Helper Springs

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Tavi

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I use my GMT400 extended cab K3500 DRW periodically, not a daily driver. I live down a 3 mile dirt road, lots of holes and cattle guards, resulting in a pretty lousy ride when empty. I recently had a project to move a bed full of dirt from one side of the property the the other. And man, did the truck squat. Also when towing at max capacity the rear squats below the level of the front. I had a few ideas to remedy this, AAL, bolt in leaf helper springs, going the ford route and put lift blocks and just start at a higher point for sag, or custom. I wanted to arch the springs just a little more in hopes to reduce the overload spring slap.

About a year ago, the autoride on my GMT800 Suburban went out, both shocks ruptured and the motor burnt. About $950 to fix. So I just swapped out the Autoride springs for standard and put in standard shocks. Problem solved with my 800.

So I am looking at these wimpy coil springs I pulled out, and think to myself, that would add just enough spring rate to get me to where I want.
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Standard on the left, Autoride on the right. The springs themselves are designed just to hold the weight of the vehicle, add weight in the back or tow without the air shocks. Or even just driving, it becomes a scary deal. Just for the record, the pan hard bar creates and noticeable arch as the suspension travels through its full travel, rocking the back of the Suburban back and forth.
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Load of dirt. My front keys are adjusted to sit on the adjustment nut (no crank). If I had to guess I would say in the neighborhood of 4-5k.
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Front and rear of springs. Stock overload spring engaged.
 
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Tavi

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I did a little research and found a company that makes a spring over leaf helper. I also looked at a few different air bag helpers for ideas. After several different test fits and mock ups. I felt it would be best just to remove the bump stops and replace them with the springs (I am aware of the bump stops purpose, but felt with the added spring rate, I will break something long before the bump stop would be engaged).
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Truck at stock ride hight.
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Front and rear of springs unloaded. Notice how close the overload is in the rear.
 

Tavi

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And I got to work.
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I felt due to minimal side force, I wouldn't need to heavily reenforce the spring positionor.
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Tavi

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I will start by say I'm not a huge fan of sky high trucks, to each their own, just not me. I was hoping to net about 2-3 inches.
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Well, got that and then some, 5 1/2 inches. Had to put a bit of crank on the front just to level it out a bit.
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Definitely time for some 255/85r16s
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And the over load looks like another spring in the pack.

The ride quality seems a bit better. Not a ton but noticeable. I did loose a lot of down travel, and need to get some longer shocks. The primary reason this this instead of any other route was financial, and I had everything lying around. We'll see how I like it in a few weeks/months. I can always pull it off. With the coils in, the front of the primary leaf is at about 2 inches positive arch.

Let me know if you guys have anything to add. I might end up cutting a coil or two to drop the rear end. But we will see.
 
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Biggershaft96

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thats a good idea but id try to find a shorter coil or shorten the ones you have up. have you loaded it up yet to see how it sags?
 

Tavi

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thats a good idea but id try to find a shorter coil or shorten the ones you have up. have you loaded it up yet to see how it sags?

Yeah. I’m thinking of cutting them. As soon as I find a replacement for the upper spring locator. The springs taper, so I will need to go bigger. And probably longer, since it won’t have any false coil at the end.

I did load the trailer up. Sags about 3 inches vs two without. So a bit more downward movement between the leafs start to load.
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