I thought that my trucks suspension was a little washy, but i just noticed that there is no coil spring up front. How in the hell does one lower a truck with no spring. This is making me want to sell this truck and get a new model for my project. I have attached photos of the stock suspension set up. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

I just dont know if something is missing, because it does not appear to be a spot for the spring to seat. SO it looks like not mighty max springs for me.

And again, thanks guys and gals!!

 

79+ trucks have torsion bars up front. Round bar runs parallel with the frame, from the LCA to a xmember back by the tranny.

 

yea, i saw the torsion bars, but I have never seen the coil less set up. do most people just bagged these trucks? And its hard to tell if the shocks are bad, since there is no spring there. I know how bad shocks react with a spring but not with no spring.

 

The torsion bars ARE the springs. They twist to provide spring action rather than bend a wire coil. There ain't a damned thing wrong or missing other than your understanding of how your suspension works.

 

yea, my understanding and knowledge must be limited. I just dont see how the truck can be lowered and still maintain the ride quality. i understand manipulating the torsion bars to get a drop, but it just seems like you will not have good ride quality by doing it that way. I understand the bags, but this whole lowering a truck is new to me. Thanks for your input

 

Dropping with a loosened torsion is different then dropping with a cut/shorter spring. When you cut a coil spring the rate increases and the ride gets sharper, stiffer, and harder. When you loosen the torsion the rate decreases so the ride gets softer but will constantly bottom out so it feels like crap.

The benefit of a torsion truck is that you don't actually need to change the torsions at all if you don't want to. People do it because it's free, but you can do a ball joint flip, drop spindles, drop control arms or any combination of the above and maintain the spring rate of your torsion bars.

 

The only thing affecting the ride quality on a lowered torsion bar suspension is the lack of travel. If you modify the bumpstops and use decent shocks it'll still ride like stock or better. My truck is running 1 ton torsion bars and front sway bar with monomax shocks and 2" drop spindles. With proper bumpstops it now rides better than stock and handles well.