Sticky thread for lowering C10s?

[Scribbles]

I'm ready to lower my 70 C10 as well!

 

[bluex]

I'm ready to lower my 70 C10 as well!

Is it leaf spring or trailing arm?

I have a good setup for those too, but it isn't cheap.

 

[Keith Seymore]

We did about a dozen trucks back in the day (a '69, a couple '75's, '77, a couple '80's, '82, and a couple '87's off the top of my head) with cut coils in the front and relocated the spring hangars on the frame in the rear.

Total cost at the time was about $1.98 for grade 8 bolts/nuts/washers, plus a front end alignment.

The red truck was a daily driver for 30 years and 200k miles, including trailering and light hauling, in Michigan, Arizona and Montana, with no issues.

(It's still on the road, just doing parade duty and car shows and leisure activities).

K

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[Keith Seymore]

Front hangar and rear hangar detail:

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[TPISly-C10]

after a few cheap drop kit i made the big move: QA1 front kit and TCI rear yes it cost more but at the end i just want to love my ride..and man i love it!

 

[Old77]

after a few cheap drop kit i made the big move: QA1 front kit and TCI rear yes it cost more but at the end i just want to love my ride..and man i love it!

I’m tossing around upgrading to that front kit on my Burb. Was the install pretty straightforward?

 

[Bennyt]

My random notes...

Most drop spindles are very similar but there are some differences.

CPP modular use a drum offset to allow the wheel to turn in and not rub. They also allow for bigger brakes to be bolted on w/out cutting the spindle. Not sure either is applicable in this situation with the 15" wheel requirement.

Wilwood and CPP both make spindles that use bolt in hubs if going big wheel and brake combinations.

I like to flip the axle but don't like flip kits. Buy some Mopar perches from Summit and do it right and weld on. $20 and some welding. Nothing to loosen.

C-Notch only required when flipping if carrying a load.

Weld on new shock brackets and try and avoid the extenders.

If you are going to C-notch, look for the ones that fully encapsulate the frame so no strength is lost.

 

[ChuckN]

My random notes...

Most drop spindles are very similar but there are some differences.

CPP modular use a drum offset to allow the wheel to turn in and not rub. They also allow for bigger brakes to be bolted on w/out cutting the spindle. Not sure either is applicable in this situation with the 15" wheel requirement.

Wilwood and CPP both make spindles that use bolt in hubs if going big wheel and brake combinations.

I like to flip the axle but don't like flip kits. Buy some Mopar perches from Summit and do it right and weld on. $20 and some welding. Nothing to loosen.

C-Notch only required when flipping if carrying a load.

Weld on new shock brackets and try and avoid the extenders.

If you are going to C-notch, look for the ones that fully encapsulate the frame so no strength is lost.

Good points. No matter what flip kit is used (or other options like you suggested) I was curious as to why no one ever at least tack welds the perches on instead of just relying on clamping pressure.

 

[ChuckN]

after a few cheap drop kit i made the big move: QA1 front kit and TCI rear yes it cost more but at the end i just want to love my ride..and man i love it!

That thing is gorgeous! I'd love a full QA1 setup, but I gotta spread the butter I have over the whole slice of bread- funds are limited. It's a long term project, so a high end setup will definitely come along later down the road.

 

[ChuckN]

We did about a dozen trucks back in the day (a '69, a couple '75's, '77, a couple '80's, '82, and a couple '87's off the top of my head) with cut coils in the front and relocated the spring hangars on the frame in the rear.

Total cost at the time was about $1.98 for grade 8 bolts/nuts/washers, plus a front end alignment.

The red truck was a daily driver for 30 years and 200k miles, including trailering and light hauling, in Michigan, Arizona and Montana, with no issues.

(It's still on the road, just doing parade duty and car shows and leisure activities).

K

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That's really cool. Like the Chevelle on the trailer as well. I grew up driving around in a root beer brown '74.

 

[BRetty]

All the advice above is sound. I'll add a couple notes from three years aof driving a '73 10 that was lowered by the PO

-- I recommend an aftermarket transmission crossmember that has the "bat-wing" design like above, so that you can route your exhaust more directly and don't end up with "oval" pipes from getting slammed against the road.

https://www.dirtydingo.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1795

-- (The main reason for doing this is because crawling under your now low-low-lowered truck in the breakdown lane of the 10 FWY to tie up your burning hot pipe and muffler that just face-planted on the pavement SUXXXXXX. And you can't even take the tailpipe out at that moment because no clearance around the flipped axle. SO: make sure that's squared away.)

-- The other two Wise Men who talked about drop shackles for your shocks are wise. The suggestion to weld them on is a good one, yes I had some trouble getting the bolts in them. It's tight down there, we had to bang them a little to make it work.

-- While you are looking at shocks, CHECK YOUR FRAME FOR CRACKS, especially where the front and rear shocks mount. Had to weld cracks in 3/4 spots. I don't like the rear shocks mounts (upper connection to frame) at all and there are brackets from CPP etc that solve that problem but there's just not room.

-- I wish I had WAAAAYYYY beefier springs and shocks. I put on the KYB's mentioned above, and It got better, but I bottom out on a daily basis unless I avoid certain driveways ... oh and stay off most highways, also watch out for the EFFING SPEED BUMPS Los Angeles has started putting down in random places just to PI$$ me off, etc. the roads in LA are horrible.

-- Last piece of advice: Scotch-Gard your bench seat, because chicks are gonna dive in your truck like they're begging for work at Home Depot. And with no seatbelts in the way, you get the picture....

BR

 

[BRetty]

Some days I wonder how I ended up driving a 73 C10 low-rider. It can be a PITA. I mean, yeah, I have a real truck bed unlike the rolling cribs with a 5' cargo capacity... but I can't drive passengers if we have a job on site cuz she's a deathtap, CA has declared war on gasoline, etc.she's hard to park...

Then I remember that three years I did a job, and a member of the '70's band WAR was there. He saw my truck in the lot on the way out, came over, we talked about Whittier Blvd and how the dude I bought it from was an old-school East-LA low rider dude, straight outta like an Edward James Olmos movie, he pointed out the random pink pinstripes in a couple places and said it was a Thing, like the Yosemite Sam on the fuel door, so what's your favorite Los Lobos song (Kiko), for ten mins. Cool guy.

It wasn't until the end of the day that it really hit me:

An actual member of the band WAR just told me my low-rider truck is cool.

 

[TotalyHucked]

As others have said, mixing and matching of parts is the way to go to really dial it in where you want it. My truck was lowered when I bought it. I believe it's a Belltech notch/flip kit and McGaughy's 2.5" spindles up front. When I rebuilt the front end, I used big block springs and trimmed 1 coil off, so the truck was roughly 4.5/6 then.

This is before the LS swap, trimmed big block springs:

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Then after the LS swap, the truck sat nose high since it was so much lighter than the old small block, so I grabbed my original springs and trimmed them 1/4 coil at a time until I was happy with where it sat. That got me to about 5.5" up front but now the rear was too high.

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So I added a 2" shackle out back. Had to trim the bed brace for them to clear but now the truck sits much better, now it's roughly 5.5/8". I'd love to borrow some rallies from one of my buddies to see what it looks like this low on rallies:

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I will say at 5.5" up front, I scrubbed like a **** with both the 235/75/15s and the 255/40/20s. So I added SloshTubz up front, now I have tons of room. No matter what wheel/tire combo you're going to run, that's the way to go so you don't have to worry about scrubbing.

 

[TPISly-C10]

I’m tossing around upgrading to that front kit on my Burb. Was the install pretty straightforward?

easy thing to do!

 

[ChuckN]

Some days I wonder how I ended up driving a 73 C10 low-rider. It can be a PITA. I mean, yeah, I have a real truck bed unlike the rolling cribs with a 5' cargo capacity... but I can't drive passengers if we have a job on site cuz she's a deathtap, CA has declared war on gasoline, etc.she's hard to park...

Then I remember that three years I did a job, and a member of the '70's band WAR was there. He saw my truck in the lot on the way out, came over, we talked about Whittier Blvd and how the dude I bought it from was an old-school East-LA low rider dude, straight outta like an Edward James Olmos movie, he pointed out the random pink pinstripes in a couple places and said it was a Thing, like the Yosemite Sam on the fuel door, so what's your favorite Los Lobos song (Kiko), for ten mins. Cool guy.

It wasn't until the end of the day that it really hit me:

Thanks for all the info. Just got it home Sunday and there's a lot of loose ends that the seller didn't get to before sending it my way, since I bought it in the middle of him doing an engine swap. So I've been hammering away at just working toward getting it roadworthy. The other stuff will have to wait for now. No worries, it's the rainy season here anyway. The credit card was smoking this morning from all the stuff I've ordered.

After seeing the truck in person, and noticing it's clearly sagged a bit with age, I'm now reconsidering. Maybe just do a rear spring shackle for some drop and then do a 2.5" drop spindle in the front. I do dig the 4/6" look but I'm reconsidering that until I do a more moderate drop first.