front coil spring

[SMOKIN-U]

called the local salvage yard and they said a 1/2 ton spring won twork cause they have an ifs suspension like the chevy's. they said i probally meant a 3/4ton hemi spring cause they are softer but not shorter. will a 1/2ton spring work? what exactly would i need? thanks

 

[SKYNYRD]

to be honest if you find a set of stock dodge 3/4 or 1 ton springs you can cut them down.

 

[SMOKIN-U]

if i were to do that i would just cut mine but i would rather just buy some and see how it works first.

 

[SKYNYRD]

i was thinking at one time about lowering my truck down for drag racing and was going to cut my springs and i had bought a set off a buddy who lifts his truck with a set of lift springs.

 

[zstroken]

the sled is going to put the same force on the truck no matter what it is going to cause the truck to lift the same distance. but if you start with the front end lower to the ground it will not lift the front end as far off the ground therefore keeping the weight out over the front of the truck and not on the rear axle.

Unless your changing the distance from the rear axle to the front of the truck and the rear axle to the rear of the truck, your not changing the fulcrum point, so how is it changing the force out front?


Only way I can see that is if you go slightly above center then your putting an ever so slight increase on the rear. That would be ever so slight that you probably couldn't even account for it.

 

[SKYNYRD]

Unless your changing the distance from the rear axle to the front of the truck and the rear axle to the rear of the truck, your not changing the fulcrum point, so how is it changing the force out front?


Only way I can see that is if you go slightly above center then your putting an ever so slight increase on the rear. That would be ever so slight that you probably couldn't even account for it.

depending on the set up i know when i hooked to the sled the rear of my truck dropped 2-3 inches lower than the front of the truck and the springs were almost fully extended. with lessing the spring force or length you are removing the lift that is created by the spring on the front end if allowed you could put limiting straps on the front axle to add the extra weight of the axle to the front end. you have to remember that the front spring is pushing up on the frame of the truck at that point.

 

[zstroken]

depending on the set up i know when i hooked to the sled the rear of my truck dropped 2-3 inches lower than the front of the truck and the springs were almost fully extended. with lessing the spring force or length you are removing the lift that is created by the spring on the front end if allowed you could put limiting straps on the front axle to add the extra weight of the axle to the front end. you have to remember that the front spring is pushing up on the frame of the truck at that point.

Shortening the spring is not lessening the force, nor is using a softer spring. The spring is still exerting a specific force to hold the front up. The spring compresses to a certain point where the weight on the spring equals the force pushing back.

 

[SKYNYRD]

well if you remove all the force on the front axle then it will cause the front axle hop.

 

[zstroken]

well if you remove all the force on the front axle then it will cause the front axle hop.

Yet you still said to use limiting straps? Once the strap bottoms out, you have removed all of the force off of the front end. Your basically just against the strap. Any further movement higher you will lift the tires off the ground. Every strapped front end I have seen hopped, and they ran them one time. Except for a 6.0 ford, and he ran it all the time. Said we should see the hop without the straps.

 

[DSLWSL]

called the local salvage yard and they said a 1/2 ton spring won twork cause they have an ifs suspension like the chevy's. they said i probally meant a 3/4ton hemi spring cause they are softer but not shorter. will a 1/2ton spring work? what exactly would i need? thanks

The newer trucks are ifs so you need to find front springs out of a second gen. Those are the ones I used and they worked well. I didn't see any wheel hop and front end come up perfect down the track.