Cutting Coil Good Or Bad

[jtex1025]

I Was Wondering If Antone Has Done This Or Knows Anyone Who Has . Does It Effect The Ride .i Know Someone Who Has And They Said It Rode The Same I Have A 84 Gmc Shortbed Please Tell Me What You Guys Think Thank You

[87 STEPPER]

Welcome to the board,

BAD BAD IDEA! Dont do it and don't listen to that person who told you he's no friend!

If you want to lower your truck do it the right way if you don't have alot of $$$ to spend just get some lowering coil spring's there not that expensive probably less than 100 bux!

[N2TRUX]

jtex1025 you have touched on a very controversial subject. You will hear lots of pro's and cons. Let me tell you what I "know" not what I have heard.

Cutting coil springs is not a bad thing, it's just something that is common to be done wrong. The most common mistake made when cutting coils is people get the spring too hot when they cut it, and change the tempering of the steel. Too much heat is a bad thing

Another problem with cutting coil springs is that it's a guess at best as to how much drop you will get. While it's true if you cut X amount off of a spring you will usually get X amount of drop a lot of that depends on the condition of the spring. You have to factor in the age of the spring and what kind of driving condition it has spent it's life doing.

With all that said, I will tell you I have cut coil springs many times and not ended up with a bad ride from it. I have cut them with a cut off wheel, a hacksaw, and even a cutting torch. Two things attribute to my personal success with this. First and most important is I never get the spring too hot. The second is I never cut a lot off to start with. I always cut 1/2 to 3/4 of a coil and re-install to check my results.

There are many more details to all this, but this will get the can of worms opened up anyway....

[jtex1025]

thanks alot for the info .I was just wondering about that subject

[jtex1025]

cutting coils good or bad and why is it good or why is it bad . how about takinc leaf springs out just two of them please help me decide

[jtex1025]

thanks riptide

[Captkaos]

Ditto on what N2TRUX said. I have done it and didn't have any bad ride out of it. I will say that if you don't know what you are doing, just spend the money and buy them. I have also pulled leafs, but that won't successfully lower the truck enough to warrant the effort.

[swervin ervin]

Never run cut coils but the previous owner of my 85 had heated the coils to lower the thing. Rode like a tank. I have pulled leafs too. This will lower it some with the most drop coming from the overload leaf. But IMO, all it does to remove leafs is make the ride bouncy.

I recommend doing it the right way and buying drop components.

[87 STEPPER]

Originally Posted by jtex1025

cutting coils good or bad and why is it good or why is it bad . how about takinc leaf springs out just two of them please help me decide

Well there is on good why.

Bad why= When you cut a coil you have to replace the tie bolt's that go thru the frame with longer ones and install some sort of spacer .5 to 1" thick cuz you have to move the upper A-Arm out or the truck wont hold alignment.

Another reason is you will be changing lower A-Arm's when you wipe them out on pot holes and man hole covers that stick up higher than normal.

I lowered my '85 this way only because droped spindles and lowered coil springs weren't around back then and i cut my coils with a hi speed cut off wheel and didn't over heat the springs and the ride was fair but it would bottom out real easy and i replaced two lower A-Frames befor the truck was totaled.

When i got my '87 i used spindles and iv'e lowered two other truck's and i only go with spindles and other droped components there is no way you can compair the differance in ride quality.

[piecesparts]

I used drop spindles and coils and lowering compnents on the rear on many trucks, without any problems. I also have used a lower 'A' frame that has had the spring perch lowered and then had the rear springs re-arched and lowering compnents added to get them to where I wanted them. All of those worked just fine. I am not partial to cutting springs or removing leaves, if I don't have to. That is just weakening an already aged suspension and I tend to drive a little to hard for that kinda of thinking.

[TwinTurbo]

cutting coils is not a problem at all, the only problem is a lot of people do it the wrong way. You can safely cut off a piece of the coil with an Ox/Ac torch, nop problem. The only thing you don't have to forget is to render the remainder of that coil as inactive, this means heating it up and then quickly flipping it around and put weight on it. That will bend the coil against the next one. Inactive coils don't influence the rate and therefore it doesn't matter if they have lost a portion of their tension.
Heating the entire coil..now THERE is a bad idea and a distaster waiting to happen. When you do that you will loose almost all suspension control there is.

The neat thing about cutting coils is that they will have settled already and you know how much to cut off to get the ride height you want, with new coils you always must select them slightly long because they will sag overtime (the rate will also go down a tad) The other nice thing is that the spring rate goes up when cutting coils so your suspension feels stiffer.

[SCOTI]

There's nothing wrong w/cutting coils as long as it's done in moderation. If you remove 1 coil, the ride won't change dramatically because your only raising the spring rate 10-15% max. A typical truck spring @ a 400# rate + 15% increase is still only 460# which is less than say a camaro/mustang @ 500# plus. The good thing about the increase in spring rate is that now that the truck is closer to the ground, you want the suspension slightly stiffer to reduce the tendency of overtravel/bottoming out. Combining 3" drop spindles w/1 coil removed typically gets around 5-6" of drop (depending on spring sag).

As for the rear, removing leaves reduces the capacity you can carry. Since most trucks are used as trucks, you could remove leaves & add an air-ride helper system. This gives you a decent ride & maintains carrying capacity, but you'll see increased probs w/wheel hop. An easier way is to flip the rear over the springs. This won't reduce carrying capacity, costs less than an air-add on system, & will drop the truck 5-6" depending on the spring pack thickness (Lt.duty or HD). Add shackles to go even lower but then you'll definitely need a c-section for the frame.

I've driven my 74 for over a year w/1 coil cut from the stock springs, 3" drop spindles, & a flip kit w/2" shackles w/o any probs. The ride is stiffer than a stock truck but not so harsh it's unpleasant.