[cortcomp]

You can't go wrong with the CPP kit TJ mentioned and jcramsey showed above...it fits the bill in the budget, the correct shocks and springs for the height and for a truck, so if you DO put something in the bed it's not killing it like jeep springs, and you retain most of the ride and safety vs cutting springs and using homemade non grade 8 parts to hold in cut rear springs.

Sure, those things have worked, lots of things have worked. I got a 68 cutlass where a guy literally wrapped a chain around the motor wedged between the water pump/timing cover and intake/block. With a logging binder (you know, the thing with the lever to tighten the chain? against aluminum parts?) instead of just switching to the correct motor mounts on the frame. It worked great for the month i drove it around before tearing the car apart for the pontiac 455 motor and parting the rest.

So it did work and was cheap. But there are other things to consider. For me, if i do something one way and it was cheap to do "right", i usually think, how would i explain this to a potential buyer? Would i be embarrassed?

Of course a lot of that depends on the truck too. Hard to put $500 in suspension into a $1200 truck. Then i'm cutting springs up front and not caring about bad load rated jeep springs in the rear.