drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Hello everyone!

I know there has been many threads on drops, but not much on square bodies since they require more finessing due to leaf springs and are not as easy as the 67-72s who are blessed with coils.. (yes there’s 4 links solutions)... So I would like some pictures of 3/5 drops or 4/6 drops of square bodies with leaf springs ! I would like to know how you accomplished a 5 or 6 in with the amount of leafs. I know most will be spindles, springs and flip kits, but what many forget to mention is how thick of a leaf pack they are running. Also what flip kits do you guys Like? Bell tech, western chassis, cpp, DJM, mcgaughys etc.. i feel like they are all mostly the same but is interesting how some flip kits like DJM will be confident they will give a 5in drop with no c notch while some flip kit sellers will say 6-7 and sell you or recommend you a c notch ... hope I can get some pictures of people willing to share. Maybe not since this has been done many times lol

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Probably best way to get the 5/6 rear drop is to do axle flip. Does not matter about spring count then. CPP modular spindles and 2" drop springs will give you the front drop and not shove your wheels out further.

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

6/4.5 - rear flip kit, CPP 2.5 dropped spindles/2"dropped springs.

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

https://i.imgur.com/hHdRCfZl.jpg

Home made flip kit in the back, 2.5" drop spindles in the front, stock worn out 6 cyl springs, with a 5.3/4L80E. It sits nose high a bit, but the wheel/tire combo evens it out pretty nicely. I do have 2" drop springs for the front, just havent installed them yet.

I absolutely agree, a flip kit is the best way for the rear. I though leaf pack count played a tiny factor on total drop .
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Your truck Is badass! You can’t go wrong with stock rally’s matched with the perfect drop. Very nice!
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You truck sits nice ! Not bad for a home made flip kit. I heard of people making homemade kits. Alway though it Was pretty cool because can be engineers and have the talent to lower it themselves .
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Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

It was made by one of the people that owned it before me - not sure exactly when, but its holding up well enough. I've just gone through and fixed some issues with it - and ultimately need to replace the leaf packs but I'll be sticking with just stock 3+1 packs - Thanks!

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Drops vary on flip kits because of the quantity of leafs & the thickness of each one. It's not a mystery, it's math.

In the original installed form, the rear axle tube/housing sits under the leaf pack. When doing a flip kit, the axle tube/housing is now moved above the spring pack. You take the total height/thickness of the spring pack & add in the radius of the axle tube (3" OD tube = 1.5 radius) & that's the amount of drop the truck will get (approximate).

Trucks w/fewer leafs don't drop as much as trucks w/HD leaf packs. The only thing that alters this is if the main leafs start getting pulled from the pack. When people do this, the truck can squat more because the overall capacity (or spring rate) is reduced.

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

1981 C10 with axle flip and 4.5 inch drop in the front. I didn't do a C notch, but occasionally I wish I had, like when there's a pothole I did't see.

The flip kit is a Bell Tech model, and although everyone will tell you to use shock relocators - and I agree it would be best - I didn't have an extra hundred bucks to spend at that point in the project and so I just used the drop shocks that Bell Tech recommends with their kit and they work great. Front springs and spindles are from ECE, I am really going to miss that company since they closed their doors this year.

Pics are before and after

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Clipped 2 coils.
And flipped in the rear with weld on axle pads, no notch. Light duty 52'' 3 leaf helper removed

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Thanks Scoti for stepping and giving us that knowledge! Wasn’t good at math lol so how many leafs would I need need for just a 5? So level out a 3 in front spindle

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Your truck sits so much better now! Are you still running it without shock relocators? I’m sure that will help for your bottoming out issue. Thats crazy how that company just closed after many years of business. I never got a chance to try their parts since I got into the c10 game late but I heard a lot of great things from his forum .

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

That truck is fire! Perfect the way it is!

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Just got my moog 6454 springs from summit racing! I hope I can return it to just a 3in front drop and take measurements and find out what drop the previous owner did and hope my ugly rake goes away. Then I can do the flip to complete my truck. Leveled, grill swap and some bigger wheels and I’ll be happy. Going with some Intros wheels once I have the money .

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Wish the front was a shade lower. Glass hood and heater delete manual brakes and steering lightened it up a bit

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

damn that paint looks good

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Thank you! I need to get it repainted where they tried to steal the truck front the previous owner. And the PO doesn’t know the paint code. You can see that front fender to the cab is scratched up. But I ran Into the obstacle of searching for paint that every car brand has their own paint code. So not I’m like wow great. Know i need to find which car brand paint (ppg, DuPont, etc) are best and find dedicate some time looking through their samples.

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Does it have a gas-fill door? If so, most competent paint stores can scan & match an unknown color.

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Hey Scoti! Yea it does so I’ll be taking it to a body shop and hope it comes out the same. Then I’ll repaint the whole truck once i get the code from the fender paint job

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

So I added my front springs today. Moog 6454 to give me that 3in spindle height and know how much of a drop I had. The new springs gave it a 3in lift. It hasn’t been driven so I hope it settles but I already know it’s going to remain high. I now miss the other springs it had. They were the same height but I guess they were heated. They were too bouncy and I would hit the headers on a speed bump. I guess it was lowered about 5-6ins since this is what a bell tech 3in spindle height looks like. I guess I’ll just go with a 1in drop spring next. It cost to get it right

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

LMAO I thought you were talkng about mine! awkward lol. Yes that blue is nice! great looking truck

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

Originally Posted by robnolimit
Spring rates for stock style C-10's seem high, but this is do to the A-arm ratio. Here are some stock spring rates
Moog # 6082 722 lbs/in 6 cyl, and light v-8
Moog # 6542 842 lbs/in std v-8
Moog # 6102 1015 lbs/in bigblock, longbed c.s.
Moog # 6104 1016 lbs/in 3/4 ton, sits 1/2" higher than #6102
Moog # 6454 1060 lbs/in 3/4t bbc, c.s, 1ton
So, Hotchkis' 1100lb may not be so heavy. I currently have the #6082 spring with one coil cut in the JT project, and it is too soft for me. I'm going to swap in the #6102 springs next week. Going to track test it tues. with the soft springs. All my number crunching shows me a 950 spring, but we'll see.
When it comes to frame boxing, i'm not a big fan of full chassis boxing, as it can lead to a cracked frame. Bracing key areas, and creating triangles is a better aproach, check the earlier posts.

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!
 

QUOTE=robnolimit;4510198]WEST9378 - Try to stick with a reasonable aproach, and you'l get good results. If you start with the leafs, lets say that the top spring with the eye is #1, and the count down from there to the shortest #6. Keep 1,2, & 3. pull #4, keep #5, pull #6. Use a hand gringer/sander to round off and radius the ends of the springs. Get some teflon liner to put between the leafs (speedway, Eaton, ..) and reassemble. Call Helwig and get a 1" rear sway bar. From RideTech, use pt # ARK2004, with a shrader fill kit.

Re: drop square bodies with leaf springs pics!