he plans to offroad the truck, dont use factory link/coil mounts, they will give at the first sign of abuse, they are no where near as strong as aftermarket ones, go to www.ballisticfabrication.com , they should have every mount you could ever possibly need, and are pretty cheap and you need to get GOOD heims, not junk, if the truck is strictly offroad go heims on both of your link ends, if it still used for a good amount of on road stuff, go with bushings on the frame end and heims on the axle, lose a little articulation but gains alot better ride, make sure the links are parallel and long and flat. just remember, you are going to need crossover steering, tracbar is optional depending on how it drives without one, like i said, if its strictly offroad, you could get away with it, but if it sees alot of road, you will probably need one.

 

I have bags in the back already, so bags in the front make sense. First I gotta get rid of the bags under my eyes!

 

thanks for the good advice logan, the truck will still see a fair bit of highway and city mileage. Im for sure going to take your advice on putting bushings at the frame, i dont need articulation, just want a smoother ride on and offroad. If i could get the same type ride or better then my previous 05 3500 then i'd be a happy guy. What do you think about bags Logan? If it were to see mild offroad abuse. I wonder if taking a leaf outta the front and putting a bag under the frame would be a decent way to soften the ride?

 

if you wont be offroading much, go with bushings front and rear on the links, it will ride awesome, bags would work if done right, you will have to keep them aired up partially if you remove a spring, good firrestone air bags can take alot of abuse, they run them all the time on semi trucks, go talk to your local spring shop and see what they can build for you in a "soft-ride" spring pack, have them use several thin leaves compared to your stock thick leafs, the more thinner leaves you use the better it will ride.

 

So I was thinking about it and looking around the internet a bit more, and im thinking that airbags would end up being the cheapest and possably best solution for my needs. Im gonna buy a set of lifted springs from skyjacker.com, and do the same type of design kelderman does with their kit. I will end up flipping the bottom springs to soften them out and then assist them with a bag and an adjustable shock...or two. This way i'll be able to gain 4 inches of lift for some 37's, with whatever fender trimming needed, and gain a softened ride. Limiting straps will be a definite need. I'd like to set up a high-steer system as well.

Im not quite sure what i'll do with the rear yet, I plan on putting a camper on the back a lot. The kelderman kit looks like an alright system, but I think I may just go the same route as the front.

What do you guys figure? Good.....Bad? I was reading that axle wrap is a problem when taking out leaves? I figure so long as you maintain a safe pressure in your bag, the leaf wont be stressed out as much. Not like its going to see hard articulation anyways...

 

With leaves removed the wrap will get worse, bags wont help that either.

I have the skyjacker 6" springs all around... They have a large shim in the stack to get the front driveline angle to work... this was a significant problem for me. With the big shim, the caster angle went to 0 so the truck wanders pretty bad, but i can still drive it, Even with the shim, the CV joint in the front driveline needed to be ground a bunch to clearance it to make the angles work... the steep angle also kills the slip on the front shaft really quick. With that lift and no fender trimming 35's rub the back of the wheel wells pretty good at full lock and a little bump.

Cross over steering was a MUST with this lift too. I remounted and heavily reinforced the steering box mount cause it was tearing the frame apart.

I have been planning on building a panhard/track bar... i think it will help a bunch.

With coilovers or with airbags(airbag only i mean), I would recommend keeping a Heavy duty sway bar in there.... i tossed my sway bar about 5 years ago, not necessary with leaf springs, but coils and air can be way to soft to not have some body roll control.... I have air only on my off road truck.... roll stability is pretty bad.... but its supposed to articulate.

 

almost forgot... one option on the caster/drive line dilemma is to cut and turn the knuckles... I am way too lazy to do that to my axle though.

 

If you are going to go with bags, don't buy leaves. Do it right and build a link suspension and let the bags do their job. The Kelderman system is more of a bandaid in my opinion. Why have two different springs working against each other?

 

You stated for him to build a 4 link, and then say the trackbar is optional? Unless the uppers are triangulated there is nothing to hold the axle laterally under the truck without a trackbar/panhard bar. It is not optional.

 

X2, you need front and rear anti-sway bars front that are stiffer than factory for airbags only. My Jeep is on airbags front and rear (no other springs) and it rides like a cadillac on and off road, but without anti-sway bars it would be scary on road. I run a dual rate anti-sway bar up front, so when off road it loosen up a bit and let's her flex out nicely.

 

ok, so for a link suspension system which would be better, coils or airbags? I know everyone has their preference, but for a say 80% highway 20% mild to aggressive offroad........

I still think if I were to build the suspension using the newer dodge diesel coils and hardware, i'd end up running into less trouble. I don't need any crazy flex out of the suspension, just want something a little more forgiving.

 

ok so I was looking around ebay, and happened to stumble across a guys jimmy that he had for sale.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1983-...QQcmdZViewItem

The guy did a full engine and drivetrain swap from his 92 ctd, to his 83 jimmy. As I was looking at some of the pictures of his swap I noticed that he has a coilover and leaf spring system in the front. It seems as though he put some soft leafs from a half ton pickup, and a coilover from I dont know what in the front of his rig. He claims that it is "smooth and stable on road or towing, and flexes like a mountain goat off road" And he says he has put over 70k on it since the conversion.

What do you all think? It seems like a fairly uncomplicated way of smoothing out the ride on my 92 ctd. I could find a softer lifted spring for a half ton pickup to locate the axle, and use some sort of coil over such as this guy has used to further handle the weight of the diesel.

 

Many guys over on a Ford site that I frequent (I wonder why?!?) have installed various types of air-bags.

I have them on my list of improvements, also.

From what I gather, on a streetable working truck, the idea is to install bags at all four corners, and air the bags just enough that the springs no longer are supporting the weight, such that the truck rides on a cushion of air, before the springs catch any downward travel of the truck.

All that have plain air-bags have nothing but praise for them, with the only skeptics being slightly against the Keldermans, not so much against the way they work, as against what do you do when a long way from home and a bag fails.

With plain old air-bags, should a bag fail, you are simply back to the old original suspension and can drive a million more miles, if necessary.

I believe that a good set of air-bags would tame the harshness of the archless front springs on the W- trucks.

 

It does seem quite easy, but I would worry about severe axle wrap with too soft of a leaf pack in there. Unless you could come up with some sort of a traction bar or something to keep the axle from rotating. But to me, if you are going to go through that much work, why not just link it?

 

Airbags would be a better idea. You are able to change and controll how much an airbag helps. If you throw a set of coilovers at it, you have to be sure the spring rate and location are perfect for your truck or you are going to be doing alot of rewelding to get it right.