54,000 dollar suspension question.

[troy54gmc]

All right i have to ask th 54,000 dollar question. Im making my truck to be a daily driver with a mild to med. horsepower 350-400 range with 20" to 22" wheels and airbags. I originally planned on putting a triangular 4 link rear suspension on it but after reading numerous posts from Rob at no-limit and other people, which by the way you think your pretty handy guy with some knowledge of stuff and u read posts from these guys and man i feel dumb afterwards. but thats why i love this website. if you dont have the answer there is allways someone on here that does! Anyway back to my question, what suspension r u guys running on the rear of ur trucks and whats the best way to go for daily driving? oh ya add pictures please. Thanks from AZ...

[LEEVON]

Nothing at all wrong with leaf springs in my opinion. Freshen them up, maybe a little lowering and drive. If they're good enough for my '08 then they're good enough for your '54 right? I used trailing arms in my '50 build but it just kind of happened and worked out really well. If I started with a good solid truck and didn't use airbags the leafs would be my choice.

[OrrieG]

Be bold, refresh and go stock. maybe a brake upgrade to discs. I'm running the stock springs on mine.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Spackle100]

Yeah, i'm running stock springs with power brakes and disc all the way around. Even kept the stock 6 lug pattern

[troy54gmc]

Nothin wrong with stock springs. But im planning on useing airbags so i can lower it when im not driving and raise it when i am. I guess what i was asking was whats the best link set-up for every day driving. triangular, parallel 4 bar, or whatever? some pictures of different setups would be great along with how they run and handle on the road. Thanks......

[Mike Bradbury]

I was on the same road asa you with the four link but in the end I decided to go much simplier and fabricated my own custom trailing arms and Bilstein coilovers on a Lincoln 9''. But Nate at Porter built has a neat set up for the 67-72 C10 maybe it could be adapted for your year.

[hotrodrookie]

I built a parallel link setup for my truck but originally wanted to go with the triangular.

My truck being a second series has a narrower frame then yours, this steered me away from the triangulated system because I couldn’t make my upper bars long enough and give them enough angle to function the way I wanted.

For my design I basically went off of maximizing instant center adjustability with the bars. (more for drag racing) All this consists of is the angle at which the upper and lower bars are positioned and the location of their resulting imaginary intersection point. A triangulated system creates this same instantaneous center crossing of the upper and lower bars, as well as centering the axle between the frame. Being that you want to drop it with bags, just make sure the bars don’t bind through the vertical cycle of the suspension and I don't see why it shouldn’t be a problem.
All that said, my truck isn’t done so I don't know how it rides and I haven’t designed, built, or driven a car with a custom triangulated or parallel 4 link, so ya, my 2 pennies.