ride height

[57chevyman]

hey y'all. Happy New Year. Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!



the subject of this thread is the ride height. At a minimum, i want to level out the ride, as its 2" higher in the back right now. im debating on whether to lower the back by two inches and leave the front alone, or lower the front with 2.5" drop spindles and lower the back by 4.5"
i kinda like the raised look. makes everyone think is a 4x4, but i dont like the ass up in the air .
lowering the front and back will get me to a stock look.
my mechanic said we can also lower the front by decreasing the size of the coil spring . the blocks in the back are 5.25"

is measuring to the bottoms of my fenders an accurate way to measure where i'm at now? i plan on eventually replacing this bed with the correct bed.


since im already planning on disc brakes in the front, maybe i should "kill two birds with one stone"and use 2.5" drop spindles?

seems to me that lowering the back by 2 inches or 4 inches will be the same amount of work, and using stock or drop spindles is also the same job, so im just thinking out loud about which route to go

feel free offer your opinions! am i opening a can of worms by thinking of lowering the back?

do i have to compensate for the weight of a full gas tank when deciding on block size in the rear? i have 8 or 9 leaf springs, so im not sure if the weight of a new rear gas tank is an issue?


i have a 1968 c10 front clip. i had my mechanic look over the whole thing with me and its solid. the whole front of the frame is "boxed" with thick steel.

[57chevyman]

pics of the rear suspension with current 5.25" blocks

[Speedbumpauto]

I'm not a fan of the jacked up look, especially on a 2x4 but lots of folks here aren't fans of my in the weeds look. That being said, I think the truck looks pretty good the way it is. To me, you bought something that pulls off a "look" and now you want to change it. IMO, if you really want a stock ht. truck, you should sell the one you have and start with a fresher canvas for your art. BUT... if I had to work with that, I would lower the rear the 2" and get rid of that ladder bar because it's operating in a different radius than the leaf springs and is, IMO, binding up your rear suspension. You can take 2" out of that block system pretty easily and cheaply. Dropped spindles are pricey whereas stock later C-10 spindles and factory disc brakes are pick n pull items.

[_Ogre]

how is the front end raised? if the front is also on blocks, the easy thing to do is reduce your block height

i agree with speedbump that your rear suspension is binding with the differential pivot points
when your suspension moves up/down your actually changing the pinion angle and bending the springs
if you stay with the blocks on springs then you need to go to a torque bar to keep your blocks from tipping
or change the pivot points to match the front of the spring shackles

[57chevyman]

Originally Posted by Speedbumpauto

You can take 2" out of that block system pretty easily and cheaply. Dropped spindles are pricey whereas stock later C-10 spindles and factory disc brakes are pick n pull items.

Do you happen to know what year c10 I can get stock spindles and disc brake parts from with 6 lugs that will fit my '68 c10 front ? Are you saying to try a salvage yard or buy these parts new at the local parts store ?

[57chevyman]

Originally Posted by _Ogre

how is the front end raised? if the front is also on blocks, the easy thing to do is reduce your block height

i agree with speedbump that your rear suspension is binding with the differential pivot points
when your suspension moves up/down your actually changing the pinion angle and bending the springs
if you stay with the blocks on springs then you need to go to a torque bar to keep your blocks from tipping
or change the pivot points to match the front of the spring shackles

The front isn't on blocks. It's welded to the frame on the sides and also a thick bracket in the middle that attaches to a beam that's under the radiator.

Is the torque bar the one that attaches to the differential and the frame on one side?
If any could sketch out what I should do with the rear suspension that would be awesome. Will those shocks be able to stay where they are?

[57chevyman]

Better angle to see

[57chevyman]

Decisions . Bring the back down 2 inches to level it with front , or put drop spindles in front and bring the back down to level it.

I'm pretty sure that the rear suspension was built the way it is to keep the huge 5" blocks in place . Can I / should I eliminate those bars if I replace the blocks with smaller blocks?

[Speedbumpauto]

Agree the bars are there for some stability and could/should be there even if you lower it 2". It was just poorly designed. If you change it so the front bar pivot is in line with the front spring eye, it would work properly. The 6 lug could be a problem on a 2WD. I think 72 was when the 2WD went to 5 lug and I don't know if discs were available in 70 or 71 on the truck. You'll have to do some research to see what the donors, if any, are.

[mr48chev]

Pull those excessive height lift blocks out and take them to a competent welding shop and have them cut the amount you want to lower it out and put them back in and probably change to to shorter U bolts if the ones on it don't have enough threads.

Your "mechanic" should be able to have it done for you in a day's time but if it were me I'd scrap the whole frame and start over with a new frame and have it built right rather than cobbled together as it is.

[OrrieG]

wrong thread

[57chevyman]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

Pull those excessive height lift blocks out and take them to a competent welding shop and have them cut the amount you want to lower it out and put them back in and probably change to to shorter U bolts if the ones on it don't have enough threads.

Your "mechanic" should be able to have it done for you in a day's time but if it were me I'd scrap the whole frame and start over with a new frame and have it built right rather than cobbled together as it is.

The frame is solid on this truck. Those pics I posted of the front were misleading... The whole front of the frame from the firewall forward is boxed on both sides. So while some of the frame was torched away to fit the a arms and steering box , thick steel was used to box the other side. It's not the prettiest looking , but it's strong.

I don't know a thing about suspension design , but there's no problem with the way the rear suspension feels when I drive even on a rough road, I don't get any bounce in the rear

[_Ogre]

post up a few pics of the front end suspension

[57chevyman]

^will do

[mr48chev]

That rear suspension is set up pretty much the same as what a number of off road guys up here use on the trucks they only use in the hills. Those they trailer to the point where they unload them and hit the trails.

I stand by what I said in previous posts and threads in that the crudeness of the work and suspect work scares the daylights out of me as far as your actually driving it out on public roads with your family in it. It isn't if something is going to break on that truck and cause a wreck but when it will break.

[57chevyman]

I'll post some new pics of the front end.
The frame is reinforced really well and steering box is attached with all the stock bolts to a custom bracket fabbed to the frame .

[roostertoo]

I personally don't like blocks. I have installed several lift kits on 4 X 4s that used blocks but I'd rather add leaves, buy custom springs built to size, or extend the spring hangers. I also wouldn't pull any measurements from the rear wheel well b/c you said your going to install the original style bed so the wheel wells will not match. I'd pull all measurements from the frame to the ground in relation to the bed that you are going to put on the truck or do the bed swap first. If you do the bed swap first and then adjust your ride height, you can "mock" everything up before it's finalized.

[57chevyman]

^thank you. I will measure the height of the frame

[57chevyman]

Lowered the front two inches

[octanejunkie]

Seems you are on your way, I would have agreed with lowering the rear to match the front, but if you like a lower stance overall, then do what is right to accomplish that. I also agree there was too much forward rake originally.

FWIW, NAPCO 4x4 conversions back in the day added a live axle up front and added 4" blocks to the rear to level the truck out.

The thing that is deceiving about these trucks is that the wheel wells in the front fenders are taller than the rear fenders' wells, making the spacing between fender and wheel appear uneven between front and back -at least to me. Being a fan of the taller truck/and forward raked stance, I raised my rear end to visually even out the wheel well spacing by adding 2" blocks at the back. Everything else about my suspension is OE spec, new.



Personally I wouldn't mind taller, yet.

[57chevyman]

I still have to lower the back to even it out, leave it just slightly higher in back. There's 5" blocks in the back .
I like where the front is now. Not looking for a low stance , just going for a stock 2wd height. I think to pull off the jacked up 4x4 look I needed much larger tires. I didn't want to go that route though.

[57chevyman]

....

[chev3600]

Ride quality may improve if you can find a way to mount the shocks closer to vertical too. They don't like to be on such an angle. Truck ooks good though. I like the stock 2wd look better than the jacked up one.

[57chevyman]

Shot of the whole truck sitting lower . These tires are really big 31x10.5 15. The new 235 70 15 tires will bring the truck down another inch

[_Ogre]

ride quality might be improved by removing a few leaves from those springs
it looks like your riding on 9 springs; iicr stock was 7 for a half ton swb