Rear shock lenght

I didn't say you had to spend any money, unless you already bought the wrong shocks. I do all my own work/fab BTW.

 

OP, as proud as you are of your superior engineering incite, why not post a photo of your handiwork.

 

there's nothing really wrong with what fallguy is doing. for the most part these leaf springs are engineered to flex to extreme degrees. worst case scenario (so long as they're not horribly rusted) the leafs will just bend over backwards and become bent permanently forcing him to buy new leafs. That's it.

i personally wouldn't do this mainly because I can always buy add a leaf helpers that do exactly what he did without that extra risk.

he obviously has the tools to do this with ease. but just doesn't want to spend the extra 70 bucks, or doesn't know these exist.

fall guy. i do recommend buying these leaf spring helpers before continuing to use your truck more. those helper springs are there for a reason. heavy weight sustainability. you're completely removing that feature that was designed into the truck when it was made. and the add on helpers aren't all THAT expensive.

 

The leaf pack is meant to flex to an extreme degree, but it is meant to have a continuous arch in one direction or another/have a double arch (w shape). Flipping the overload causes there to be two large pressure points on the intermediate leafs, which will result in broken leafs at some point. The overloads are not meant to flex the same amount as the intermediate leafs, and they certainly aren't meant to completely change their arch like the intermediate leaves.

This is the reason some people don't recommend add-a-leafs. Whether or not they consistently cause failures I don't know, but those leafs are meant to flex like the factory leafs.

 

I'm curious to what your qualifications are to this claim. You have a higher engineering degree than the Toyota Engineers? That is impressive.

As an automotive engineer from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), I can tell you that you are clearly incorrect.

If you think that we engineers spent 4+ years studying suspension design and building cars from the ground up but have no 'mechanical sense', then I am extremely curious as to your qualifications, and where, and under whom you studied.

Inverting your overload won't cause your truck to explode. But it will cause what is supposed to be a flexible portion of your vehicles suspension to become ridged (as overloads are designed not to flex). So for a free upgrade there is a 2" lift with near zero suspension flexibility, and awful performance.

I would not recommend that anyone do this mod.

 

I was the one that made the "bump stop" comment. Im made that reference because, as has been said multipe times, that fat overload is there to "stop" the leaf pack from further negative arch, therefore it is not meant or designed to flex with the pack.

 

My qualifications show in everything that I've built front the ground up.come to my world and I will blow your mind with some of the things I do.no,they don't all make sense,no they are not all by the book....but they work.from the crawlers I've built to an 800 HP Toyota starlet.I wasn't trying to be condisending to engineers.I was just simply stating my opinion. Y'all are good at what you do.and I'm good at fixing what y'all thought you had right!....behind every good engineer there is an even better mechanic to make his ideas work.

 

Please explain to me how a helper spring with a negative arch will help the leaf pack from having further negative arch?

 

And for all of the fellas talking about ride quality.... Its a truck for gods sake!!! I don't use mine as a mall crawler...its a truck,not a Prius or a Cadillac...its not supposed to ride all plush and luxurious.... ITS A TRUCK

 

And I will get pics of how my "ridgid" suspension flexes next weekend when I run up to tray mtn.

 

Oh yeah.....how about all the recalls on Chevy's and Toyota's???? Bet an "engineer didn't have anything to do with those problems right??

 

Good job Fallguy. I'm gonna do that to mine. Most of the guys on these forums are "forum pros" with no real hands on experience.
Lets see some pictures of these tragically broken springs. These springs wear out for every owner at some point.

 

Agreed man.I've never been one to follow the "norm" I make my own path.I've been wrenching and building things for as long as I can remember. Most of these folks on here just want the notarity of having the best parts money can buy....me,eh,not so much.if it functions and does what I want it to,then I'm happy.if not,I will build it into what I want

 

You do need to get longer bump stops on there or you will blow out the new shocks from bottoming out, especially since you carry heavy loads as you stated....as far as the blocks go, not the best way to gain 2" in height, you get more axle wrap, you also might want to get limiting straps so the inverse doesn't happen to the shocks at full droop...

Interested to see how long the springs last with the flex point being moved to a non designed point....

I do applaud your outside the box thinking, at worst you will have to replace the springs if they break....I prefer a bit softer ride, to each his own...

BTW, did you install a longer brake line from frame to third member? And did you adjust the brake compensator?

 

Didn't do anything to the brakes except the e-brake cable.put it under the spring instead of on top. Had close to 900#'s in the bed and never came close to the bumstops..ifnrhe springs do break....and im not saying they won't,I I'll have a custom leaf pack built to my specifications.limiting straps are a very good idea! Thanks.that's the kind of thinking I need right there

 

By having a negative arch the helper spring has a small contact point, as the suspension cycles up the contact point increases, increasing resistance in the spring. Thus making it similar in concept to a progressive spring. The Toyota springs are relatively flat, if they had more arch the helper spring could be flatter for the same effect.

I applaud mechanics ingenuity, it really brings us lots of good stuff. With the helper inverted like that in the picture, you can see that the stress loads from your suspension cycling will be moved to the end points of the spring. That combined with 900lbs in the bed is likely going to exceed their design limits. It's fine for you to take risks to push your design, but I wouldn't recommend anything to anyone on the forum that 'might break' on such a critical vehicle component. Safety first, most of the people here use their trucks as daily drivers. Purpose built off road only rock crawlers are a completely different story.

As you mentioned, the correct thing to do is replace it with a proper custom leaf pack, which would also give a much better ride.

As for recalls, engineers are just people. Sometimes it is a bad design, sometimes it is the bean counters, and sometimes it is an unaccounted for outside condition, like spiders cracking mazdas fuel tanks.

 

Yeah when I put my lift on with a 1.5" AAL in the rear I flipped my overload spring and it has been fine for the last two years I have had it that way. It didn't affect the ride quality at all. I'm glad I did it.

 

I also added longer rear shocks