How to: Chevy 63" Leaf Spring Swap

How much negative arch is acceptable to you guys? These are my leafs right now with about 5” of uptravel maxing out tundra spec shocks. Im planning on adding a tacoma leaf to the bottom of the pack and bumping it around 5” before doing my shock relocation.

 

That’s pretty bad. How much extra weight do you have on it ?

Just noticed you may be flexing ?

 

Yes thats full flex haha

 

All the trucks I’ve done go negative arch when fully stuffed.

 

Ended up putting in a fourth leaf from a stock tacoma pack. I should have ran four leafs to begin with. A lot less body roll on the road and less sketchy when negative arching the pack. Finally ready to relocate the shock.

 

Finally got around to doing the shock relocation. Super happy with this setup. Still have some uptravel to go too.

 

Great looking build. What are the wheel specs?

 

I usually bump these setups around an inch or a little more down from here, negative arch isnt the best for the 63s but yet again they are $60 a pair, so just depends on how much you care/bring a spare main leaf if you are negative arching them that much.

 

I had a great time yesterday. the 63s and 7100s helped me climb a few spots I struggled with beforehand. I actually never got the rear off the ground.




This was more of a shakedown run for the 40 to see what works / what doesn't and more simply - to see if I could drive this to/on/from the trail. Success.

 

Your leaf pack droops and pulls apart so well wtf

 

Alright, rookie here in need of some schooling. I have read through pages of this, seen other's builds and asked some user's directly but there is still one thing I don't quite understand. Some guys say to get 12" travel, some 14" travel, and others say get the 16" travel shocks if you do not mind cutting you bed. That is great and all, but why would you buy a specific travel shock before you set your ride height and see your up / down travel limits of your setup?

For instance, lets say I get springs, the ruff stuff kit, etc., prep my truck, and weld in all of the hangers, and set my shackle up so my ride height gives me a matched 3" of lift. Isn't this the point where I raise a rear tire, measure where I should set my bump, then droop my truck out measuring my down travel, then order the appropriate shock and set up my shock relocation? If you bias droop, couldn't you get more total travel than 16" depending how geometry pans out, and shop outside of the typical "tacoma" shocks?

If I am missing something, please help me understand. One flaw I see with this route is: with some company's lead time, my truck could be waiting months for that shock to come in!

 

In my setup, I only get about 13" of veritcal travel (axle drooped out on the lift).
Articulation wise, I use 15.5" of shock shaft since the shocks are outboard of the leafs.
If you ran 14s you'd still get the same vertical travel as me, but you wouldnt have as much articulation.

 

Ok, I see, that part makes sense. I understand the benefit of the longer shock in this case.
Is it possible to set it up to get >16" of travel, or is there a reason why this seems to be the upper limit in a lot of folk's builds?

 

Pretty much the full free arch of the 63 pack plus the shackle. May be able to get a little more droop out of a lifted 63 pack (more free arch).

Other option is to throw a heavier axle in to pull the leafs down more lol

 

Got it, so what you are saying is we need 1:1 scale brass wheel weights, lol.
Ok, so the reason I can skip step 1 in my question is because more or less the testing has been done by a handful of folks, and that more or less would be my answer anyways.

 

Found a rock to flex the rear yesterday and tested clearance in the front. There was a stock tacoma with us but it couldn't get on the rock without scratching up the bumper so we didn't get a comparison.

 

I would absolutely set up the 63 swap and set your bump stops to prevent too much negative arch before doing a shock relocation. that way you have an idea of your travel numbers. If you go with an archive relocation kit (or any kit that fits the shock UNDER the bed) you really shouldnt go longer than a 14” shock due to the length of the shock body you would lose too much uptravel. I set my shocks at about 6.5” of shaft showing at ride height on a 14” shock.

 

yeah that is my plan. I’m fixing on running Barnes towers and I’m willing to try to pop through the bed a bit for 16”. I think I’m going to just take it slow and break it down so weekend one is Chevy swap weekend and weekend two is shock relocation.

I hit up deaver to see if they could make a custom military wrapped pack, waiting to hear back, else I’ll just get a junkyard 4 pack and go from there, testing travel with and without the OL

 

@Buttskevin21 did you have to extend or do any modifications to the Barnes universal towers to pop out of your bed for your 16” shocks?