How to: Chevy 63" Leaf Spring Swap

I didn't realize you had already done a new crossmember. Those towers are made to take a lot of force, so with the x brace you have now, the boxing, and a 1/4" plate tower that's not supporting a coilovers, I think you'll be good without a tower to tower brace. Of course it's great if you can fit one, but I wouldn't hinder the functionality of the flatbed for one.

Are you angling both towers backwards, or keeping the one front and one back orientation?

 

Awesome. Good to know. Even if I have to put a brace on the towers, it’s better safe than sorry. As for orientation I have no idea. Ideally it would be cool to have the lower shock mounts on the back of the axle to keep them protected. If an anti wrap bar is needed I would do it center line with the driveshaft to help protect that. Assuming the carrier bearing crossmember would need to be redone so it would be beefy to handle antiwrap. Project is snowballing but all in time.

 

In the process of making some strike pads for the bump stops. How much negative arch is acceptable with these?

The leafs are just about to go into negative arch and I still have some uptravel left in my shocks and I’m not close to my bump stops yet either. Any thoughts?

 

that a great idea. i think a block would work

 

I dont have a great answer or how much negative arch but I just made mine easily adjustable from the top. I made a quick 2.5" tall extension but I think I can go shorter. Let me know if you find a number somewhere.

 

perfect. Thanks. I tapped the u bolt plates so I can just weld up a strike pad similiar to @TacoTuesday603 and bolt it up. Have the gm bumps bolted to the frame currently. Cheap and off the shelf.

just trying to determine where to bump it at the moment.

 

Finally got it all fully welded in and painted. Wow what a process lol.