Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

So I was looking at ORD and the shackle flip kit. Is there any reason that doing this over a new all spring lift would be better or worse?

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

depends if youre seriously wheeling it or not. If i remember right when i asked about it for mine, they said better articulation and it eliminated my lift blocks. The shackle is a serious upgrade over stock, made the originals look paper thin.

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

No serious wheeling. Looks like you could save some money over buying two rear springs. You can get in several sizes, and like you said it looks stout.

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

New lift springs are most likely gonna be stiff, meaning a rough ride. if it rides good with current springs, then it will ride just the same with the flip.

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

The ORD shackle flip will soften your ride by a lot, and will be a much improved ride quality over a high arch spring swap. I also have gathered that towing and hauling with the shackle flip is not adversely affected but some say that side to side sway can increase and some have gone to a slightly stiffer hydraulic shock to counter this. The shackle flip will give about a 4" lift with stock springs.

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

You need to consider all the other parts of the swap. What truck is it going on?
If its a short bed or k5it will probably develop some pretty good driveline vibes. You may need a CV style rear driveshaft. If its a 1 ton your shocks will probably hit the axle tubes.

For what its worth 56 inch rear procomp brand springs ride the same as the stock one ton rear springs shackle flipped. But the stock type shackle configuration offers more available down travel offroad.

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

Running the ORD flip on my K5. Worth every penny. Rides like stock because it is using the stock springs. Flexes well off road and the ride quality on the street is great. No excessive sway. As far as the naysayers saying not to use a flip if you are towing or carrying a lot of weight, fooey on that BS. Take a look at Dirty Larry's K10 running a camper in the back of his 78 K10. That truck is loaded down to 8,000 pounds when ready to run for a week in the desert. NO odd handling, no sway. For the size/weight it rides better than most new trucks. Oh yeah, take a look at any newer Dodge truck as they run a similar shackle arrangement.

The list of cons are short. In a short wheelbase K5 or Shortbox truck the driveline angles are going to get funky. Adjustments can be made with angled shims or installing new spring perches after adjusting the angles. My old 75 K5with a flip actually corrected a crappy driveline angle, but it had a fixed yoke output on the 205 t-case so the shaft was longer to start with. My 91 K5 actually took a little bit of work as the slip yoke 241 took away over 7" of driveshaft length from the 75's. It took a 8 degree shim plus a custom slip yoke CV shaft to dial in the angles and kill any shaft vibrations.

One other issue was due to the rear axle I'm running in the 91. I've got a 14b full floater in it. The passenger side shock mount gets put in an odd position that almost blocks putting in a shock as the tube would hit the mount. We ended up flipping the shock upside down to clear the mount and housing. That tends to lend to an unhappy shock as twin tubes don't like being run upside down. Once the Pinion was rotated up to match the shaft angle for the CV shaft that rotated the pass side shock mount under so tight the shock shaft was close to tough the housing. I ended up getting some Lazer cut 1/4" thick shock mounts from Ruffstuff and installed them after cutting the stock ones off of the axle.

Still after all the subsequent required changes that cost some cash I'd do it again.

Keep in mind most off the shelf lift springs with a higher arch will have a higher spring rate. Meaning it's going to ride stiffer than stock. That also means they won't flex as well if you do have some off road time in the plans.

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

To add to what others have said regarding the Flip. You may also need to cut your tail pipes, if they are routed under the springs in the rear. Minor stuff, but just another small item for your list.

j

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

Agreed on all the above. Added points for getting rid of the lift blocks.

One thing to consider is that since you would be bringing the rear spring eye farther from the frame (and further into the arc created by the stationary front eye) , you'll find that the drive shaft will actually compress slightly. As Zoomad said, DS angles will get a little weird. Even on a long bed.

This would be a great time to get the perches replaced with a set that allows the axle to be moved rearward 1" and then get the pinion angle dialed in as well. They're super cheap and easy to weld on. Small adjustments can be made with the zero rate springs (which are just 1" steel blocks).

You might also be able to keep your overload springs intact with the flip. Ive never bought rear lift springs but can't recall any of the ones that I've looked at coming with OLs on the bottom. I could definitely be wrong on that though.

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

Still thinking about dropping to 2.5 inch lift instead of 4 on my K20. While looking at options I ran in to the ORD flip.

Lots of good info ... thanks!

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

Your rear axle moves a little forward with the shackle flip. I didn't like how that looked when I had my stock bed, but with the flatbed it's now a non-issue.

Re: Shackle flip lift vs spring lift
 

ORD sells a zero rate that moves the axle back, raises its an inch. They now have a 1/4” one that does same thing, moves forward/back while only lifting small amount.