs in the rear, but the current ones work very well, so I'm not in a big hurry to wrestle springs if I don't have to.
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I know how you feel on being a spring geek. I "built" a set for my SOA Wrangler that ended up being perfect in that they controlled spring wrap, rode well (empty and loaded) and flexed perfectly. In fact we had gone to Moab with a buddy that had spent the money on OME springs on his SOA Wrangler. He "S'd" the rear springs on "Bump-Dump" on his first try and had to wheel the rest of the trip with the bad springs. I felt pretty good about mine after that.:sombrero:
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Jack

 

[justcuz]

Unless your buying Alcans, Deavers or Nationals, I can usually build mine better than most aftermarket.

I have a buddy in Yerington who knows Moses Ludel. Moses built a Jeep and some company supplied a suspension kit for it. He took us for a ride and about 10 miles into it Allan and I asked him to take us back home.
That thing rode horribly! Allan looked at Moses and said " Good thing these were free because Chris can build better springs with junkyard parts than these damn things!"

I took that as quite a compliment.

 

[1stDeuce]

I have about zero faith in off-the-shelf springs too. I had a HORRIBLE experience with a 2.5" Tuff Country lift on my old solid axle when I was in college. I ordered a 2.5" softride kit, and they shipped a 4" Dump Truck lift and pretty much stuck me with it. I pulled several leaves out and it was still too stiff, and too tall. I swore I'd never buy another lift spring. After I graduated, I designed and had 9-leaf packs built for the front of that truck. They flexed like crazy, had the 2.5" of lift I wanted, and worked AWESOME. I tossed the rear dump truck springs in favor of a set of OE springs with a shackle flip via custom brackets I made. (Pre-ORD, I think...) That truck rode very nice, and I never had any spring issues.

I'm hopeful that the rear spring pack I built, which is pretty much exactly the same as Jack's, will work well. If it doesn't, I have enough leftover leaves to ditch the overload and finish the pack off right. This truck carries my camper 80% of the time. I'll live with a stiff pack the other 20% if I have to...

I used to have a spreadsheet for calculating spring rates from leaf data... I was very useful to tell you what leaf changes did what... I fear it may have been lost to time...
Suspension max has one, but it isn't quite as nice as mine... http://www.suspensionmaxx.com/tech-support/leaf-spring-calculator/

According to it, our stock pack (before hitting the overload) was ~350lb/in. Jacks pack should be about 475, and mine is a bit more, at 510... (I used a 11mm thick 2nd leaf, whereas Jack used the thinner 9mm leaf...) My camper is quite a bit heavier than Jack's, so hopefully I'll be OK... The thick overload sends the rate through the roof, and being parabolic, it's hard to calculate the rate effect. Unfortunate, since both our trucks probably ride on the overload with the camper in the bed.

 

[PGW]

Are you still happy with the King shocks? Do you get any noise from the rod ends on them?

 

[justcuz]

Like I mentioned earlier, in some applications, I have flipped the overload so it allows the springs to go negative slightly.
Toyota did that with Tacoma overloads.
Also the 88-98 trucks had a longer overload that tapered to thinner material as it got toward the end of the leaf making it a progressive overload. It has wear pads on the ends, but if there was enough room you could replace the wear pad with a small urethane bump stop bolted through the wear pad hole in the end of the spring. This would engage the overload a little earlier than a shorter one but the progressive nature of the thinner end would take some harshness out. The comparison photo is not big enough to cover the entire long overload, it is 41" long

 

[locrwln]

Are you still happy with the King shocks? Do you get any noise from the rod ends on them?

I am. I can't say that on the highway they are any better than any other upgraded shock, but off-road, I have yet to experience any fade. I would still like an expert to dial them in as they were kind of set up on guesses. Of course, I'm not even sure they would/could get better. Are they worth it? Not sure I tell someone to go out and spend that kind of money on them. My main reason is that I went from worn out stockers to these, so I don't know how well a basic upgraded bilstein or any other shock would have worked.
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I do not. I have a friend that has gone through several rod ends on his Radflo's, so I have kept an eye on them, but so far, they are still very solid and I haven't noticed any noise/movement from them.

Like I mentioned earlier, in some applications, I have flipped the overload so it allows the springs to go negative slightly.
Toyota did that with Tacoma overloads.
Also the 88-98 trucks had a longer overload that tapered to thinner material as it got toward the end of the leaf making it a progressive overload. It has wear pads on the ends, but if there was enough room you could replace the wear pad with a small urethane bump stop bolted through the wear pad hole in the end of the spring. This would engage the overload a little earlier than a shorter one but the progressive nature of the thinner end would take some harshness out. The comparison photo is not big enough to cover the entire long overload, it is 41" long

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I should have looked at mine last night, since I was washing it up, but I forgot, so I don't know if these taper or not. In my pm conversations with 1stDeuce, I told him that is the one area that the "overload" portion could be better as it makes for a pretty significant rebound effect. The ride isn't harsh or jarring, it just wants to rebound pretty hard when it compresses.
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Of course the only time that is an issue is loaded off-road. When I am using it as truck, I appreciate the fact that it will compress the regular springs until they contact the overload and then they seem to control the load very well.
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Pick your poison I guess.
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Jack

 

[justcuz]

You guys should check into the 88-98 overloads.
Your pictures on page 18 of this thread show the ends of your overloads to be considerably thicker than my photo. They may even be the same length, the shorter overload pictured is from a Tahoe.
I got those overloads off of a 1993 K2500 light duty when I bought the springs to beef up my 1993 Suburban leafs.

I have some inspirational pictures to add here or PM you about a local 4 runner. I just have to catch it in the right light. My last 2 attempts failed because he parks it under a tree.

 

[locrwln]

I'll have to look closer at the '99 donor pack.
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And post away!!
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Jack

 

[justcuz]

The 99's being the first year of the new body style may be different.

I looked at your 4Runner project. The one in my neighborhood is running Toyota axles and smaller tires I believe.

 

[escadventure]

Care to post a pic of your truck since your last suspension tweaks?

 

[locrwln]

I don't have any real good side shots handy, but here are some from different angles.

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Hope that helps.
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Jack

 

[justcuz]

Here are the lousy 4Runner pictures. Still not very good shots. Has rear discs. Sorry about the crookedness!

I have not resigned up with Pirate since the new password fiasco.
3 new passwords and none work! Piss on them!

 

[stioc]

^justcuz, great to see your avatar pic (I just ran into it here in Jack's thread). Not sure where you found it but that's my truck made up as a bday cake (my 40th) courtesy of my gf. The kid in the pic is my buddy's son. I have some of those pics in my build thread