leafs or coil overs?

[Wrestle9902]

I am about to convert my ifs to a solid axle. Should I have coil over springs or leafs in the front? I will probably get a EB44.

 

[LittleBigFoot]

I'm a firm believer in leaves. A lot cheaper and easier to tune in. I'm runnin 52" long 3/4 ton chevy leaves up front with the over load, and 2 other leaves pulled. Along with extended shackles SOA, holy crap she flexes.

Air shocks are a nice alternative also. About 260 per shock, plus links and a panhard. And other misc. expenses.

My leaf suspension ran me 100 bucks including shackles

 

[Toreadorranger]

Do you mean coilovers or just coils. Defidently go at least coils. Everyone always says leafs are easier when in reality fabrication is fabrication and they both take about the same amount of work. A properly setup coil suspension will outperform a leaf setup. Plus you can generally keep the truck lower with coils. Most guys I know who went with leafs have either swapped to coils or wished they had gone coils to begin with. Specially if you DD your truck coils offer a much nicer ride.

 

[95XL]

I'm a firm believer that a truck should ride like a truck. If you want a cushy ride, then buy a Chevy. I think that leaves are easier to setup than coils, and a lot less expensive, you can go to a junkyard and buy 2 leaf packs for $50, then all you have to do is figure out the mounting points for the hangers, and figure out what you want to run for shackles, and pick a spot for shocks and your done (besides the steering linkages, but both are the same whether you run coils or leaves). With coils you have to figure out the mounting point for your radius arms, figure out your mounting points for a panhard, and figure out for the shocks. Unless you make your own radius arms, they can be expensive, I'd say leaves are cheapest and easiest to setup.

 

[Hahnsb2]

I'm a firm believer that a truck should ride like a truck.

Ride like a "truck"=poor flex, if you want to prove how big your balls are because your truck rides like ass, that's fine I guess. I've ridden in stock solid axle yotas, they ride like a lawn tractor and flex about as good. Of course softer leafs will ride better and flex good but then it doesn't ride like a "truck".

I would go coils, another disadvantage to leafs is the springs like to get in the way of the steering. You'll also have virtually no bump steer if you run coils and a panhard bar compared to leafs.

 

[Toreadorranger]

I'm a firm believer that a truck should ride like a truck. If you want a cushy ride, then buy a Chevy. I think that leaves are easier to setup than coils, and a lot less expensive, you can go to a junkyard and buy 2 leaf packs for $50, then all you have to do is figure out the mounting points for the hangers, and figure out what you want to run for shackles, and pick a spot for shocks and your done (besides the steering linkages, but both are the same whether you run coils or leaves). With coils you have to figure out the mounting point for your radius arms, figure out your mounting points for a panhard, and figure out for the shocks. Unless you make your own radius arms, they can be expensive, I'd say leaves are cheapest and easiest to setup.

Theres 4 mounts for a radius arm setup and 4 for leafs, Radius arms arent any harder. People like to over complicate them. Grab a set of radius arms off a Fullsize for cheap. Specially if hes going to use a EB44. Its more work to cut the wedges off and put leafs on then to just keep it the way it is.

 

[LittleBigFoot]

No need to hack wedges if you run the leaf packs right under the chassis rather then on the side.

I've seen many rigs bend links on the trail. Even with heafty ass DOM and big ass joints.

You bend a link it's bad, you crack a leaf and you can limp home.

Leaves are easier to tune like i said before. You can stuff them in and pull them out. I'm down to a 156 lb spring rate in the front. I think jeeps are around 240. I've still got my desired lift, smoothe ride quality except the tires and rims aren't quite round anymore.

With leaves, caster is wicked easy to adjust. Future axle swaps are made tons easier.

I had my front end out in 20 minutes including time to get it up on jacks, and using hand tools.

The only cons are the need to run the axle SUA, or run high steer. High steer is always a good investment in the long run though.

 

[crawlin91]

so with high steer would front leaves be run sprung over?

 

[LittleBigFoot]

Sprung under axle, the drag link can make it to the pitman arm with ease.

Sprung over axle, the pass. side leaf pack gets in the way. This leads the need for high steer. Shitty thing is, ford knuckles can't safely be rigged up for high steer, so it involves a knuckle swap.

I took the ass back wards way and just ran 8 lug chevy knuckles, with the driverside already drilled and tapped for high steer arms. Then I picked up a tall arm at SKY, reamed for one ton TRE's. Then I ran my drag link from the pitman arm to the driver side, and a tie rod knuckle to knuckle.

No bump steer, great angles, nothing binds, but not conventional.

Same steering set up used for my 1.5 tons

 

[alpinestar]

with my shackles in the rear i was able to use the stock jeep steering on my D30, no binds, but there is the bump steer and what not but i think i can eliminate alot of that with a drop pitman arm, mines stock...

 

[LittleBigFoot]

I ran my shackles in the front, so when it articulates it moves the axle forward rather then closer to the cab.

It effects approach angles, but not as bad as you'd think.


Alpinestar, are you soa?

 

[alpinestar]

yea i am...

 

[JohnnyU]

I ran my shackles in the front, so when it articulates it moves the axle forward rather then closer to the cab.

You're thinking backwards there. As the springs unload, when the shackle is out front, the axle will swing back into the cab. When the shackles are in the rear, and the springs unload, the axle will swing forward.


Now, on compression, the opposite is true. Rear shackles will cause the axle to move backward, and front shackles will cause the axle to move foreward.

 

[alpinestar]

articulating i think is referring to the compression. but either way one side goes up, one goes down, so its always gonna be moving back and forth no matter where your shackle is...

 

[dangeranger01]

Run air shocks, they are easy to set up and work great. Im running them on my DD with no complaints. They ride great, I almost did a leaf SAS and am glad now that I didnt.