How to: Chevy 63" Leaf Spring Swap

16s are going in mine no bed cutting . But my set up is unlike anyone else's. I'm looking for more bump travel than anything probably set them up to only get about .5" or so of more droop.

 

What kind of shocks are you getting and how exactly are you getting them to fit? I'm genuinely curious now. My Bilstein 7100s are the shortest 14" shock on the market that I could find, can't imagine fitting a 16" from King or Fox.

 

Seent it you sent it to me once before it's pretty wild.

Just get a few more different packs and we'll make you one crazy bastard leaf pack. You can always do what I've seen from a guy in charlotte did and make a quick disconnect helper air bag set up if you ever get heavy hauling shit. It was pretty slick.

 

That's what I've been thinking of doing...and I can keep my 3+1 as backup, in case some shit gets bent and I need a temporary replacement.

 

Kings and a 1" body lift with the AG relocation shoved up as high as a LB would allow. So it's ~1.5" higher on the top mount than typical and a 16" king is only 2" longer compressed than a 14". It was months and months of looking researching talking to some guys. I made the mistake originally of listening to some saying it'll never work. Now that I got it done and have actual measurements I see now that my hunch/theory was correct that I could make it work. Oh well live and learn. Also I paid a lot of attention to other builds in other forums that are more hardcore than here. From all different rigs, they had a lot of good info there that I haven't seen in here. Guys that have built some crazy shit like the video Jeff posted.

 

Damn. Never considered the body lift option for more shock to fit. That's smart. I know those AG relocations are expensive, why not consider a set of shock hoops?

 

Or make the bump-stops and extensions removable, and have a second set on hand that are much higher to limit the uptravel when the truck is weighted down...would probably ride like shit, but whatever...

 

Didn't have the time to make them. If I had a DD and a place to do my own shit I would of made my own for a perfect fit where I wanted the top mount. I would of probably made something similar to AG set up. I'm not a fan of the hoop. I think the tubing takes up a lot of space especially at the top. Maybe a hybrid of the 2 would be cool. But most hoops that I've seen because it's one solid tube making the arch the top mount sits a lot lower in the wheel well than the tower like AG. If that makes sense.

 

Hmmmmm that's not a horrible idea off the bat. Just gotta make sure the leafs loaded down wouldn't go negative.

 

Take a look at mine. I used 2 pieces of tubing. I could've still pushed it higher by about an inch or so though if I wanted but my shocks fit so I wasn't too worried. To fix that I could've integrated the top shock mount in to the tubing but like I said, it wasn't necessary for me.

 

I wouldn't call it smart. I was just seeing what everyone else was doing and thought outside the box also the reason I chose the springs I did. I went a direction no one else has tried but have seen custom set ups similar I just found a stock spring that was similar for cheaper.

I glanced at yours just didn't study it. I was talking off the shelf products. Again my biggest limiting factor was time and space with being able to build it myself. I've seen some of the LT guys integrate their shock mounts into the tubing but most of that tubing is 2" and they are really braced a lot with the bed cages and what not. Not sure if you did that you would end up making that hoop weakened or not and need some bracing.

 

I've go it on my list of things to build, but my intent was to have the shock hoops welded to the frame and bolted through the bed where the bolt heads would be coming through the wheel well. Those bolts would then be attached to a cross brace that would tie both shock hoops in together inside the bed and in to the front two bed bolts. So technically no "cutting" but a little bit of drilling. Hope that made sense.

 

No it does I've been looking at cages that really keep a lot of space in the bed still. Brings some more rigidity and makes some easy places to make for mounting things like my spare.

 

My thinking as well. But having the softopper makes getting to things in the front quickly kind of difficult. Hence the swingout I built. Of course, one day that might get cut off. Who knows. My truck is never done.

 

How do you like those 7100's? I just bought some 5165's yesterday, but the 7100's are only $10 more...

 

Absolutely love them. I ran the 5125s for a while and had major issues with body roll and the general feeling of looseness when driving. I bought the 7100s soon after pre valved at their most aggressive valving and I can drive much more comfortably on the road and safely. Doesn't feel like I'm going to flip my truck just by going around an off ramp anymore.

Here's the link. https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/bilst...r-shock-absorber-ak7114r06/_/R-BBGL-AK7114R06

 

I'll stick with the 5165's for now..I just noticed on the 7100's the line for the RR is perpendicular to the top eyelet, which won't work for me since I'm planning on using Ford towards...I need a parallel arrangement, which the 5165's have.

 

I really would like to do a combo of these 2 minus the shocks and tubing going through the bed.

 

Custom valved kings FTMFW

 

Ya know, that's the reason I didn't use my Ford towers. I didn't like how they made the top eyelet perpendicular to the bottom. It works, but I just wanted the option to upgrade shocks in the future without needing new mounts.