The previous owner of my 91 W350 said he re-arched the front leafs. The truck currently has the So-Cal squat and I'm wondering if that affected the ride quality. The suspension in the truck feels absolutely STIFF, small speed bumps are a nightmare. I'm curious if I should look into a complete suspension swap to something that rides smoother or just live with the harshness. I assume if I re-arched the rear leafs my ride height would be leveled out.
Bring on the .02!

 

Some pics would help but it sounds like you need softer springs,

 

Does it have a lift? Or simply trying to restore factory arch to factory springs?

 

I have been told that re arching springs is just a temporary fix being that the front ends on these old bricks are so heavy. I was going to do it but decided to order new front plys. they were shipped today. I am looking forward to getting them on and experiencing my new ride

 

If your springs do not come with the "spacer / sliders" between the leafs, do yourself a favor, and install them, or take them to your local shop and have them installed. You won't believe the difference in ride quality. Jim lane has a writeup in the sticky's about it.....

 

I did some reading on Jim's sticky........nice work and I would do that but I am going to try and run parabolic springs on my front end. They are only 2 ply and only touch in the center of the spring on top of the axle and on both ends. I was told that they will hold my front end up no problem with a 2 inch gain in lift and will also improve my ride. They were shipped yesterday so I expect to install them next week hopefully. I am throwing on a set of Bilstien shocks with the set up also so I am expecting kick *** performance......

 

thanks fellas. I'll try and get some pics this weekend to help the cause.

 

rearch front springs & and 1 leaf and you got nervana. just put ballast in truck

 

if your re-arcing to stock height, the single added leaf at full length of the main leaf may be enough, if your looking for lift, youll need to add a few more, i used 3/4 ton '80's chevy rear springs to accomplish 5" of lift, a better progressive mix of short to long and 2 full length leafs, it carries the weight well, no matter how much i load it up, i cold bend leafs in a very large press, placing the leaf under pressure every 3" through the length

 

Thinking about the geometry, once the springs sag to reverse arch, as mine have on my 91.5, in order for the spring to absorb any bump that would cause the axle to move up, the spring will now pull on the shackle instead of pushing on it. Since the shackle has a fixed pivot at the frame and cants rearward to the spring eye, this means that when you hit that bump, driving the axle up, causing the spring to pull on the shackle, the shackle tries to lift the truck. I think this is why these trucks get so dang choppy with the sagged-out springs. Pretty much any mod that puts a positive arch back into the spring will help the ride. When the spring eye at the shackle pushes the shackle back, as it would with a positively arched spring, the truck would be able to dip ever so slightly and the axle/tire could float over the obstacle.

 

Yup, old chevies have the same problem with the exception of less weight so it is not as pronounced.