Suspension Mods - How Much Is Too Much

[66 C10 383]

When you do mods to your truck, how do you know if you've gone too far for what the actual intended useage will be?

Obviously, a daily driven street truck doesn't need a full tube frame. Also, a dedicated autocross truck will need more than a set of drop spindles and swaybars. For everyone else, it's all about compromise. How much ride quality do I give up or how much handling is enough for what I intend to use the truck for.

I'm not talking safety as in "are my 140,000 mile original front end parts still okay?", I'm reffering to performance above and beyond what the truck was originally designed for. As in, moving to a more modern ride and handling.

From stock to track use, everything we do is a compromise. Daily drivers give up handling for ride comfort. Track vehicles give up ride quality for ultimate handling. How much of either I'm willing to give up is differant than what you may be willing to give up.

It would be nice if we could get some type of guidelines for the various mods we've come up with for our trucks. We have mods for everything from what makes a nice daily driven street truck to the fully dedicated autocross trucks.

What I'm looking for are recommendations on some of the lesser, more cost-effective stuff we can do. What can we expect from certain mods. Are they streetable mods or geared more towards the no-holes-barred competition truck. Are we getting carried away with mods you won't ever really need/use.

Lower profile tires - Tires range from 75 series 15's to 30 series 18's & 20's. Each has their intended useage. No, 75's wouldn't be very competetive on the track. If I ran 40 series tires on the roads we have here, I'd be blowing sidewalls out on a monthly basis.

Control arm bushings - Do I stay with stock style bushings or upgrade to poly's? Do either bind suspension movement more than the other? Do poly's squeek or how to keep them from doing so? Both A-arm bushings and trailing arm bushings?

Control arm relocating - How much benefit does moving these make? For the lower we have the "Castor Mod". Is it still worth doing if we stay with stock style bushings and how far do we go? Is it worth moving the upper arm and how is it done? Taller upper ball joints? Then we move on to $800+ tubular arms ...

Drop spindles - These I do know have many positive benefits. Suspension drop with no loss of travel & gain modern disc brakes.

Coil springs - You can cut your 30+ year old sagging springs, buy new stock springs in various rates and cut somewhere between 1/2 to 2 full coils off. Or, you can buy springs with 1" - 3" drop ready to bolt in. Actual drop on any of these will vary for many reasons including engine (6 cylinder, small block, big block, or LS).

Rear trailing arms - When should we scrap or modify our trailing arms or buy the tubular rear arms? Should we run the stock rubber bushings, move to poly's, or go all out for the spherical bearings?

Frame boxing - I know the frame isn't part of the suspension. But if you can reduce the flexing, then the suspension has a better chance to control the truck. The suspension can't control it if the frame flexes like a wet noodle ...
But, how far along the modification list would this be recommended for? Do you just simply box the rails in? Do you continue it with cross bracing? Adding in additional bracing above the cross bracing?

Other frame based mods - These can range from pancaking the front crossmember, cutting the frame to raise the crossmember up, or swapping for a custom tubular crossmember.

These are just a few of the mods we can do to our trucks to transform them from ancient utility vehicles to trucks that can show most modern cars a surprise view of their tail lights. Most of us here fall somewhere in between these two extremes. What mods should I do for a sweet daily driver vs. a more high performance street truck or full autocross track star. Of course, time and cost will be another factor. Thus, which mods are worth spending my money on and what mods are going to cost more than I need to spend to acheive my goals. Ability has to be figured in this as some users can handle fabrication skills and some others will have to pay to have these mods done. If you have to pay to have these mods done, which ones will give me the best bang for my buck ...

Does any of this make any sense to you? I've read the "Make It Handle" (which sadly seems to have died now ... ) thread so many times and every time I do I come away more confused than before I had (re)read it. I'm not looking to build a truck to compete with the trickest autocross parts but I would like to be able to climb in it and keep up with the traffic going to work at 70 - 75 mph without fearing for my life ... and maybe make that Camaro wonder why that 40 year old truck is hanging on his back door just a little bit longer than it should be ... LoL

[Former member Yoder213]

Something like a Modification Calculator?

Enter how you're planning to use the truck: drag only, drag/street, street only, street/hauling, hauling only, street/dirt road, street/dirt road/hauling (pretty much stock HA), hauling/dirt road, trail-blazing, autocross, etc..
maybe have a Miles Per Application and load carrying expectations in there

then Enter your budget.

and presto. Excel spits out a prioritized list with cost estimates, as well as things to think about/inspect while having the vehicle apart.

anyone an Excel wizard? I can try fooling around with it on my spare time at work, but no promises to have anything by the end of next year.

if if only things were easy like that.

[66 C10 383]

Well, we're kinda on the same page. I like the list of uses. It broadens up the range of applications. Most of our trucks don't just fit into one category.

The miles per application and hauling capacity are also good ideas.

Maybe a short list of the advantages and disadvantages of some of the parts.

Mainly we must first start with a good foundation. If you're going for a more street type application then have a list of parts appropriate to what your goals are. Stock type rubber bushings, quality ball joints, tie rods, brakes and drums, etc.

Then if you want to move up to the next level, show the parts that would fall into that category. Say like a poly bushing upgrade, drop spindles and/or springs, stock type disc brakes, adding a booster for power brakes, adding swaybars, or simple DIY type of improvements like doing the Castor Mod or relocation of a-arms.

Then we have a next level of modifications. Either the parts involved or more heavily into the fabrication such as pancaking or raising the crossmember, frame bracing, etc.

Somewhere down the line we start doing big brake upgrades, rack and pinion steering swaps all the way up to aftermarket crossmembers to full tube frames.

Honestly, I'm somewhat a rookie at doing mods beyond simple upgrades. I spend a LOT of time reading about guys doing this mod or that mod. I've read and re-read the Make It Handle thread. One post someone asks about doing something simple to the truck and 2 post later someone else is redesigning their suspension asking about geometry angles. I realize I do not need/want a full tube frame for my street driven truck. I've read about other mods (pancaking the crossmember for example only). For my intended purpose, is this a mod I need to look into doing or worth my hard earned cash to pay someone to do vs. is this a mod that would negatively impact (such as decreased ground clearance) what I want my truck to do.

If we could get a good list of mods available for our trucks and a ranking of where they need to be done to achieve desired results ...

[Former member Yoder213]

I'm new as well, and enjoy reading about everything, soaking it up like a sponge if I can. categories, like beginner (simple tools, few pieces to deal with), novice, intermediate, hobbyist, advanced, professional for level of mod/repair and then level of performance part (that's where I have no experience besides what I've seen here).


Like I said, I'll try playing around in my down time or rainy days, but if I get something working I'll need others to help fill out the parts lists, pro's vs cons, etc..

Liking this more and more I think about it

[66 C10 383]

That's another cool idea Yoder. Skill level would be another good idea to keep people getting in over their head. Maybe even have a link to a thread where someone does a good how-to write up.

I get to reading about mods guys make to their truck and think I'd like to do something like that too. Then I stop and think that's just gonna be more money and time that I don't have and don't really even need since it's going to be over the intended purpose of my truck.

I believe in making a vehicle as safe as possible, especially if it's a daily driver. With interstate speeds reaching 70 mph and beyond in some states, braking and handling need to be addressed. Do you "need" 13" disc brakes? Probably not. But on the other hand, can you stop as fast as that newer Chevy truck in front of you that has those same 13" brakes as stock equipment that we swap onto our trucks?