If you really want to get a smoother ride, you need to replace the springs with a spring pack that has more, thinner leaves. The thickness of the stock spring leaves is the limiting factor in flex and smoothness of ride.
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If you really want to get a smoother ride, you need to replace the springs with a spring pack that has more, thinner leaves. The thickness of the stock spring leaves is the limiting factor in flex and smoothness of ride.
I did exactly that recently.
Used the top, longest two leaves of the original spring pack, ditched the rest. Acquired a pair of packs from the front of an slightly burnt 88 Wagoneer, removed the top leaf (the one with the eyes) and blended the remaining springs with my two stock leaves.
Ride is an awesome improvement, ride height may have dropped 1/2". Lots of body sway and a spooky amount of flex for a M715. That's what I was looking for.
With only on weekend on the trails I hate to brag it up too much...so far not enough axle wrap to present any sort of issue, and I was hammering the truck to try and find potential problems with the new set up. Keep in mind my truck is shortened, the shorter rear drive shaft should only aggravate a problem if it existed.
Venture at your own risk, I have no engineering degrees.
I needed to pull my leaf packs apart on my 715 and decided to experiment on the front leafs. I pulled 2 leafs out of the front and noticed the vehicle ride height dropped about 1/2 inch. Granted my truck is a project and does not run or drive so all my testing is with a floor jack. The spring pack moves much more than before and gave me some decent shackle angle BUT im not sure with 38's that I have 1/2 inch to give so I think I am tossing 1 leaf back in.