Ideas for improving ride on K10 4x4

[Mattchu60]

I have been throwing a few ideas around for how to improve the ride on my 1987 k10 4x4.

A little background - I have the 3/4 axles under the truck (14 bolt in the rear). I still have 52" springs, but put on some heavier duty ones a few years ago (I think they are 2200-2300 lb rating). I use the truck for hauling heavy loaded trailer a few times a year so I do need load carrying capacity. The truck is pretty stiff when empty.

Thought about doing the following - the spring dealers online list 56" springs which apparently came on the c10's, they are rated for around 1,900 lbs I believe. I could add air springs which I could air up when hauling and drop pressure on when empty.

For the fronts I have no ideas, seems like every bump in the truck is picked up by the front leafs. I have new rancho shocks on the front. Any input would help.

Any thoughts, something I am not considering? I want to remain at stock height.

[jhama78]

If you are going to go through the trouble of moving spring and shackle hangers for 56" springs and then go to airbags, i'd go all the way to 63/64" rear springs off of a later model truck if I were you. Longer springs will ride better and you could even go to a 64" 3/4 ton spring if you wanted extra load capacity.

So far as the front, are the bushing sleeves seized on the bolts? Are the shackles and spring hangers dogged down so the bushing cant move? How sagged are the front springs? I'd try to at least pull the spring and shackle bolts and get some kind of bushing grease in there to let them move. Additionally if the leaves are rusty and dirty that creates friction between them which also prevents them from moving freely

So far as shocks, a normal 'white shock' (lower end rancho, pro comp, skyjacker hydraulic shock) is going to ride rougher than a higher end shock like a bilstein, fox, king etc. I, like many others, bought the cheaper 'white shocks' whenever I was doing suspension work just because I wanted to save a few bucks. When I built my rock crawler a few years ago I went ahead and picked up a set of bilstein 5125s and the difference was night and day. They only cost about 25$ more per corner (50 v/s 75) and the extra hundo was more than worth it.

Hope that helps.

good luck

[Mattchu60]

the front springs are original and pretty rusty, only has 2 leafs up front. the bushings look worn out (old rubber). The bolts are not seized up though from what I can tell. I priced some progressive fronts the other day, they are pricey (over $500 for a set).

Some say the truck foam seat adds to the bouncing of the vehicle too. Thought about swapping in some different seats.

I thought about the 63" leafs, I searched all over to see if there was an install guide for them, but it seems the only people using them were rock crawlers that had big lifts on them.

[krazy_texan]

you can buy just the bushings i would look at replacing those along with the bolts and pressure washing the leaf spring to clean them up real well maybe even see if you could find a greasable bushing

[Mattchu60]

I also have read about people putting the anti-friction pads on the spring leafs - I may try this on the fronts. Anyone done it?

[barry1982]

I had a similar problem with my 82' K10. I decided to "lift" it a bit, so picked up a 4" suspension lift kit which came with new front springs. They have more of an arch to them. Also installed a set of 33" ties on my stock 15" aluminum rims. I believe the combination of the springs, and the extra rubber in the 33" tires helped the ride quite a bit.