Choosing a suspension (73-87)

[chillman88]

Hey all,

I'm going to be redoing everything on my truck as part of a semi-restoration and I'm trying to decide which way to go. The truck needs all new springs either way.

1. For a better ride, would 2" lift leaves be better up front? I've heard that a spring with more arch would ride better since ours are pretty flat.

2. 56" springs or 64" springs? It's almost the same amount of work at this point. The frame I'm using has the 52" springs. I'm thinking a 6-7 leaf pack since I plan on using this truck as a truck. Which leads me to 3

3. Heavier leaves vs air bags? I never had a problem with the ride on the 88+ 2500 trucks, but how much would running say 3 leaf packs for a half ton help the unloaded ride? How well do airbags hold up? I'm in the rust belt, road salt is NOT friendly.

4 I've considered a 4" lift but I want to run 255/85/16s on it. Would that look silly? My main reason for the lift being I can get a spring lift WITH SHOCKS for the same price as a full set of springs.

I'm really not sure which way to go with this. I'm mainly looking for ideas and experience at this point.

Thanks!