Need to pick a suspension setup.. please help!

[poov71]

Hello all. First off if you take the time to read this and help out, i'd like to say thank you. I just purchased my first square body. I've had two 71's and I am now a 1977 c10 owner after a long search. I was well researched on the pre-73 suspensions but none after those years. This has been covered all over the place on the web I'm sure, but we all have our own way to ask questions specific to our trucks and our goals for them. Here are mine so far...

1. I believe I've narrowed the drop I want to a 4/6..I am planning to run 15/8 truck rallies for a while and then run a larger wheel in the future. I've read of scraping issues on 15x8 rallies with certain spindles. I want to say away from this issue. What is the best company to use in this case???

2. Will this be a 3 in or 2.5 in spindle? Please include coil length with response.

3. This truck has 8 leaf springs. My understanding is that this is a HD setup. What will be the best drop method for this? Are there special considerations for this being a HD leaf pack?

4. What shocks will be best?

5. Will the rears have to be relocated?

6. I will also be replacing ball joints during the drop process. Any brand better than the other?

7. Is c-notching going to be absolutely necessary? I won't be hauling anything very heavy.

8. I'd like to buy all of this as a kit with the exception of the ball joints of course. What vendor would you recommend to do business with for this?

I think that's it for now. I will post pictures as soon as I get the chance. Thanks for your time..

[bluex]

1. From what I understand the rubbing is just on the side of the LCA on the "rain gutter". Once you get the parts installed you can put the rim on and see how much trimming is needed. There isnt a better manufacture to use for this issue. Its worse with a 3" spindle than a 2.5". If you dont want to trim the LCA you can use a 6.5" wide van rally rim instead. This is the same problem that the older trucks have from what I've read since the front suspensions are very similar.

2. I used a 2.5" spindle and one coil cut off the stock spring.

3. I had mine dropped out back first with shackle hanger setup, then went to a flip kit. If you want the 6" drop go with the flip to start with. My truck also has the 8 leaf pack with a 12 bolt and I got closer to 7" out of the flip. Nothing special to install with the 8 leaf pack. I just flipped mine like normal.

4. I used stock kyb replacement shocks all the way around.

5. I used the DJM flip kit that came with shock relocators so I could use stock length rear shocks.

6. I use only MOOG front end parts. I get them from rock auto or amazon depending on whos cheaper.

7. No C-notch on mine an I havent bottomed out yet. I didnt really measure how much space is between the axle and frame but its 2-3" at least.

8. My spindles are Western chassis and the flip is djm. I did mine that way because I bought the kit with the spindles and shackles/hangers first and the DJM stuff was cheaper then the western chassis flip. I didnt want to put alot of money in parts because my future plans for the rear are the porterbuilt trailing arm conversion. That is also why I didnt get a flip kit with the notch as the conversion kit has one as well an I only want to do that once.

DJM, Western Chassis, Belltech and Mcgauhys (sp?) all sell kits. I would go with Western or Mcgauhys if I was buying everything again.

Good luck!