My latest suspension project

[OffshoreDrilling]

After being forced to DD my truck for the last 6 months, I got pretty damn tired of the ricer bounce on the highway. Early last fall I swapped my airbags out for a pair of QA1 400# 10" springs, and the truck rode great. Leaps and bounds better than the almost entirely deflated air bags. Well, with the shocks I am using, the 10" springs were able to pop out. Those were switched out in favor of some 12" 350#, which are too long but I made do at the time. The springs had to be compressed about 1/2" in order to get the shocks to line up. That caused a problem with the shocks not having enough extension, and they frequently "clunk" from hitting full extension over big bumps or dips.

Finally, I decided just to fix everything I disliked about the rear suspension by changing out my lower shock mounts. I can now run my springs on the shocks as coilovers with more than enough clearance against the frame and tire side, the rear suspension now has 6" of vertical adjustability, and the horrible angle the OEM shocks are mounted at is somewhat corrected.

Somewhat improved mounting angle. The shocks are mounted upside down to reduce unsprung weight, and the adjusters can be accessed without having to jack the truck up.

Plenty of clearance on both the tire and frame side. These are my winter wheels/tires by the way. The stock wheels should have even more clearance.

6" of vertical adjustability, I can get the ride height from about 29" to 35" at the top of the wheel well to the ground(tire diameter is 30.1")

Click to read more...

 

[DanJ]

That's pretty rad

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

These are the brackets I used BTW. QA1 Part #MT100K. Competition Engineering also makes a similar bracket kit for about $20 less but it also doesnt have as much adjustability.

 

[Runtz52]

thats not a bad price for all those brackets, i might have to get that when i swap the rear end in the pacer

 

[EmersonHart13]

Lookin good.

 

[E]

Very nice Jared

 

[IDAFC21]

very nice indeed

 

[Bru]

Awesome. So how does it drive?

 

[OffshoreDrilling]

It rides a ton nicer, and handles much better as well. I think most of it is due just to moving the springs onto the shocks. I am thinking of trying out different springs some time, but I need to resist the urge to spend money on the truck this year.