Hot Rods 32 pickup Parallel springs traditional setup ideas

View attachment 3393254 View attachment 3393255 The 32 pickup we are building will be fully fendered and the springs are from a 49 ford pickup front Axle. They are a relatively short Spring so more hidden may compromise ride ,don't know.
We currently are building the chassis from just bare rails . The thought was the springs were free $ and parallels would avoid the need for a torque arm as we will be flathead and 5 speed open drive. Plus our banjo rear has been converted to slide in axles and we have no radius rod mounts on the tubes., so plan to add spring pad mounts to suit .
Any way get to the question ,just trying to establish what angle the rear Spring hangers should be at with the frame up side down in a jig at present. Obviously with the spring pack down to the main leaf only the spring has less arc and they angle back some . I had them set slightly forward with a full Spring pack .
Is there a secret formula for this or just try it out some how?

 

rear hangers should point back some. note sure there's a secret formula. I just eyeballed it on mine. using 31 chevy front leaf springs. basically the same setup.

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My eyball theory was if they angled forward a little before any load went on they would rotate to back a little when the wheels were on the ground. Presently they angle 24 degrees forward. Please tell me if my eyeball engineering is way off.

 

Are yougoing to box it.? The front hanger looks like it was meant to be.

 

With that set up you will be able to run about a 35" tire under the fenders.

I have the same springs with only three leaves, and I ran my rear shackles through an existing hole in the frame, notched the frame 1.5" for the front hanger and still had to drop the frame 2" to get it low enough.

 

Hang on, IMO, gonna ride pretty darn rough..

 

My truck with a 7.00-16 and before the frame drop.

 

if it's angled forward it's going to continue to move that way under a load. I'll grab some pics of mine. have to go to the shop later


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Yes dumprat did look at that for height. We have 3" between axle nd frame and 3 1/2 " between spring and axle. Lowering blocks make it somewhat adjustable to a point.
Our 32 3w with a buggy spring has Approx 3" between frame and able of course that's with all the weight on it.

 

Mine has about 3" between axle and frame maybe a little more. No lowering blocks and it will move when I bounce on it.

 

Where did you get the slide in axle set up? Dan

 

Have made our own before but this time we used "hot rod works ",great folk to deal with and you know it's going to work.

 

Ignore the dimension of the shackle and the fact its chassis pivot point is on top of the frame. The diagram gives a good view of what happens during full compression and how you should aim to have the shackle orientated.

 

This setup was on the frame before I bought it. I decided not to change it until I experienced the ride and stance. Never looked back.

 

You might consider moving the front mounting points to the inside of the frame to get it a little lower, like the Posie's parallel leaf setup does for that chassis.

 

Yes the plan is to box the area under the front mount but we are fabricating our own 35 to 40 style centre X member and think this will end pretty much under the front mount so will make that decision when the X member is in place.

 

Yes that's what I thought also , but the slight angle forward with no load has proved me wrong . I pressed on a main leaf only and a saw no bind , the assembled the Spring pack and used a come along around the frame and again no bind obvious.[/QUOTE]

 

Wow thanks for that info Ratman, ( guess this is what you get for being an engineer)
That a bunch of calculations. I doubt we will get 10" of Spring travel, but the theory is the same. But using your info means we should see the axle move back approx 5/16 with our expected 3" or so of suspension movement.

 

Here are pics of my home made setup in my 34 pu. It is about 1 1/2" further back than stock (cab is moved back). I don't know what the springs are from. They are 46" long with weight on. Setting shackle angles is kind of a guessing game. Straight up and down with no weight is probably a good starting point but I would just tack the rear brackets until you can put some weight on it and see what you have, at least that's how I did mine.

 

here's my MUCH less technical mock up minus some additional bracing. took me a while to get back to the shop

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