Broken frame at rear leaf spring/Flatbed build

Yeah it looks really heavy to me. His best bet might be 63" chevy leaf springs, and then use the ones from a 2500 instead of a 1500.

 

My Dad has a rust bucket 95. I put a flatbed on it several years ago. He has hauled up to 500' of feed on it, plus his tool box fully loaded at the time, so roughly 700lbs. I added some helpers similar to these and it leveled the truck back out and seems to help with the load. His springs are of course the originals from 95.

https://tinyurl.com/wyka4cf





I'd do a better job on the rear bumper if I did it again. I have since gotten a 60amp plasma cutter. At that time, I was using a 4' grinder with cutoff wheels, so...

I had some scrap stainless and used it for the tops of the fender area.

 

Thanks guys! As someone with zero experience with metal work I'm really pleased with the progress! It's definitely been a challenge though. A lot of mistakes but also a lot of learning.

I tend to do a lot of overkill in anything I do. I'm probably looking at about 200lbs over factory which I can live with. The only thing I need to add is a couple supports for the roll bar and then I'm done. Thankfully the wood is pretty light.

I do have a set of Dakar leaf springs with a 1" lift so everything should sit ok. I do want to eventually fab up at a winch bumper in the front which should level everything out. I do have heavier duty coils.

I do still need to fab up the new brake lines and an exhaust. Stay tuned!

 

Got a little bit more done today. Bent some extra stock and tacked in some supports. Next is to pull off the roll bar and complete all the welds.

 

Tacked in some 1inch od tubing for some added protection for the cab. Pullee off the roll bar to finish up some the welding. So far so good.

 

Fianlly finished the welding and grinding. But down around 4 passes and ground it smooth.

 

I’ve seen worse. That can be fixed.

 

Mounted up the rollbar and got it all welded in. I used some 1.5" solid posts for the rear attachment and slid 1" collars from 2.25" OD tube for more welding surface and a cleaner look. I think it's looking pretty decent even with my limited welding ability.

 

Used some 4" angle and chopped down it down for another attachment point to the frame.

 

Got the bed off with the help of some my buddies. Built a crude platform that will allow me to get some of the welding done in the spots I couldn't get to primary where the rollbar meets the decking. I'll also get her all painted up before I put it back on the rig.

 

While the bed was off i got brand new 5100s mounted along with OME Dakar leafsprings, greaseable shackles, bushings, and ubolts. This setup is supposed to add roughly 2 inches if I remember correctly so hopefully it'll be able to handle the extra weight of all this damn steel.

 

Your builds got me inspired! It's been a goal to learn to weld for a bit now and damn all youve done to your truck is impressive. Keep at it!

 

Thanks bud! Initially it was pretty frustrating seeing my first welds and how rough they looked. I've definitely improved but nowhere near where I'd like to be.

The benefit of this project is that there's a lot of different welds, tube work, and metal fab so I'm learning a lot.

 

Hell yeah. Eventually I hope to pull my bed and clean, plate reinforce, and por15 my frame. Threads like this fuel the desire and confidence for it!

 

So in my efforts to build my flatbed conversion I made it way too heavy. I installed new OME Dakar leafsprings with shackles, and new 5100s but given the weight they're not cutting it. I also added 32s which only compounded my problem. I just don't have the travel nor clearance and the existence setup is working way too hard even while the flatbed is empty. I plan on mooning out the side rails for more clearance but that doesn't really solve the problem.

I have a few options on how to solve this and, being new to the suspension game, I could really need some guidance. So here's my options:

-Add blocks under the leafsprings and an air bag suspension to ease some of the stress on the springs. I'm leaning towards this option as the springs, shackles, and 5100s are brand new and won't require further fab work. Plus I wanted to add a compressor anyways.

-Take out the OMEs leafsprings and replace them with leafsprings from an F250 or Tundra and fab up new shackles or hangers as needed.

-Try to add helper leafs, blocks as needed.

-Scrap the whole project, admit defeat, and put the boring factory bed on there.

-Any other ideas?

I don't plan on doing any extreme offroading but it would be nice to have the option. I'm ok with sacrificing some road comfort for ability

 

Pics for refrence.

 

The root of your problem is all the extra weight. All the extra springs and airbags in the world won't fix that - and you'll still have all that extra stress on brakes and drivetrain.

I would look at cutting holes in it. I'm not sure the dimensions, but if you took that hole you've got on the back corner and repeated it up and down the sides, you might be able to shave some weight there. We can easy some some back of the napkin calculations to guess at what that might achieve.

 

Agreed. It looks like I can pull some supports out, cut the side rails amd shorten the whole bed by about 13 inches, moon the sides and probably shed about 150-200lbs. I think that will do a lot for ride height.

 

I have a single cab with a camper shell and wooden shelving system I built in place which probably weights 150 pounds. And I regularly carry 75 pounds of tools.

I have the exact same rear suspension setup as yours, installed 2 years ago. I have 31.5 inch tires. I don't get any sag unless the back of the truck is completely full of stuff like when you move.

I think that you are going to have to lighten it a lot more than you think, if my experience means anything.

I do have to say that my rear setup equals my springs being pretty much flat, and I don't seem to have any ill effects on handling, etc.

 

Agreed. I could even cut out some section and replace it with some expanded steel. If I could drop close to 300lbs I'll be in good shape.

I'm thinking about mounting the spare tire against the roll bar and remove the spare tire hanger as well.