ok aside from letting air out of the bags which it doesn't have and out of the tires which it hardly has, i have decided im going to c-notch the rear, but does anybody have recommendations for the front? i have ruled out a clip, so basically that narrows it down to a drop axle... unless anyone has additional wisdom... any advice on axles?
squirrels the man. I put mono-leafs on my 56. I bought them through CPP. My 56 is a 3/4 ton and the mono leafs need a stout shock or they are bouncey. I haven't heard anything about Posie's new dual "mono-leaf "....it's two leafs.... might perform better...both are supposed to lower 3 inches i believe. Zman has played with a few of these trucks too. might pm him.
if you want to be cheap... c notch the rear and flip the axle on top... pull a few leafs from the front and drop the axle (or you can get an already dropped axle from CPP) Here's mine with just a flip and some leaves gone...
cnotch, do you remember how many leaf's? -every other one? and how far did you need to notch it once the rear was flipped? -did you take any leaf's out of the back when you flipped it? thanks
Mine wasn't notched, and I took about half the leaves out. left the longest one next to the one with the eyes, yeah I took some out of the back, but not as many just enough to soften up the ride.
my 57 has a nova clip on it with cut coils on front and a trans am rear axle on custom springs. it runs astro supreme wheels and thin white stripe tires. its low but not to low to drive around detroit. it sits good and still rides nice.
sorry about that zman, for some reason i had cnotch in my head. thanks for the details on your truck... about how far would you say the bottom of the front bumper is off the ground? off the top of your head do you know what size rims/tires your running? thanks and sorry for all the questions...
no problem, I'm not sure like an idiot I sold that to get a different truck... I was running 15's, and I wanna say they were 195/75 in the front and 215/75 in the back, but I can't really remember. It was low enough that it looked lowered but still drove good. I'd say the bumper was around 10 or 11 inches off the ground. You could get another easy three inches with a dropped axle.
you can also reverse the front spring main leafs to reverse the eyes. there was a good tech post here on how to re-arch a buggy spring to reverse the eyes, but the principle is the same.
This is totally theoretical because I have only done it in my day dreams but I am planning to take the front leafs apart and put them back together in reverse order. It would be like having reverse eyes and leafs springs that are de arched to the max. It should put your truck down 6-7” I guess if it winds up to low you could re-arched the springs a little to get it back up. I am planning to do this to my truck that already has a 4” drop axle, should really put it in the weeds. Please take my idea with a grain of salt because for all I know it will not work at all because I have not taken the springs apart yet to see if it will work. If anyone sees any reason this is a bad idea I would like to hear from you before I screw up my truck. Dave
i've seen people take the bottom 3 or so leaves, flip them over, then put them on the top of the spring pack to de-arch the pack. and why is the camaro clip ruled out? for the cost of a drop axle you could buy a camaro clip.
I've got a 59 chevy truck i've wanted to drop, just haven't gotten around to it . I always thought it would be neat to link and bag (in front) one of these trucks with the solid axle. Its only in the day-dream stage.
The oil pan clearance should be OK if not I will arch the springs as needed. I can take a little notch from the frame if it is a problem. A friend of mine will do a camaro clip for my free, but the camaro clip really only works well with a 350/350 combo and I am running a 235 and a 3 on the tree with a t-85 overdrive. I am just not a 350/350 guy and it will be cool to have a super low truck without a camaro clip, something you do not see ever day. Plus I got a great deal on the drop axle. Dave
A couple pics of my 59, On the rear we welded in a 7 inch step notch with the intention of bagging it in the future. For now we did a flip kit pulled 4 of the 7 leafs (small ones) leaving a total of three leafs in the back, if you dont plan on hauling a heavy load this set up works great with nice shocks. The front end I used a modified stock axle with about five inches of drop and that was one of the worst mistakes I ever made, the axle weakened right were it was heated and eventually snaped. luckilly I was going slow through a dip. lesson learned if you do a drop axle buy an aftermarket one do not heat the stocker sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. Luckily the are quite a few axles available for this truck, and a three inch with a couple springs pulled up front (2 or 3) will give you six or seven inches of drop.
psycho, thanks for all that info, really helpful advice and just what i was looking for... are you running that after market 3 inch drop axle now? do you have any more pics from the side? i love the look of that right now. looks just what i am going to try for... thanks
Preacher, I have just finished notching my ch***is on my 56 PU. Really easy and I now have about 3-4" of suspension travel on the rear with the springs flipped. Running 235-75-15's on the back, very pleased with the results. In fact there is so much room at the back I think I might have to drop it an inch or two.... Can't help on the front, my truck already came with a Camaro subframe. P.
I am actually rebuilding the front end right now and im trying to find a nova clip for it, if I dont find what i want though I think i will do an aftermarket axle with some springs removed.
I am getting ready to put a big step notch in the frame of my 1959 1/2 ton. How much room should I leave for suspension travel with my leaf spring suspension?
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