When I drive around, especially in the Baltimore area, the ride on my truck is VERY harsh/ rough. I usually have nothing in the bed and figure the rough ride was due to the overload leaves. Question I have is...if I remove the overload leaves, what size blocks should I use to compensate for the drop it may have if I do remove them? Also you think my shocks could be blown? Just trying to get an idea before I make purchases. Thanks in advance!

Edit: sorry, this should be in newbie tech

 

These trucks ride stiff regardless. In my experience, the stock or aftermarket leaf sprints are made to be tough not silky smooth. Different manufacturers have different spring rates, which can help with ride quality. If your rear springs aren't totally sagged and flat, the overload shouldn't really affect ride quality. My rear is sagged so my leaves are almost resting on the overload, which makes my ride very kidney jarring. That will be changed soon as I am getting the TG rear springs which are longer and hopefully will smooth out the ride a bit.

If you remove the overload, measure its thickness and either use a longer shackle to compensate, or a small lift block of the same thickness. If you can find a donor or don't care about your springs, you could probably just cut the overload spring itself to a length (4-5 inches?) that just fits under the springs.

 

Thanks. I'll keep your advice in mind!

 

If you do pull the overloads, watch out that you don't get increased axle wrap since the overload leaves help to control that. What usually happens is that the other leaves sag to the point they are resting on the overloads. Then instead of having soft then firm spring rate as the spring compress (soft with the normal leaves then firm when you hit the overload), you just have firm and firmer. So you can sometimes soften the ride by adding a thin flexible leaf under the main leaves to lift them off the overload. Or swap out some of the main leaves for new leaves to do the same thing.