El Taco Diablo... Mall Crawlin, now with LT for tall curbs

Received the 6 inch shackles last night. Drilled them out for 9/16 Bolts (they were drilled to 1/2).
Cleaned up and painted the other leaf I'll be adding back in.

Should be able to try another test fit tonight.


Also ordered these yesterday.
https://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/R1771.html

Should make it easier to get the rear shocks mounted when that time comes.

 

Getting an estimation of ride height with a full load. Going to leave that sit overnight and see how much these leafs sag.

I have an add a leaf going to be delivered tomorrow for if I need it.

 

Didn't your Leaf pack come with like seven add a leafs?

 

Right now, I'm actually not unhappy with the shackle angle.

 

No, mine was a 5 pack, but the leaves are thicker and longer than most use.

With the add a leaf it'll be a 6 pack.

 

Damn, that's already a full 3/4ton truck pack then. What did your truck scale at?

I just picked up one of those 5 leaf packs for another member we are going to swap but he's only 5400lbs total so the rear is like 2600ish of that

 

My truck scales at just under 6K

 

Heavy bias rearward?

 

I ask because the weight handling vs lift of 63s aren't connected closely. You can end up with a very heavy pack that doesn't lift much. Might ride like a ton of bricks. 63s usually ride close to flat.

 

If I remember correctly it was close to even front and back.

5980 was what it weighed in at, and that was with a full tank, completely loaded for a trip and with me in it, I'm about 250.

I've lightened up the rtt rack, shed some tools, I won't need as many spare parts now, and a lot of the spares are lighter than they were.

If I remember right, it was pretty close to even front and rear.

 

Guess you'll find out, a full 3/4 ton truck leaf pack might be a bit much for ya. I'd probably play with shackle mount location and shackle length to achieve the ride height since OE 63 leafs don't have much arch to add on their own, you're basically just adding the thickness of the spring to your height. The truck that pack would have come out of scales at about 7000lb unloaded. Just don't want ya to end up too over spring, no amount of shock valving afterward can fix that ya know?

 

Just found the tag... It was a little bias to the back.

3120 in the back
2740 in the front

So, it was bias about 400 pounds to the back.

The weight is going to be a bit different now though. The back will be heavier than it was, but a lot of it will be unsprung. Axle is heavier, traction bar is pretty heavy.

 

100% get ya.

At this point the first thing I want to do is see if these things sag overnight. I don't want to start messing with things till I know what the springs are going to do.

I started with a 5 inch shackle and already changed it to 6 inch.

Right now, under weight, the ride height is real close to what it was before I took the old set up apart.

I was running +4 inch with added 700 pound Alcans... you'd think those would be too stiff but they weren't. (I'd say that would actually, probably, be close to a "3/4 ton" pack).

 

Before I took the old set up apart I was about 14.5 from center of axle to bottom of frame. Right now, I'm right at 15 from center of axle to bottom of frame. And the shackle angle doesn't look too bad.

It also has quite a bit of spring when I push up and down on the back corners. A bit more than what I had with the Alcans.

The leafs are close to flat, which I gather is what they are supposed to be... that's how they are on my wife's Silverado (with 63s). Mine have more arch than hers do.

 

Need to lighten the load some more? I'll take the toolboxes away for you haha

 

One thing I will say about how I loaded the truck last night. There is a LOT more weight out near the end of the bed than there normally would be. So I'm sure the springs are more compressed than they will be under real world conditions.

We'll have to see how much they settled when I get home from work.

Also, the gate/swingout/tire carrier is WAY heavier than I remember it being. I was considering re-building it. Now, I'm positively going to rebuild it.

 

So, they didn't sag at all. And with this "full load" on the truck I still have a little over 1/2 inch more between center of axle to bottom of frame. That says my ride height is really, pretty much where I want it.

Now, for shackle angle. I'm reading in a bunch of places that with 63s you want around 30°.

I thought my shackle angles looked good, but now that I have an angle finder on them it's saying I'm not close to 30°.




I'd have to be at this angle to be at 30°



Damn... that's a really shallow shackle angle.

@Speedytech7 what angle are you running on your shackles? Are you happy with them?

 

I'm at 45° I think, I measured it early on with just the bed on. It's a bit more when loaded down, nearing 38° I'd guess. They ride pretty damn decent. I'm on the 5" shackles though so the shackle movement for given amount of weight would be more extreme. And I prefer my truck at about 2.25-2.5" over stock lift wise

 

Ya, I just moved it to 37° and it dropped the truck an inch. That ain't gunna work lol.