Stock Leaf Springs? 4,5,6, or 8 leaf?

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thohill

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I have a bent leaf spring on my 1994 Z71. It has 4 leaf springs on now, thinking about getting 6 leaf springs and a drop shackle to avoid raising the truck up any. anybody done this? Thoughts, suggestions?
 

thohill

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Is there a reason you wanna go with the pack with 6 leafs?

Well, I do pick up yards of gravel/rocks/mulch/dirt etc. with the truck, so the weight carrying capability is definitely necessary. Max load on the springs are as follows:
4 leaf - 1425 lb
5 leaf - 2025 lb
6 leaf - 2235 lb
8 leaf - 3300 lb

A yard of rocks or gravel weights about 2800 lb apparently, so that might explain how the springs got bent in the first place.

Anyway I'm mostly fighting about whether to get 6 or 8 leaf springs. I want to find someone who did do 8 leaf springs, I just wonder how bad the ride got, seems it might be pretty stiff at that point. if its intolerable, i could just deal with 6 or 5 leaf springs and just cut my loads down a little. and I still dont want to get my truck lifted all funky from thicker spring packs, so can I avoid that with longer shackles?
 

dirtyhick42

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You could always go back with the 4 leaf packs for ride quality and then add some helper bags for when your hauling and that way you won't gain any lift and need to use shackles that aren't that strong to be supporting that much weight anyways.
 

thohill

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Thanks! How about if Im not too worried about the additional lift and go with regular shackles?
 

dirtyhick42

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That is completely up to you, the ride quality will be worse but it will certainly handle the load better. My experience with it is that my 2000 3/4 ton had the 5 leafs with the overload so I am guessing that is your 6 leaf pack and it had 2 yards of a mulch/sand mixture and squatted an inch. My 05 1500 had 2 yards of the same mixture and squatted a solid 4 inches, it has 2 leafs with an overload.

This is my nbs with the load, didn't get a picture of it in my last truck.
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thohill

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I think I'm gonna go with the 5's. Ill let yall know how it goes...
 
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