Box section lowering blocks?

[mt2man]

Hey would making up some box section lowering blocks be safe and upto the task? Lowering blocks are only ally anyway so surely a lump of box section would be stronger?

The vehicle is a vauxhall midi (isuzu Fargo etc) so there isn't really lowering kits made for them haha.

Looking at probably 2" steel box section in between the axle and leaf spring along with longer u bolts obviously, might have to look at shorter shackles or something for a lower drop but I don't want the ride any softer so keeping all the leaf springs in place. Clearance wise there is probably room for about 10" of drop! But without new leaf springs I don't see that being possible, just want it lower

The front is springs obviously (very heavy duty springs at that) so will probably start with cutting a coil and seeing how it goes from there, might be able to see if fork lift springs from work would fit as they are around the same size just probably abit beefier!

I'd love to see a midi van slammed to the ground though

[1980escort]

My mate did this with 50mm box he welded up the ends and tacked them to the leaf springs to stop them moving and they worked a treat

Sent from my GT-I9505 using proboards

[mt2man]

Can't see why it wouldn't work just need to find 83x300mm u bolts now haha

[kenb]

I made these for my Corsair the other week. I also needed to move the axle back 1/2" to centralise it in the wheel arch, as for some reason Corsairs have the wheel slightly forward in the arch. So I made them with a offset locating pin and hole. When I know they're deffo the right drop height, I'll weld them to the axle casing.

[mt2man]

That's great yeah exactly what I was thinking, I could always weld them to the axle too should be nice and strong!

Any other way of lowering the van at the rear? Lowering blocks won't give me the drop I'm after really!

[composimmonite]

Jul 12, 2014 15:16:40 GMT mt2man said:

That's great yeah exactly what I was thinking, I could always weld them to the axle too should be nice and strong!

Any other way of lowering the van at the rear? Lowering blocks won't give me the drop I'm after really!

Smaller wheels / tyre profile, de-arched springs ?

Paul H

[mt2man]

Its got 14" steels as standard but ive just bought some 15" Pajero alloys for it, will be fitting lower profile tyres but that doesn't help with the arch gap at all, and yeah de arched springs is an idea, I just don't want it any softer at all, other idea was shorter shakles? Ideally spending as little as possible so what every can be done in house, don't mind cutting or welding

[sowen]

Shortening the shackles generally isn't a good idea, as they are required to travel with the spring as it expands and contracts longitudinally.

What about longer than 2" lowering blocks if you want to go down further? You may need to add some form of anti-wrap to the axle if it hasn't already got something to stop the axle dancing about and breaking the springs.

[mt2man]

Don't really fancy lowering blocks any bigger than 2.5"! Might look at getting the leafs de arched if it doesn't give me be drop I need! Might go against everything I beleive in and get larger road tyres for my alloys to fill the arches

[composimmonite]

You reach a point where bolt on mods will only lower a certain amount then you are into serious structural modifications such as cutting out the rear chassis legs and floor then relocating them higher into the body - not something to be undertaken lightly.
What about changing the rear springs to airbags and going with a 4/5 link setup rather than leafs ?

[mt2man]

Air bags have crossed my mind actually! I've seen it done with all the rear helper leafs removed so the main leaf locates the axle along with a drop link and anti roll bar. The install a air bag between the body and the axle, it still has some springiness from the leaf but the air bag is effectivly the rest of the dampering and can be raised as wanted. Not sure how good this is in practice though! Not sure where I saw it now

[code109]

if you say you have 10" of available drop height, can you not just flip the springs upside down? was going to do it on my car but it was twice the drop I wanted! haha

[mt2man]

Surely that would mean the leaf spring is working the completely wrong way so there will be no dampering just loads of rebound?

[joem83]

Try these for anything leaf spring related (including u bolts)
I havent used them, but had a very good quote for lowered leaf springs for my Hilux, they quoted me less to make custom lowered springs than for Chinese made standard springs!
www.owensprings.co.uk/

[mt2man]

Googled flipping leaf springs and it seems it's fine if you flip the bottom one and then out the helpers onto the other side of the leaf

[Mystery Machine]

As has been said, if you use box section, make sure you cap the ends properly (2 or 3mm steel plate welded right the way around) otherwise they can collapse, especially with something like a Midi with some weight in the back.

You ideally want to make the locating hole and pin rather than welding it to the axle. Definitely DO NOT weld it to the leaf spring.

I might have some longer u-bolts that you can buy off me (brand new) that I had custom made for when I was fitting lift blocks to Delica's. I had a batch made and still have some left.

[mt2man]

How long as the u bolts you have?!