Hey guys I'm gathering everything I need to sas my 95 ranger. Planning on running 37" in descriptions I noticed a lot of guys are running 6" lift Chevy leafs up front. But I can't seem to find Wat Chevy their off of. Can anyone shed any light on this. I'd also like to know a rear spring set up to give me similar lift.
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guys building trucks gone wild stuff?? or things you can level 5 trail and drive on thhe street??
what do you want to do?
build a trailer to events rig?
or something that is a hardcore rig but a bit streetable if necessary?
or something that is a jack of all and streetable in full?
a 6 in rear chevy 52 inch would put you pretty tall for reasonable use off road and not be the best ride and real rough depending on actual rate.... a front leaf would still be ridiculous and ride hard.
Stay with coils on the 95. The crumple zone frame horns need a lot of modification to mount leaves on..a lot of work to downgrade your suspension makes no sense.
The truck is already setup for coils, why change to leaves?
doing leaf setups, bolting a bridge to the crumple zone is not an issue ime. some angle and whatever type of bridging you want to use can net a bolt on setup depending on what axle is selected or pad width is used.
depending on what ppi coil and actual height of the coil loaded, the spring buckets that are stock can cause a varied assortment of spring bow and handling quirks. i see so many trucks that dont flex at all that are swapped, it is hard to keep from laughing at some of these poor bastards. it is because stock, the ranger has some serious rear flex to begin with. the only reason i can see to go with the longer leafs like the typical chevy swap is to further soften the ride..unless you have a seriously squishy front suspension. i can set a ttb up to have more usable travel then most of the typical sas trucks i see on the road. this being the goal of keeping the body as level as possible traversing terrain and obstacles. of course the same pros and cons apply. use too soft a spring and the truck is hard to handle on the road.
not that i dont agree with the, if your using a d44, get a radius arm setup...its a bolt in, and deal with the buckets over time if its not in the cards intially. because i do agree its usually the easiest method..
if your stuck with a leaf axle though....no fear of leafs.
generally, they
do ride harder. but that is
faaarrr from an absolute.
My only thought was the simplicity of it esspecialy when moving the axle forward.. And it's cheaper.. I'm also thinking of going with full width 60 front and 70 rear.
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this is definitely something that can favor leafs. unless your using the later dodge or ford coil 60, then the leafs are ideal in setup time...or appear to be.
the problem with a 60 though is the unsprung weight, they are big fat heavy bastards. they are more prone to "w-ing" the leafs in the front when thrashing on them.
getting the spring rate and angle and shackle angles right and meeting ride height goals can be a challenge as well. i have to use the heavier spring due to my powertrain.
and total front axle weight is huge, a lesson i earned over time. the typical waggy spring is ok for reg rangers and s10's etc, add just 300 pounds over the front and it gets a totally different result. a 351 ranger with a winch cant use the same spring as a stock 4.0 5 speed when going to the line on soft ride and real flex.
i have moved shackles less then and inch and or shortened them or lengthened them an inch or so, and netted a totally different handing vehicle before....didnt change the spring, just the working geometry---totally different truck...good or bad.. quite amazing, and often times against operational theory and expectations.
with king pin axles, there a few hidden issues that can pop up for handling and death wobble etc...
all in what you want.
if a axle is setup for leaf, you can make it a bolt in....if its a ford radius arm setup...yo can usually make it a bolt in as well.
wont be perfect..wont work perfect..and can look ugly and stupid...but i have installed dana 60 leaf and 44 radius arm axles into ttb rangers and fullsize ttb fords with no welding.
not perfect...but worked. incremental upgrades from there to make it better or not will be half the fun.