97 Suburban 1500

[kenzie]

Hi, I am new to the forum.
I found it when searching for how to remove leaf springs, and found many helpful threads on here.

I have a 1997 Suburban 1500.
It needs a lot of work, but it was a very dear friend of mine's who is no longer with us. I intend on keeping it a long time.

So far it is practically all stock condition.
I had some major front end work to do, so while I was in there I boldly stepped into lowering it also.

The needs that were all done: ball joints lower and upper, control arms upper, tie rod ends inner and outer and sleeves, pitman arm, idler arm, and an alignment. Rides really nice after all these new parts.

I love lowered trucks, and after learning what could be done for free (tight budget, practically zero) I ventured to cutting the front springs and removing leaves from the rear.
I cut one full ring off of the bottom of the front coil springs, and removed two leafs from the rear.
That lowered it about 2 inches in front and 3 inches in rear.

It rides nice, not bouncy at all. I do notice I need some new shocks.
Also, I plan to get some brackets for the rear so I can put one leaf back in the rear. I took out the overload leaf, but do not think that is the best idea.
I was going to get the bracket right away, I got one actually, but it did not fit. I need to find which one correctly fits this model. It looks like there are less options for my model suburban for some reason. I think there is a clearance issue between the bracket mounting point and the floor of the bed/back of the burb.

Here is a before and after graphic:

[1badgmc]

Welcome.

It sounds like you've got a decent start. What else do you have planned for the future?