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I just recently bought a 67 swb and have been researching suspension options. Unfortunately the po of my truck decided to heat the coils to achieve the drop he wanted. I plan to build this truck the right way and fixing the po's mistakes here are my #1 priority right now.
Heres what i know and chime in if im mistaken:
You want to drop your front spindels first. Ive seen 2" and 2.5" drop spindals and i dont see any advantage or disadvantage to either except one will lower your truck an extra 1/2 inch.
There are basically 3 options for dropping a truck right. 1-Shorter coils and quality shocks, 2-coilovers, and 3-airbags. With option 1 It seems like there are a number of companies that make dropped coils for our trucks and also a great # of companies that make quality shocks to match, ive read that if you are going to go this route that you may need to relocate the shocks and change the A pillars to the new "tubular" style..... What else guys?
Now on option #2 i havent seen discussed on this thread but ive seen a few guys around here with coilovers and they say the ride is good. Im no stranger to coilovers as i have used them on sports cars (late model) in the past and had great luck with them but have never used them on a truck. Ive heard rumors that coilovers limit the hauling ability of the truck but i dont know if thats true ...... whats the deal here guys?
option #3. Like most people when i think of air bags i think of trucks sitting on the frame at car shows or something out of a rap video and so i never thought of them as a viable performance option. After doing more research on the matter ive found that notion to be untrue. It seems that bags CAN be a nice performance suspension when set up correctly however how to set them up this way is a mystery to me. When i see guys post about their bagged trucks i see terms like "c notched" and new cross member accompany this mod and i dont know what that means. The concept seems pretty simple, the more air the higher the ride height, the less air the lower it sits. I guess there are a couple ways to set it up with varous abilities to adjust air pressure but its all still a big mystery to me and would appreciate someone posting a detailed summary on the ABSOLUTE RIGHT WAY to set up a performance suspension with bags. I think it would be nice to have the ability to raise my trucks height if i were in a bad area with rough streets but i would also like to have it sitting just right on some nice dubs when im tooling around town but PERFORMANCE always comes 1st with me and i'll go with whatever set up provides the best in that respect.
Other than front and rear sway bars how else can you improve handleing on our trucks? I already have power steering..... what else can i do? Also .... whats the REAL DEAL with the new "tubed A pillars"? At what point are they needed and will they improve handleing on any suspension set up?
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