6" LIFT KIT OPTIONS "OFF ROAD DESIGN" Vs SKYJACKER

[BASE]

I was wondering which way you ended up going. Have you got the springs in yet?

I just got the shipping notice for the alcan/ORD front springs, also ended up buying the shackle flip brackets from them. I didn't order any rear springs yet, and might regret that as it's going to be right at 11wks for the front ones.

ETA: Springs showed up on the front porch yesterday. They look huge. I'm starting to worry that asking ORD for a 5" spring might have been a mistake. They look like 8" springs.

[rowdy11]

Curious to hear the rest of the story as well. I'm in the middle of a complete frame-off build. My suspension has been replaced and is done and waiting while I work through body work. Turns out no filler is a long progress.

Anyway, I am looking again at my replaced and rebuilt lift...it's a brand new 6 inch Tuff Country no blocks and I'm thinking it's going to ride like a stone. I've been looking at the ORD springs because I've heard people gush about the ride...

Thanks for everyone's opinions...

[MDFarms]

Sorry just seen this now, I ended up only going with 4"SkyJacker Soft Ride. The reason was If i ever decided to put it back to stock height I would have all original components (hangers) in place. I plan on keeping this truck and who knows as I get older if the lift will suit me or not? I do believe if I wanted 6" lift no doubt I would have went with ORD.

[rowdy11]

Thank you!

[Stephen Watson]

I just came across this today searching for other stuff and thought I'd address some questions for posterity. Obviously there's a date gap but some people actually do search...
ORD is not selling Alcan springs. This is a constant source of confusion and we don't know what to do to clear it up. Alcan builds Alcan brand springs from a spring shop in Grand Junction CO. ORD buys springs built to ORD's specifications from the same spring shop in Grand Junction. Not alcan specs and you can't order ORD springs from Alcan. We work closely with them on a lot of suspension projects but our leaves are not the same.

As to the question of why the shackle flip over 3" of lift on a '72 back truck: An actual soft spring for these trucks (not a "soft ride" or "ezride", etc but one that actually rides nice) has to have a deeper free arch because it's going to compress more under the weight of the truck. Standard stuff in the way springs work. A '72 truck requires a little more rear spring arch than Square. Add these factors and you end up with a deeply arched spring in the unloaded state. This was mentioned by someone in this thread, they thought their springs looked like a much higher lift. This is common enough that we address it in our instruction summary page.
When leaves have a deep arch, the eyes pull together making them require preload to install. Preloading leaves involves spreading the leaf eyes apart to reach the shackle eye and is unusual in leaf spring world making it seem wrong in addition to being really awkward. We generally try to avoid this.
The solution to making the spring reach the shackle is to use a longer shackle that will lay down horizontal. This works in many applications but the 67-72 trucks have a bed rib above the shackle hanger and the longer shackle hits it. So no long shackle for you. At this point, we need to flatten the spring arch and the shackle flip is a great way to get you into a flatter spring. As others have said, the flip does not introduce any inherent handling or load carrying problems as evidenced by the later model 1-ton trucks running this system.

The reason a regular "lift kit" spring can give you up to even 8" of lift with the tension shackle is that they don't really move because they're really stiff.

There is one new part that alters the equation a little and that's our new tension shackle hanger. This piece drops the shackle mount point and lets you run our 6" long shackles with no change in ride height. This piece allows a 4" lift with the tension shackle system on the early trucks. We still have to do a shackle flip on a lift over 4".

We've also been fighting a reputation as "only for rock crawling" for a long time. We like using our stuff offroad but we have a very firm grasp on making these trucks work on road in both ride and handling and that's really been enhanced by making them ride and handle offroad.

[Stephen Watson]

Didn't address personnel. We had some problems in '21 and '22 that are gone now.

[Dieselwrencher]

Stephen, I've used ORD for several axle swaps on diesel conversion trucks I build. I'm glad you guys offer the products and continue to develope new products. I just got a sway bar kit for a cross over D60 in a square body and it was priced very well and is great quality. Thanks for the updates and spring info.