so i went outside today and tried a trick i did on an old dodge truck i had. i had it lowered in the back with 2" drop shackles then used leaf spring clamps to clamp the leaf pack together and that gave me another 1.5". well i haven't done anything to my F150 yet, but i put c clamps on the leaf pack to see how much it would drop, and it netted a 1 1/8" drop. now, i know that is not a lot, but for those people only wanting an 1" or so, using spring clamps would be cheaper and easier to put on than shackles. i will tell you though, on my old dodge, the spring clamps made the ***** end really stiff, but it wouldn't spin, the spring clamps kind of aid in traction like. and i had the Hemi engine. just thought i would share...

 

not that I'm going to try, but how in the hell did you put c-clamps on leaf springs to make it lower?


I've got to see pics of this...

 

take shop C clamps and put the leaf pack in them and crank them down all the way. pretty basic really. i didn't take pics, but it's simple. i have 2, 3" clamps, open them all the way up and put them on the front and rear of the leaf pack and crank them down tight.

 

oooooohhhhh, you mean like out at the edges of the overload leafs? to bring them up against the other leafs?

 

exactly

 

got cha

 

Dropped is a good thing but this is a terrible idea. I will tell you why. You now have your spring rate at max load all the time. This means you might as well be driving on the bump stops because you have a unloaded truck running on a fully loaded leaf pack. Your only option for this to work and not ruin the ride of your truck is to remove the overload leaf. If you wish to haul the factory load rating any more you need a set of helper bags and you will be back well above factory load rating to haul again.

 

i said previously it would make the truck very stiff. i didn't say it was a "good" idea. i did this on my previous truck because i didn't use it to haul stuff with. i used it to play with and drag race. doing this kept me from spinning and having to spend more money on traction bars. a set of springs clamps cost less than $15, and they are SIMPLE to install and take off. if someone wanted a little extra drop, these are perfect, assuming they don't care how their truck rides and they don't haul a lot. i didn't recommend this setup, i was simply letting everyone know you could do this.

 

This is the point I was making. Didn't want anyone to see this idea and not realise the major draw backs.

 

just get shackles