I'm going to be doing lots of dirt road driving and the rear suspenion needs some help.

Thinking about removing a leaf from the spring pack. The truck sees some weight from time to time, but it will very rarely use the whole capacity. I'm looking for a bit better ride and a bit more compliance on rough roads. Airbags are being considered for load leveling when needed.

...at the same time, I'd like to reduce axle hop. I'm sure some of you know, it can be pretty bad. i have leaf spring clamps on my '98, and they helped, but they also made the ride rougher. I know there are several ways to reduce it, just wondering what people have done to these trucks and how it worked out. Truck will see off-road use, but not serious rock crawling. I've seen the half leaves you put on the front/top of the leaves, i hear it reduces hop and adds weight capacity. Am i going to get the stiffness back with it though?

I'd like to lift the back about an inch or so too, for looks mostly. I was thinking of a 1.5" block combined with removing a leaf would be very close, however the rear axle wrap/hop will only be exaggerated afterward.

I could have a completely new spring pack built with less rate and more height. Sounds ideal but expensive (no idea how much) and won't deal with axle wrap.

Anybody dealt/dealing with these issues on these trucks?

 

below is a pic of the track bars i built for my 98, a little over kill for a dak, but he same idea, the only way to cure axle hop, and you can take out as many leafs as you want to gain ride quality, with out axle hop, (just need lift blocks to mantain height and bags or something similar to hual weight) just have to keep them as long as possible to avoid binding, and heavy enough to take the stress, but a wonderfull upgrade


l_baca5ef69c854e889643999e8d7c2cee.jpg

 

From years of rock crawling in Jeeps and Toyota's some guys have removed a leaf from the spring pack. But this was to get better flex on the trail, not neccisarily a better ride. You are talking about a leaf sprung solid axle. One thing you could do is remove one leaf and try it out. Minus a leaf might make the truck sit level, since the front is raked. I f you still want to gain the lift back you lost you could put some lift shackles on the back to bring it up. Maybe some others could chime in but I dont know if the other smaller leafs even come into play as far as ride untill there is weight in the back? So removing 1 leaf might not do anything for ride quality. Good luck

 

I've been researching tonight, think i might have a plan.Going to settle with a bit less lift, barely any actually.

Plan right now is to:

1. remove the lowest spring.

2. add in a 1" lift block (for a gain of ~.5 inch overall), maybe 1.5" blocks instead

3. use the hellwig traction control springs, assuming they fit http://www.jcwhitney.com/performance...1&zmap=476322#

4. Do without for now, but keep my eye out for a good airbag assist setup...always been a gadget I wanted to try out.

5 finally decide on a shock for the back.

I think the trac bars are just a bit too noticeable for me. I like to modify, but keep things looking like they could maybe be that way from the factory. I don't need to eliminate it, but it would be nice to knock it down a lot. I'm thinking the springs can do that without being too noticeable or adding too much firmness.

I should note that I already have the TM leveling kit (and ranchos) up front, truck has just a slight a mount of nose down rake to it still.

I actually don't mind the ride too much, it's that it isn't tamed going over bumps, and i know shocks will only help so much.
Thanks, and all tips are appreciated!

 

Im just going to come out and say it.

This sounds like a terrible idea. That short leaf at the bottom of the leaf pack is pretty crucial part of the leaf pack. You will most definately begin to suffer from spring sag over the next few years if you remove it.

A lift block in its place will only worsen the deal.

Why would you want to weaken your rear end...to get a softer ride? Removing a leaf and adding a block is going to hurt your load capacity. Who cares if you don't use it much...your making a good truck bad.

There has got to be a better way. I think shocks will help more then you think.

 

Why would a lift block make sag worse?

I do plan to change the shocks first, just to see, but am very doubtful it will be sufficient. I'm torn between ranchos and bilsteins right now. Ranchos would hopefully be tuned to compliment the fronts. Bilsteins, made to fit, might be able to control the rear end a bit better.

The spring sag is a valid issue, but I'm not sure I'm too concerned about it happening. I do have a line on a couple of wrecked Dakotas to pull parts from, assuming the 8.25" and my 9.25" share similar springs. I'll bet I could get them pretty cheap and store them away.

Adding the 4th spring back in doens't seem like it will be too big of a job either. If I end up bottoming out regularly, it will go back in and I will live with it.