Adapting The Z71 fer better towing

Ricky B

Ricky B

Wiiide Open
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
LKN - Tha Dirty Mo (Mooresville, NC)
Ok so since I have a trailer now and I have other cars to use as daily drivers I quite literally don't drive my truck anymore unless I need to tow or haul something, which translates to roughly once a week.

Main problem is with my trailer hooked up (dual axle flatbed) and a vehicle on it (Jeep/blazer/cherokee) my rear springs say please sir no more and arch the wrong way, lol. I figure I just need airbags but I don't know if they make airbag kits that adapt to the 7" of suspension lift I have in the rear, anybody know how to solve that (other than taking the lift off) ?

Also When towing the trailer loaded I can't go 70mph or my tranny downshifts out of OD, I guess its cause of my 4.88 gears and the 315/75 BFG AT's, this is something I can put up with but I'm just curious as to what would rememdy this problem (other than getting lower gears), the only thing I can figure is more horsepower.

Thanks
 
What does the rear lift consist of? Lift springs, shackle flip, and/or blocks? Making the springs stiffer with more leafs/add-a-leaf would probably be the simplest solution. If you still have the stock Chevy 1/2 ton springs they are quite flexy and that is the main problem. A weight distributing hitch would also help.

As far as downshifting out of O/D,

1. Do you even want to be towing in O/D and risk the tranny getting overheated?
2. 4.88 gears with 315's should have more power than stock. You can only gear down to 5.13 with that suspension and it wouldn't make much difference.
3. You could try more power, easist thing to do might be to change to smaller tires when you're towing (yes I know it would look stupid :lol:)
 
My rear lift consists of a shackle flip, 2" blocks and an add a leaf, so yea I guess maybe I could add more leafs to my spring pack cause I got a bunch of random leafs at my house but I don't want my ride quality to go to Hell either.

As far as the power thing I figured since I had the taller gears and smaller tires was why I was running such high rpm's thus not being able to hold O/D. As far as towing in O/D I pretty much have to unless I want to almost redline while towing on the interstate in third gear. My tranny does have a cooler, granted its the stock one but at least I have one, maybe I aught to get a bigger one to not worry about overheating in O/D? But yea, Unless I want to stay off the interstate all together I have to tow in O/D to hold interstate speeds (60 to 65 cause at 70 It downshifts in and out of O/D) at a reasonable rpm.
 
So at 60-65 it will tow in O/D but at 70 it starts to downshift? If that's the case I guess you're just hitting too much wind resistance. as far as the lift, an add-a-leaf should make the springs stiff enough...I have heard that towing suffers with a shackle flip but have no real world experience with it...anybody that can chime in to that one? Also how much tongue weight are you using?
 
Yea didnt think about wind resistance my dang truck i like a driving a big moving box, lol. As far as tongue weight I have no idea, plus it all depends on how far forward or back i put the vehicle on the trailer I can make it tongue light or I can make it heavy as crap problem is if it's toungue light it porpuses on me.
 
Do you really need to be towing at 70mph? Not knockin ya, but IIRC, there was a study done in the Wilmington Star News a while back that showed that driving 70mph on I-40 as opposed to 55mph only saved something like 8 minutes between Wilmington and Raleigh. If I'm wrong about this, someone let me know, but that's the way I remember it.

The way I see it, you'll be saving that much more in gas (think about how much gas you're burning at 70mph with a loaded trailer) and towing at a safer speed, at the cost of arriving somewhere a few minutes later.

As for the rear suspension, an AAL's already been mentioned, and Hellwig I think makes an overload spring for 1/2 ton Chevys.
 
Ricky
If you want it to be a decent tow rig, and stay alive. Take it back down to stock height. Stock tires maybe a size bigger. Add some stiffer springs. Yeah it might hurt the ride a little. This will be safer on the road, put you back in your power range, and won't look near as silly towing down the road.
 
I had a Roadmaster Active Suspension put on my '02 Dodge Ram 1500...

made a world of difference...

not sure how it would work on a lifted, rig...but their US Head Office just happens to be in Charlotte, so I went straight to the source and got a free install (I was the first '02+ Ram to get one)...

Greg
 
I thought about taking 2" of suspension lift off cause thats all I could do without major mods. I'll have to look into overload springs and such, and I might experiment a little with puttin random leafs in the packs to stiffen it up. I would just like to have the airbag system so I could adjust the ride stiffness.
 
You are asking a marginal tow vehicle to do the impossible in worse conditions than stock.

A 1/2 ton truck is not going to be happy doing 70 with a loaded trailer stock, and you are complaining that yours won't do it lifted 7" and with bigger tires and lower gears?

Trade the lift to someone who needs it, get their stock suspension and some $$$, go to a stock or close to stock tire size, or sell the whole thing and buy a tow rig.
 
lol well I'm probably never gonna sell the Z71, but even if I did I wouldn't have enough $$ to buy a newer desiel pickup. So I'm making do with what I have for now. As far as taking it back to stock hieght, ehh, probably wont do that either, might take a few inches off fer now thou.

The not being able to do 70 thing was like I said b4 something I can deal with, I was just curious as to what I could do to remedy it.

The main issue is givin my rear springs some help when towin. I've looked at a couple helper springs and also thought about putting some random leafs that I have around the house into my rear spring pack to stiffen it up some. Which do ya'll think would be the better option out of those two?

Thanks
 
Put some Rancho 9000's on the rear (dial them up when trailering) , get a raised receiver hitch so all the weight is not on the tongue., make sure the trailer has WORKING trailer brakes and plan on an extra 30 minutes when planning a trip. Keep in mind that you are towing about as much weight as your tow vehicle weighs, and you may be okay.
 
The hitch I'm using now is a 10" drop hitch, and with it everything I tow sits just right levelness wise. As far as the adjustable shocks that wouldn't raise the rear ride height that would just stiffen the shocks wouldn't it? So then my rear springs would still be arched the wrong way? Yea my trailer has trailer brakes and I got my truck all wired up for a trailer brake controller bout a month ago.
 
If your springs are going negative arch, you have too much tongue weight.

Air bags or helper springs are just a band aid.
 
uglyjeepoffroad said:
If your springs are going negative arch, you have too much tongue weight.
Air bags or helper springs are just a band aid.
Click to expand...

Granted, but my trailer is not any different from any other dual axle flatbed trailer you might find so If i had like a 1 ton chevy or ford or whatever I don't think I would be having these issues, but I don't so gotta make what I got work till somethin else comes up you know. I think i'm gonna try adding in some random leaves to my rear packs to help stiffen em up, cause when they get negative arch its barley past flat so it's not like ridiculous, but definitly something I want to remedy.
 
That 10 bolt is gonna LOVE you... So much so that you'll hear it squeal in delight!
 
Rich said:
That 10 bolt is gonna LOVE you... So much so that you'll hear it squeal in delight!
Click to expand...

... just before it explodes! I got $20 that says it will be in BFE & a 5-10 mile hike to the nearest landline (celly's never seem to have signal when you need them)... and don't forget it will be dark and raining too! :shaking:
 
why not just go to the junkyard and get some 3/4 ton springs or 1 ton springs? seems like the simplest thing to do.

Find out at what speed your truck is happy towing the load. If it's 55 and the speed limit is 70. Oh well, that's why there is more than one lane. It is understandable to want to go 5 over and keep up with the flow but sometimes you just gotta get by.
 
3/4 and 1 ton springs are wider and won't fit. IMHO you should just add a leaf or 2 to each side, make sure you have overloads to keep the negative arch to a minimum, take some of the tongue weight off, and possibly try putting some 33's on.
 
your probably just going to kill someone towing with your stupid lifted truck and a 10" drop hitch. thats just unsafe and i have done some unsafe shit
 
Running seventy pluss miles per hour is not smart when your towing a heavy load no matter what your hauling with. I drive a one ton diesel and I still hang just around 60-65 when Im towing my heavy equipment and other vehicles. As far as correcting your springs, just get a set of inexpensive air bags and adjust them as necessary. Even with the air bags, towing with a vehicle that tall is a really bad idea. The first time you have to swerve good and hard to miss something I have a fealing your going to agree with me.

If you really want to get serias about towing with this specific truck this is what I'd do. Get a big ass trans cooler, lower it back to near stock height (I'd say no taller than 3-4 inches from stock and 32-33 inch tires), air bags, one ton rear axle swap, and a stiff anti sway bar in the back.

Nothing agrivates me more out on the highway than somebody taking chances with their own equipment that can potentially cause problems for people that are being safe with theirs.
 
TheGeneral said:
If you really want to get serias about towing with this specific truck this is what I'd do. Get a big ass trans cooler, lower it back to near stock height (I'd say no taller than 3-4 inches from stock and 32-33 inch tires), air bags, one ton rear axle swap, and a stiff anti sway bar in the back.
Click to expand...

Then he's still got a 1/2 ton tranny, transfer case, brakes, and frame.

Sell the mall crawler to some other kid who will think it's the kewlest and get a 3/4 ton.
 
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