70 C-20 4x4 Suburban Father/Son project

[justcuz]

Glad to hear it! So many people feel those Eaton rear axles and the external hub Dana 44's are junk and just send them to the recycler. Actually Eatons have a small but loyal following and the external hub Dana 44's do not all have the odd bearing size many think they do. Both are good usable axles and I am glad to hear you did not junk them.

I really like the stance of you new springs, actually I liked it stock too. Lots of folks lift more than needed. I am of the school to lift as little as possible to get the job done. I do realize Nicks is a couple inches taller do to the mounts on the Dana 60 and the clearance needed for his Cummins, but I see trucks lifted as high as Nicks needlessly a lot.

My logic for minimal lift? It goes back many years and revolves around wind.
I was returning from a trip to Jawbone Canyon in my 1976 Chevy 3/4 ton 4x4.
It had a 4" lift and 36" tires on it. It was windy and a gust got under the truck and moved me over one lane of traffic! Luckily I was in the fast lane and had another lane to get pushed in to! Otherwise I would have been out in the desert. Once those tires wore out I removed the lift and replaced it with 3 leaf 1 ton front springs and had the rears re-arched. This gave me about a 2" lift which cleared my new 12:00x16.5 tires just fine. Several more trips to Jawbone and through the desert never revealed the instability in the wind I had with the old lift and tires. The reduction in lift from 4" to 2" and the reduction in tire size from 36" to 32" lowered the truck 5" to 6" and made it much more stable.

Lastly driving a Suburban in a windstorm is kind of like driving a houseboat across a lake in the wind. You are guiding more than steering it.