de arching springs

[72GREENC10]

i have been looking around at ways to lower my truck, i might have found a way, a shop says that they can de arch my leaf spings, has anyone tried this, and how much of a drop can i get?

[slugish]

have had mine dearcked twice because Iwas'nt satisfied with the stance the 1st time . honestly , Idon't think you can dearck over 3-4 in. Mine is dearcked approx. 3in. with shackles & hangers another approx. 4 in.

[JohnC]

I had a set dearched on a 94 that I had. I agree with Slugish I don't think you would want to go very much with it. We also went 3"

[68Timber]

I don't know much about this except something I read a long time ago and I forget the details. Are the spring-packs heated to lower them? Is this generally considered a safe way to go?

[joe231]

how do they ride?

[N2TRUX]

How much do they charge to de-arch the springs? It would have to be pretty cheap to make it better that a shackle and hanger or flip kit.

I see it as a waste of time and money.

[joe231]

purely my opinion, but if it smooths out the ride, I think it would be worth it. Especially with my heavy half springs. there seems to be a fine line between beat you to death and too soft and bottoming out by removing leafs.

[fixit-p]

De arching springs typically will stiffen the spring.

[joe231]

Well
if that is the case.....I will have to agree with Ken

[Slonaker]

Western Chassis makes 4" drop leaves, which is a possible alternative.

Slonaker

[68Timber]

I only need another 2". How is it done?

[JohnC]

The place that did ours only charged like $40 for both sets of springs if IIRC. It was way cheap, and fast. I didn't take them up there so I didn't see how they did it. The ride wasn't that bad. Wasn't any worse than any other lowered truck I rode in. It was rough, but some of that was attributed to the 20" wheels that were on it too. I don't think I would do it that way again, just because the market has so many options now than they did before when we had it done.

[68Timber]

I have 2" shackles and new springs - can't use hangers on the Blazer and a flip is lower than I want to go.

I need to find someone local who can do this and see what's involved. My last option would be custom springs.

[69moneypit]

I had a set dearched several yrs ago. They took the springs out and put them in a press aond flattened them out. It cast around 200 bucks. Droppedtruck about 3.5 inches. I went this way bc of convenience. All i had to do was drop truck off and pick up. Truck didnt ride bad . The mechanic said he rolled the springs for a better ride . Where the spring met the shackle it had a small curve.

[CLASSIC87']

I had/have mine dearched 4"... with a 2 drop shackle installed before my current set up. It road better to me than it did when it was at stock height.

[kevinr1970]

Originally Posted by BRUISER

I have 2" shackles and new springs - can't use hangers on the Blazer and a flip is lower than I want to go.

I need to find someone local who can do this and see what's involved. My last option would be custom springs.

I am pretty sure what Trav did on his originally was to take later model K5 (92-00?) 4x4 springs and use a flip kit. The springs were ~2" higher and the flip lowered 5" so he netted 3".
I was thinking about going this way myself.
I wanted to use new parts so maybe just buying some new lowering springs would be the best way to go. My only fear is that my 28 year old, 200k plus mile springs are already sagging quite a bit and the new lowering springs might only put me down about an inch?

[68Timber]

My rear springs are new replacements from Husky and they did pick the truck up considerably. I'm not going to tweak the rear until I get the 325's on, then I'll better know what it needs. It may not need anymore than removing the helper spring. I hadn't heard de-arching discussed in a long time and wondered what the consensus was on it.

[1LowToy]

I was thinking the same. Has anyone ever tried shortening the #3 spring on each end and seeing if it looses some arch that way.

I have aquired a 4" kit which includes relocating the front spring hangers and longer shackles. As everyone says you will want just a little more.

I have been looking at one ton springs also. Haven't measured them up yet but I have noticed that the front spring hangers on the like 1998 one ton are higher on the frame than my 80 c-10 stock. Kind of the same is what my kit came with. They are a thicker spring and three springs. But if I only used one and kept my axle on the bottom I could always raise it up with a spacer.