Rear springs on front?

[Christian Nelson]

Hey y'all, buddy of mine is having me do an axle swap on his project truck, it's a blazer frame with a Jeep body welded to it.

Anyhow, he was complaining that the ride was VERY rough, and I noticed he had a 7 leaf spring pack in the back, so I am removing 3 leafs from the packs, and I think 4 leafs should be plenty for that light vehicle.

So, I was looking at the springs, and thinking to myself, "I wonder how much lift one could get by putting a couple of these rear leafs on the front spring pack on my other truck?"

So, anyone do this? I am thinking it should give me about 3-4" of lift, no?

For the back, I can either do a shackle flip, or I happen to have a set of 4" blocks.

Could be a very low cost way of lifting my truck.

I figured I would replace the bottom flat spring with 2 curved springs, I'd need to drill out the pin hole abit bigger on the top spring, and use rear pins for it, but that shouldn't be too hard.

BTW, yes, I am aware I can buy a lift kit, soft ride even, and all sorts of nice goodies are offered on the market for people with money.. I am just thinking I may be able to do something with what I have laying around for simply a little sweat and elbow grease.

Thanks for input.

 

[nvrenuf]

Moving spring hangers and installed complete rear spring packs is a common mod nowadays.

That said, mixing rear springs with a stock negative arch front set is not. Stock front springs have a negative arch while the rear is positive, mixing the 2 is likely going to cause one of the positive arch springs to break. Ghetto mod.

 

[Christian Nelson]

Moving spring hangers and installed complete rear spring packs is a common mod nowadays.

That said, mixing rear springs with a stock negative arch front set is not. Stock front springs have a negative arch while the rear is positive, mixing the 2 is likely going to cause one of the positive arch springs to break. Ghetto mod.

Not sure how it's any different than add a leaf lift kits I've seen? It's not really negative arch, unloaded, they are simply flat. The rear top leaf is also flat when you separate the leafs from it. Just got done doing this on the rear. I have a set of front leafs pulled off another truck, and they are just flat, not negative arched.

 

[nvrenuf]

Stock front springs are widely recognized at being negative. I feel the same way about AAL's in front stock springs, I've even seen a set where the squared ends of the AAL wore a groove into the underside of the stock spring above it. You'll also notice when these are mixed that you'll get air gaps in places between the springs because they don't lay flat against one another.

 

[Frankenchevy]

You might consider re arching the front springs. If money is tight for the lift, maybe just leave it be. The lift just turns into bigger tires, faster bushing and steering wear, higher fuel costs, etc...

 

[Christian Nelson]

Ok, how much lift results from pulling the whole rear pack, to the front?

 

[Christian Nelson]

You might consider re arching the front springs. If money is tight for the lift, maybe just leave it be. The lift just turns into bigger tires, faster bushing and steering wear, higher fuel costs, etc...

LOL yeah, I know how that goes.. I already have a set of 33's though.. Rubs the fenders when I turn at a certain spot, but once I go past there, it stops, but if it had just a bit of lift, 2-4" it would be fine, but I don't really wanna go much higher than that, which is why I ask how much lift doing this would end up with.

Also, re-arching seems like it would cost as much as buying a lift kit.

The stock top spring being flat, I figured I'd just clamp 2 leafs to it, and that would re arch it, and since there's only one more leaf in stock, the two curved ones would keep it up pretty good.

 

[nvrenuf]

Be careful with re-arching as I think it will make the spring seem shorter. Iirc, lift springs are ever so slightly longer to compensate for what would be lost in the arch.

A typical full rear pack of 52" springs (5 leafs) will net around 4" lift depending on condition of the springs. Be careful with this swap as the longer travel can lead to a domino of mods (crossover steering, longer travel driveshaft, brake hoses & bumps).

 

[roundhouse]

Gonna make it ride really rough

If you’re ok with a little rubbing I’d keep it like you have it

And no matter what lift you have , if your tires are not rubbing , you need bigger tires ....


We just replaced the 4” unknown brand lift on our 76 K-10 with 3/4 ton axles (D-44 front , 14 bolt rear )with Alcan springs and ranch RS9000 adjustable shocks

And you wouldn’t believe the improvement in the ride

Now it doesn’t ride any rougher than a 2017 3/4 ton pickup

 

[77 K20]

You can always do a zero rate on the front for pretty cheap. Gives you 1" of lift. Then you have the option of moving the axle forward a little bit also.

 

[nvrenuf]

Gonna make it ride really rough

52” springs up front usually ride real soft, so much so that you’d want high end shocks to control body roll. My 2.5” lift 52’s make my blazer ride like a boat, almost to a fault.

 

[shiftpro]

Hi Christian,
Yes you can run rear leafs up front but it's not as straight forward as you might think. First of all, they won't fit without fabricating or buying the front brackets. DIY4x4... search it out.
But running a few rear leafs isn't the best for ride and articulation. Also good luck finding rear leafs that are not beat to hell.
The very best is to use purpose designed multi-pack leafs from Alcan or Deaver... or ORD has their own (basically a copy of the Deaver spring pack.

Adding an arched spring to your existing front pack isn't the best option. Adding an arched spring to any sacked spring pack will not work properly, and often just helps worn out springs break.

Oh and should mention, removing leafs from a spring pack will make it softer but it will fail. Spring packs are designed to work together as is, and removing any can put too much stress and more likely, too much movement where there was none before. And then you have a bent or broken spring.
Hope this helps...

 

[shiftpro]

52” springs up front usually ride real soft, so much so that you’d want high end shocks to control body roll. My 2.5” lift 52’s make my blazer ride like a boat, almost to a fault.

That's when guys use two worn out rear 52s...
Does your Blazer have old worn out rear 52s??

 

[nvrenuf]

Nope, healthy Superlift 2.5” lift 52’s.

 

[beest]

Google 52" front spring swap. Like mentioned above, the B52 kit from DIY4X is the bolt on easy way to use rear springs in the front of a chevy. You can also do it with the mounts on the front of your blazer frame. Just by busting out rivets and rearangeing the stock bracketry.

However, with 52" springs it would net you around a 3-4"lift.

I removed my 4" rancho lift springs, and used the b52 kit and my truck sits the same height as with the 4" springs. Rides waaay better. Also moves the axle forward a bit. Not enough that you would see it though.

If this is a rig you plan to wheel offroad, all of the off the shelf lift springs will make you hate your life on the trail. 52s are widely used and cheap to find at local junk yards. And will flex, unlike any of the name brand lift springs.

For more info, look on pirate 4x4 and also there is some good info on CK5 forums too.