Good Lord, It's a couple of Fords (1964 Ford 2000 & 1949 8N)

[bucket]

Dana 70U from you’ll never guess what.

I saved that piece and both rear frame rails/springs from the original frame as I intend on making mounts/shackles t convert the ram to 2003+ springs/shackle flip. The idea with saving those parts is I should be able to design/build everything using the old rails for mock-up, then once done, just install onto the truck.

Basically doing what this kit from Thuren does, but hopefully for much, much less.

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*Dumb question alert*

What would be the purpose in that? Longer, wider springs?

 

[legopnuematic]

*Dumb question alert*

What would be the purpose in that? Longer, wider springs?

The main reason for going to third gen leafs is they are a “flipped” shackle stock, just a few inches longer than the second gen leafs, both are 3” wide for diesel trucks. At least for Thuren, the springs that come with their kit ^ above are 3rd gen springs, which is why the kit includes new hangers to correct the geometry.

As you know, 4wd 2nd gens use 4” blocks in the rear, doing the shackle flip results in a 4” lift, allowing the blocks to be deleted, but with the effect of probably moving the axle centerline forward, and potentially altering the pinion angle, likely requiring offset zero rates to recenter the axle, or relocated front hangers and maybe shims.

So the block delete, flipped shackle, and more options for aftermarket soft ride springs for 03+ trucks are the draw, and I think it would be a fun fab project, I’d like to get into suspension design/fab, this would be a good reason to do so. Totally unnecessary, but I’d like to build a long arm front setup for the truck. That’s way, way down the pipeline though. Oh, and Shane at some point will probably put a set of Carli rear springs in his 05, so I can get his old stock springs if/when he does that. Build it around them, then if I feel the need/want to, go to aftermarket soft ride springs later.

For comparison sake, stock 2nd gen

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And third gen.

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[bucket]

The main reason for going to third gen leafs is they are a “flipped” shackle stock, just a few inches longer than the second gen leafs, both are 3” wide for diesel trucks. At least for Thuren, the springs that come with their kit ^ above are 3rd gen springs, which is why the kit includes new hangers to correct the geometry.

As you know, 4wd 2nd gens use 4” blocks in the rear, doing the shackle flip results in a 4” lift, allowing the blocks to be deleted, but with the effect of probably moving the axle centerline forward, and potentially altering the pinion angle, likely requiring offset zero rates to recenter the axle, or relocated front hangers and maybe shims.

So the block delete, flipped shackle, and more options for aftermarket soft ride springs for 03+ trucks are the draw, and I think it would be a fun fab project, I’d like to get into suspension design/fab, this would be a good reason to do so. Totally unnecessary, but I’d like to build a long arm front setup for the truck. That’s way, way down the pipeline though. Oh, and Shane at some point will probably put a set of Carli rear springs in his 05, so I can get his old stock springs if/when he does that. Build it around them, then if I feel the need/want to, go to aftermarket soft ride springs later.

For comparison sake, stock 2nd gen

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And third gen.

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I clearly don't pay much attention to the Dodge trucks, despite being around them all the time. I've even got my buddy's '05 here for rust repair and I've had the bed off of it... didn't even notice the compression shackles, lol. That particular truck is a half ton though. But I'm around 4 different Cummins powered trucks on a regular basis.

 

[legopnuematic]

@bucket something kind of neat I had discovered in my research on the third gen leafs/suspension is that SRT10 trucks got a sort of slapper bar/snubber traction device factory.

(I didn’t add the circle lol)

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I also had found out that 2000-2006 Ford Expeditions also used a snubber/slapper bar setup like the above.

 

[Ricko1966]

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