Dropping a 73-87

[Keith Seymore]

To read the original thread and discussion on this topic go here- LINK



I'm going from memory here, so bear with me:

We did probably six or seven trucks in the 70's and 80's timeframe. All were done by cutting the coils on the front and relocating the spring hangers on the frame rail in the rear.

This first one was a 4" drop on the front (cut two coils) and a 6" drop on the rear (the rear was quite high to start with). Relocating the hangers constitutes 3" of that, and then I also removed a couple leafs if I remember right. Wheels are the factory aluminum, 15x7 (don't remember the offset) and the tires were an LR60-15 Goodyear.




Similar situation on this one but I didn't go down as far (...I got more conservative as I got older...). Cut one coil for a 2" ish drop, still went the full 3" on the rear. Wheels are a 15x8 truck rally (zero offset) with P235/75R15's all the way around.



Here's how the spring hanger relocation works. You cut the rivets holding the hangers and replace them with 3/8 grade 8 bolts (removing the pickup box helps with this part). Moving the bottom holes of the bracket into the top hole of the frame nets the 3" drop. Total investment at that time was around $1.38 for the bolts and $25 for a front end alignment. This particular truck has been a daily driver for 22 years with no issues.