How to: Chevy 63" Leaf Spring Swap

damn thats nice! Love the jeep lettering!

 

6000 lbs loaded in a 1st gen??? What are you carrying?!?

 

I'm using 3 leaves on my truck. Something else to drool over haha

 

Approaching 6,000 lbs is fairly easy when you are carrying everything needed for a two week adventure.

 

Maybe with a rtt and bed rack I could see it in a 4door.
Loaded for a 2 week trip with a full size cooler and clothing and food and grill with heavy tires im still no were near that.
Doesn’t matter to me. Was just curious what all he was taking to reach that weight. I’m sure those cvs and rear axle loves that extra weight.

Best picture I have loaded down with 63s in the rear

 

So I see @drr @IDtrucks @allenfab @malburg114 all have first gens with 63’s. Do you guys know anyone else?

also @SnowroxKT

@IDtrucks i hear you are relatively light weight. How do the 63’s ride for you?

 

GFC, 35's, steel bumpers/skids/sliders/swingout, 30 gal of fuel (tank plus cans), dual batteries, fridge, tools, climbing gear, girlfriend, dog. It's usually more like 5700 when I'm by myself on a 2 week trip, that was the max I've ever weighed in at.

 

Ya, i pulled the overload so im down to 3 leafs. They're well worn in by now, i think they ride pretty good, for what they are. Im certainly not tuning anything for speed. Most of what I do with the truck is day trips and rock crawling. So the bed has food/drink, spare tire, and tools (except when i go all overland with these goons).

Getting the full travel out of the 63s shock wise has always been my struggle. Next iteration i might just send the shocks through the bed, but dan seems to have found the perfect shock with ADS short bodies for the range of the 63s.

overall ive been pretty darn happy with the performance (increase over shit factory leafs) and versatility of the 63s. would reccomend. Ive got the replacement set out back that i got for...$40, when i want a stiffer ride again, or if i snap a leaf, just put in bushings and im good to go

 

Mines fairly light in the rear on day trips. Just a 39 in spare and box with spares and a cooler. I outboarded the rear shocks with hydro bumps and they do really well now in the fast stuff and still do well in the crawling. Mines just a 3 leaf with a Toyota leaf added in. My plan is to add a bypass to the rear and hopefully it’ll do even better in the go fast.

 

thanks man. People have mentioned that 63s aren’t good for fast stuff. Is that because they have “stock” up travel and without hydro bumps people are just topping out on their bump stops?

I don’t do any fast stuff up here in NH, just crawling. I’m thinking I’ll just mess with the packs I have right now and if I can’t find a way to give my truck a softer ride I’ll try the chevys.

 

No clue on why others say they’re not good for fast stuff.

my front hanger is frenched into the frame and has a 6 in rear shackle. The guys at Arcadia off road (check Instagram for the silver 4 door tacomas) runs them and they do a ton of go fast and jumping and dunes and seem to do really well.

I also use as much travel as I can out of them. I put them negative into the arch for the most uptravel I can get out of them which is a surprisingly a lot. I think weight has a little to do with it and a softer bump stop helps as well. Without a spare mine rides like crap and my last bumps were hard as a rock so that didn’t help

 

well I've finally committed to the 63"ers!
getting the stock hangers and shackle mounts were easy with an air chisel but air hammer isnt budging the remaining solid rivets.
Is everyone drilling them out or just leaving the nubs after getting them flush to the rail?

 

Easiest way I've found to remove them is a balljoint press, but you don't really need to remove them for the swap if you don't want

 

genius! a c-clamp worked just fine for the ones I really wanted out at the spare tire crossmember thing.

 

Question for you guys using the ruff stuff frame outrigger. Did you need to notch out the stock rear bumper bracket to get the shackle mount rear wards enough?
I guess the majority of you guys don’t even have a stock rear bumper anymore.

pic is with the spring at “neutral”.

oh yea, almost pulled the wheel speed sensor wires apart. oops.
Hopefully I can just reroute it to the left side similar to how the brake lines are run. unless someone has found an extension somewhere?

 

I have a pelfreybilt rear bumper and had to shave the end off the mount to clear the outrigger. Same one.

I also extended the abs lines with solder and heat shrink. I've heard if you make them too long it can start turning on the abs light, but I only extended them maybe 8" tops

 

cool, I ended up trimming the bumper bracket and notching out 3/4" or so of the outrigger.
Good to know you haven't had issues extending them. I assume you kept the stock routing then?

finally got everything measured and lined up and mostly welded up.

Partially for my own record keeping:

all measurements relative to a "level" frame, using vertical as the reference to measure angles from
Everything is quick measurements without fully jouncing and letting anything settle:

4-5/16" higher than stock (hopefully this'll settle out at least an inch!), with a shackle angle of 39.4 degrees

using my spare main leaf only (all other leafs removed) with the axle weight hanging (no wheel/tires), and no flex just straight droop:
17.4 degrees

I eventually need to measure the leaf eye to eye virtual angle to get a "real" angle measurements but from reading up on various leaf/shackle angle threads all over the internet, this seems like a reasonable starting point.

next step: shifting the fuel tank over a touch to a full weld on that front hanger and then lifting the back of the bed to get better access to the top of the outrigger.
and then shock relocation time!

 

Traveling back in time, I started running chevy 63s when I was 16 years old in high school on my 85 pu. Built 2 more rigs after that truck, and 63s have been all I've ever ran in the rear. Always have had 12/14" shocks triangulated under the bed, so always got max travel out of the leafs. With leafs front and rear, I could flex out on a 44" tire. Heres a couple photos from a handful of years ago on one of my builds for old times sake.
How to snap all 3 rear leafs: 1. Achieve full flex. 2. Achieve full bind 3. Let the 2rz eat

Heres another image of the last wheeler I built, just to show how low I managed to build it. Had a 3 leaf, well worn in 63" pack. 4" shackle, with the shackle at probably a 70° angle at ride height. Frenched in front hanger. The truck had a 22" frame height with true 40" tires (35s on the orange 1st gen pu for reference)

Stoked to put some 63s under my new 3rd gen Tacoma someday soon, super rad to see all your guys' swaps!

 

this is at droop with just axle weight (no wheel/tires) on the full 3 leaf pack (overload is removed from the 3+1), I still need to confirm with the limit straps if it's at the full droop I mocked up on the mono leaf but looks like I might get away with just bending and rotating the stock brackets and extending the pinch points for the rear wheel speed sensor wires

 

So for a 14" Travel Shock, with the 5" Shackle (can you go to 7" with 14" of travel?) what length of limit strap should I need?
OP says 18" but the trail gear site says "When selecting, choose a limit strap that is 1” shorter than the shock to prevent full extension and possible breakage of shock."
So would that be 13"?

Want to do as much research as possible and ask questions before the money starts leaving hands.