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If your leaf springs have worn out before you expected, you might want to think about upgrading to heavy-duty springs rather than just replacing what you have with the equivalent product. Before you make this decision, it’s important to think through whether there could be any downside to upgrading to heavy-duty leaf springs. Not every vehicle is used in the same manner, so each vehicle has its own needs when it comes to leaf springs, and knowing your usage is vital when deciding on what replacement leaf springs to purchase.
Heavy-duty springs will eliminate the sagging, wheel-hoping, swaying and squatting that you might be experiencing with your vehicle, and will add some overall stiffness to your ride. By adding to the stiffness of the spring, you’ll see better load handling and less leaf spring wear.
Find Heavy Duty Leaf Springs
Probably the biggest thing to note about using heavy-duty springs is the difference you’ll see and feel between driving with a full load and driving without a load. With heavy-duty leaf springs, you’ll be able to carry more weight and see less wear on your leaf springs, because they’re designed to handle the larger load without deforming to the point that their structure becomes compromised. Heavy-duty leaf springs are stronger and resist bending as easily as regular leaf springs so that the load will ride better without the leaf spring bottoming out. This can be a great help if you are hauling extremely heavy loads.
However, there is something else to consider about heavy-duty leaf springs. If you regularly travel without a load in your vehicle then the heavy-duty springs can sit a bit high when they’re not under load. This can cause some problems with the handling of your vehicle in certain situations. If you are rarely without a load, this is not an issue, however, if you routinely drive without any load then consider using SuperSprings instead, which will take any additional load only after the regular leaf springs carry their maximum load.
When you're considering an upgrade to heavy-duty leaf springs, it's important to note how they are different than an OEM replacement. While HD leaf springs are typically the same width, they may be thicker than a standard part. Perhaps the most significant difference in the two types of kits is there are generally additional leaves in a heavy-duty suspension, providing for the increased carry and towing capacity and enhanced ability to absorb impacts from the road.
In some instances, such as when you are using pickups as work vehicles on construction sites, or you have other robust commercial applications, it's clear an upgrade to heavy-duty leaf springs make good sense. Otherwise, you have to consider a variety of factors ranging from how you use your truck to how your standard suspension performs under regular use.
When you frequently tow to maximum capacity or haul heavy workloads regularly, a heavy-duty solution can make a positive impact. Have you already previously had to replace your leaf springs or had other issues with your suspension? These are often indicators you need an upgrade.
On the other hand, if your factory-installed leaf springs have always been reliable and you use your truck for driving long distances and regular transportation purposes, these are factors that suggest you may be best with an OEM replacement.
When considering upgrading to heavy-duty leaf springs, it's crucial to weigh all of the benefits alongside any potential negatives. First, let's consider some of the advantages. HD leaf springs instantly and significantly increase your truck's lift and tow capacity. Heavy-duty kits are built for demanding applications and will last longer under regular use, reducing costs associated with replacing them more frequently. You can essentially turn an everyday truck into a rugged work vehicle ready to handle your toughest tasks.
On the downside, when you upgrade to a heavy-duty suspension, you sacrifice some elements of ride quality and handling because of the stiffer, more substantial set of springs. Your vehicle may accelerate a bit slower and not transition smoothly between sharp turns. An HD leaf spring kit is typically slightly more expensive and performs differently than your original equipment.
Whether you're shopping for a Toyota Tacoma, Dodge Dakota or any other make or model truck, General Spring can provide a heavy-duty leaf spring upgrade that fits your vehicle. We carry two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive kits for front and back suspensions with options for a wide range of model years. General Spring also offers custom HD leaf springs to meet just about any specifications. We can tailor a solution for older trucks and vehicles with specialty applications.
At General Spring we’ll help you find the right leaf springs for your vehicle. As a full-service shop, we have the experience you need when choosing your replacement leaf springs. The knowledgeable individuals you talk to on the phone are the same people installing suspension products in our shop. Any of our team members can give you expert advice that will be tailored to your unique situation.
So, if you are looking to upgrade your leaf springs, why not give us a call? We are ready to answer all your questions and offer the right product for your needs. If you are local to New Century, KS you can call us at 913-829-0619, while national customers can call toll free at 1-888-829-0619.
When you are looking for heavy-duty leaf springs for your vehicle, the experts at General Spring should be the first phone call you make. We'll be happy to answer all your questions and assist in placing your order for an HD leaf spring upgrade today.
Shop Leaf Springs
Nearly every car review out there will at some point mention something about the damping and suspension setup. Shock absorbers, springs, coilovers, upmarket stuff like Ohlins dampers; you’ve probably heard it all before. However, you don’t need to look back too far to find mass produced cars from the Western World that featured the leaf spring suspension. I first came across them on my Dad’s 1969 MGC GT and Austin Princess and always found them rusty, dirty and seemingly not up to the job.
Leaf springs as an entity date back to the Romans who decided that their chariots needed some damping for when riding on rough surfaces. Leaf springs barely changed for centuries after right up until the early 1900s when the first shock absorber (as we now it) was invented and then mass produced with the Ford Model A in 1927.
Leaf springs are a basic form of suspension made up of layers of steel of varying sizes sandwiched one upon the other. Most leaf spring setups are formed into an elliptical shape through the use of spring steel which has properties that allow it to flex as pressure is added at either end, but then returning to its original position through a damping process. The steel is generally cut into rectangular sections and then once held together by metal clips at either end and a large bolt through the centre of the leafs. It is then mounted to the axle of the vehicle using large U-bolts, securing the suspension in place.
The elasticity of the spring steel allows for a pliancy within the suspension for comfort and control of a car while moving, and a leaf spring setup has been proven as a viable option for cars for many decades, despite only really being found on HGVs and Military vehicles these days.
See also
If your leaf springs have worn out before you expected, you might want to think about upgrading to heavy-duty springs rather than just replacing what you have with the equivalent product. Before you make this decision, it’s important to think through whether there could be any downside to upgrading to heavy-duty leaf springs. Not every vehicle is used in the same manner, so each vehicle has its own needs when it comes to leaf springs, and knowing your usage is vital when deciding on what replacement leaf springs to purchase.
Heavy-duty springs will eliminate the sagging, wheel-hoping, swaying and squatting that you might be experiencing with your vehicle, and will add some overall stiffness to your ride. By adding to the stiffness of the spring, you’ll see better load handling and less leaf spring wear.
Find Heavy Duty Leaf Springs
Probably the biggest thing to note about using heavy-duty springs is the difference you’ll see and feel between driving with a full load and driving without a load. With heavy-duty leaf springs, you’ll be able to carry more weight and see less wear on your leaf springs, because they’re designed to handle the larger load without deforming to the point that their structure becomes compromised. Heavy-duty leaf springs are stronger and resist bending as easily as regular leaf springs so that the load will ride better without the leaf spring bottoming out. This can be a great help if you are hauling extremely heavy loads.
However, there is something else to consider about heavy-duty leaf springs. If you regularly travel without a load in your vehicle then the heavy-duty springs can sit a bit high when they’re not under load. This can cause some problems with the handling of your vehicle in certain situations. If you are rarely without a load, this is not an issue, however, if you routinely drive without any load then consider using SuperSprings instead, which will take any additional load only after the regular leaf springs carry their maximum load.
When you're considering an upgrade to heavy-duty leaf springs, it's important to note how they are different than an OEM replacement. While HD leaf springs are typically the same width, they may be thicker than a standard part. Perhaps the most significant difference in the two types of kits is there are generally additional leaves in a heavy-duty suspension, providing for the increased carry and towing capacity and enhanced ability to absorb impacts from the road.
In some instances, such as when you are using pickups as work vehicles on construction sites, or you have other robust commercial applications, it's clear an upgrade to heavy-duty leaf springs make good sense. Otherwise, you have to consider a variety of factors ranging from how you use your truck to how your standard suspension performs under regular use.
When you frequently tow to maximum capacity or haul heavy workloads regularly, a heavy-duty solution can make a positive impact. Have you already previously had to replace your leaf springs or had other issues with your suspension? These are often indicators you need an upgrade.
On the other hand, if your factory-installed leaf springs have always been reliable and you use your truck for driving long distances and regular transportation purposes, these are factors that suggest you may be best with an OEM replacement.
When considering upgrading to heavy-duty leaf springs, it's crucial to weigh all of the benefits alongside any potential negatives. First, let's consider some of the advantages. HD leaf springs instantly and significantly increase your truck's lift and tow capacity. Heavy-duty kits are built for demanding applications and will last longer under regular use, reducing costs associated with replacing them more frequently. You can essentially turn an everyday truck into a rugged work vehicle ready to handle your toughest tasks.
On the downside, when you upgrade to a heavy-duty suspension, you sacrifice some elements of ride quality and handling because of the stiffer, more substantial set of springs. Your vehicle may accelerate a bit slower and not transition smoothly between sharp turns. An HD leaf spring kit is typically slightly more expensive and performs differently than your original equipment.
Whether you're shopping for a Toyota Tacoma, Dodge Dakota or any other make or model truck, General Spring can provide a heavy-duty leaf spring upgrade that fits your vehicle. We carry two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive kits for front and back suspensions with options for a wide range of model years. General Spring also offers custom HD leaf springs to meet just about any specifications. We can tailor a solution for older trucks and vehicles with specialty applications.
At General Spring we’ll help you find the right leaf springs for your vehicle. As a full-service shop, we have the experience you need when choosing your replacement leaf springs. The knowledgeable individuals you talk to on the phone are the same people installing suspension products in our shop. Any of our team members can give you expert advice that will be tailored to your unique situation.
So, if you are looking to upgrade your leaf springs, why not give us a call? We are ready to answer all your questions and offer the right product for your needs. If you are local to New Century, KS you can call us at 913-829-0619, while national customers can call toll free at 1-888-829-0619.
When you are looking for heavy-duty leaf springs for your vehicle, the experts at General Spring should be the first phone call you make. We'll be happy to answer all your questions and assist in placing your order for an HD leaf spring upgrade today.
Shop Leaf Springs
Nearly every car review out there will at some point mention something about the damping and suspension setup. Shock absorbers, springs, coilovers, upmarket stuff like Ohlins dampers; you’ve probably heard it all before. However, you don’t need to look back too far to find mass produced cars from the Western World that featured the leaf spring suspension. I first came across them on my Dad’s 1969 MGC GT and Austin Princess and always found them rusty, dirty and seemingly not up to the job.
Leaf springs as an entity date back to the Romans who decided that their chariots needed some damping for when riding on rough surfaces. Leaf springs barely changed for centuries after right up until the early 1900s when the first shock absorber (as we now it) was invented and then mass produced with the Ford Model A in 1927.
Leaf springs are a basic form of suspension made up of layers of steel of varying sizes sandwiched one upon the other. Most leaf spring setups are formed into an elliptical shape through the use of spring steel which has properties that allow it to flex as pressure is added at either end, but then returning to its original position through a damping process. The steel is generally cut into rectangular sections and then once held together by metal clips at either end and a large bolt through the centre of the leafs. It is then mounted to the axle of the vehicle using large U-bolts, securing the suspension in place.
The elasticity of the spring steel allows for a pliancy within the suspension for comfort and control of a car while moving, and a leaf spring setup has been proven as a viable option for cars for many decades, despite only really being found on HGVs and Military vehicles these days.
See also
Due to the sheer amount of metal layered together, leaf springs offer a large amount of support between the wheels, axles and the car’s chassis. They can take huge vertical loads being applied to them due to their tight-knit structure, hence why heavy duty industries still use them. Vertical loading is also distributed throughout the length of the leaf spring rather than acutely through a small spring and damper, which can potentially create a concentrated force too large for the suspension to handle.
In a car, damping can be an extremely important characteristic. If the suspension is under-damped, the car will wallow and bounce around well after hitting any bump or pot hole in the road. This was a significant characteristic in cars that used helical springs before the dawn of the shock absorber and was disadvantageous to cars when driven at any real pace. Leaf springs coped much better with vehicle damping due to the friction between each plate of steel which made the response time after a vertical flex in the suspension much quicker, thus making for a much more controllable car.
FEA analysis of a monoleaf spring showing the distribution of stress
Leaf springs were simple in design and cheap to produce in comparison with the early springs and dampers therefore it was the go-to setup once cars were being fully mass produced to ensure reliability while keeping costs low. Monoleaf springs were the simplest design of the lot, using only one leaf of spring steel which tapered from thick in the middle to thin at the edges (known as parabolic leaf springs) to distribute the vertical loads appropriately. A single leaf setup could only however be used on extremely lightweight vehicles due to the lack of strength within the bar.
A big downside of leaf setups is they aren’t brilliant when it comes to suspension tuning. In racing and performance car applications, it is vital to be able to manipulate a suspension setup for the driving conditions and for different driving styles, something that is much easier nowadays through adjustable coilovers. This lack of adjustability of leaf setups is emphasised by the fact that the ends of the leaf springs are attached to the chassis, which leaves very little scope for shortening or lengthening of the leafs. Adjustments can therefore only really be made through the strength and flexibility of the material used to make up the leaf springs.
Leafs also allow very few directions of motion and are only really designed to move vertically, while a spring and damper combination can be manipulated into a much larger range of motion. Leaf springs are firmly clamped together and bolted to the chassis as well as clipped to the axle, thus giving little to no scope for any other direction of motion which can lead to heavy wear on the joints and connections holding the setup together.
This connection with a live rear axle can cause comical dynamic characteristics in a car when compared to a more modern independent suspension setup, something that older Mustangs are famous for. The rear axle will simply bounce around high speed corners as the suspension and axle are forced to move around together, when a modern damped system would add much more composure to the driving experience.
In comparison with a helical spring, leaf springs are generally much stiffer simply down to the steel construction and the tight package that they are bolted and clamped into. Ride comfort is therefore not a feature of vehicles that use leaf springs which made their popularity decrease dramatically after proper dampers were introduced in the 1970s to everyday cars in a cost-effective manner.
The Corvette has often been laughed at for holding on to the old-school leaf spring technology, but there is genuine reason for Chevy to keep using them. A transverse leaf spring is placed along the rear axle and is simply kept as a design due to the fact that it works well and is a much cheaper alternative to coilovers. The ‘Vette has always been a ‘bang for your buck’ car and with Chevrolet still claiming satisfactory handling dynamics, it sees no reason to change it up.
Chevrolet uses fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) instead of steel as it can handle around five times as much strain energy than a standard spring steel setup along with being a third of the weight. Suspension testing is generally governed by the number of cycles or oscillations that the springs can handle. The FRP monoleaf system can handle ten times as many cycles as the steel equivalent and the lack of interaction between leafs that occurs in a multileaf spring means that the suspension stays pliant, upholding the levels of handling and ride comfort.
Remote video URL
With only commercial vehicles still using leaf springs for suspension for the most part, you’ll have to hark back a few decades to find ‘performance’ cars with that kind of suspension - Corvette aside, of course. From a gladiator’s chariot to a Ford Mustang GT, the leaf spring certainly had its time at the forefront of vehicle damping but despite its simple design, the age of the spring and damper is well and truly in full swing.
Due to the sheer amount of metal layered together, leaf springs offer a large amount of support between the wheels, axles and the car’s chassis. They can take huge vertical loads being applied to them due to their tight-knit structure, hence why heavy duty industries still use them. Vertical loading is also distributed throughout the length of the leaf spring rather than acutely through a small spring and damper, which can potentially create a concentrated force too large for the suspension to handle.
In a car, damping can be an extremely important characteristic. If the suspension is under-damped, the car will wallow and bounce around well after hitting any bump or pot hole in the road. This was a significant characteristic in cars that used helical springs before the dawn of the shock absorber and was disadvantageous to cars when driven at any real pace. Leaf springs coped much better with vehicle damping due to the friction between each plate of steel which made the response time after a vertical flex in the suspension much quicker, thus making for a much more controllable car.
FEA analysis of a monoleaf spring showing the distribution of stress
Leaf springs were simple in design and cheap to produce in comparison with the early springs and dampers therefore it was the go-to setup once cars were being fully mass produced to ensure reliability while keeping costs low. Monoleaf springs were the simplest design of the lot, using only one leaf of spring steel which tapered from thick in the middle to thin at the edges (known as parabolic leaf springs) to distribute the vertical loads appropriately. A single leaf setup could only however be used on extremely lightweight vehicles due to the lack of strength within the bar.
A big downside of leaf setups is they aren’t brilliant when it comes to suspension tuning. In racing and performance car applications, it is vital to be able to manipulate a suspension setup for the driving conditions and for different driving styles, something that is much easier nowadays through adjustable coilovers. This lack of adjustability of leaf setups is emphasised by the fact that the ends of the leaf springs are attached to the chassis, which leaves very little scope for shortening or lengthening of the leafs. Adjustments can therefore only really be made through the strength and flexibility of the material used to make up the leaf springs.
Leafs also allow very few directions of motion and are only really designed to move vertically, while a spring and damper combination can be manipulated into a much larger range of motion. Leaf springs are firmly clamped together and bolted to the chassis as well as clipped to the axle, thus giving little to no scope for any other direction of motion which can lead to heavy wear on the joints and connections holding the setup together.
This connection with a live rear axle can cause comical dynamic characteristics in a car when compared to a more modern independent suspension setup, something that older Mustangs are famous for. The rear axle will simply bounce around high speed corners as the suspension and axle are forced to move around together, when a modern damped system would add much more composure to the driving experience.
In comparison with a helical spring, leaf springs are generally much stiffer simply down to the steel construction and the tight package that they are bolted and clamped into. Ride comfort is therefore not a feature of vehicles that use leaf springs which made their popularity decrease dramatically after proper dampers were introduced in the 1970s to everyday cars in a cost-effective manner.
The Corvette has often been laughed at for holding on to the old-school leaf spring technology, but there is genuine reason for Chevy to keep using them. A transverse leaf spring is placed along the rear axle and is simply kept as a design due to the fact that it works well and is a much cheaper alternative to coilovers. The ‘Vette has always been a ‘bang for your buck’ car and with Chevrolet still claiming satisfactory handling dynamics, it sees no reason to change it up.
Chevrolet uses fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) instead of steel as it can handle around five times as much strain energy than a standard spring steel setup along with being a third of the weight. Suspension testing is generally governed by the number of cycles or oscillations that the springs can handle. The FRP monoleaf system can handle ten times as many cycles as the steel equivalent and the lack of interaction between leafs that occurs in a multileaf spring means that the suspension stays pliant, upholding the levels of handling and ride comfort.
Remote video URL
With only commercial vehicles still using leaf springs for suspension for the most part, you’ll have to hark back a few decades to find ‘performance’ cars with that kind of suspension - Corvette aside, of course. From a gladiator’s chariot to a Ford Mustang GT, the leaf spring certainly had its time at the forefront of vehicle damping but despite its simple design, the age of the spring and damper is well and truly in full swing.
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