rear leaf spring question

[galaxie50059]

I need to beef up the load carrying capacity of my 59 fairlane four door, see pics elsewhere on this forum. The leaf springs run under the axle and I believe the springs are a reverse arch. I have a pile of leaf springs removed from another 59 ford car. Can I simply add some of these springs to the current leaf pack and use longer u bolts to hold the pack together? I am also kicking around the idea adding air shocks as it will be needing new shocks soon enough.

No guys, I am not running shine or anything illegal. My cousin has a travel trailer from the early 60's and wants something cool to pull it with. I will post some pics of it with the trailer soon.

 

[gassersgarage]

Cheapest way would be to add overload springs to your leaf springs. Sears use to carry em. I had rear leaf springs on a 63' Fairlane station wagon re-arched back in the early 70's. If it was me and the car was a "keeper", I would go ahead and get new springs.

 

[Gastrick]

galaxie, yes you can just add more more leafs to your existing spring pack and use longer u-bolts. Just make sure that you don't eliminate the locator pin in the leaf that contacts the rear differential housing spring pads. Some suppliers sell a "helper spring" just for this specific purpose.

The air shocks can be used but I wouldn't add them strictly as a band-aid for weak or worn springs. They would be good for the added weight of a trailer though.

 

[Tripper]

Air ir up!

The air shocks can be used but I wouldn't add them strictly as a band-aid for weak or worn springs. They would be good for the added weight of a trailer though.

I like to keep my cars lo down but put Gabriel Hi-jackers on my Nova so when I rarely carry someone in the back seat I can just air it up & not scrape the wheels! Like Gastrick said, that's just a band-aid as mine typically leak down.

BoB

 

[galaxie50059]

Thanks guys, normally I like my cars to ride low too. However in this case, with a 3300 pound 18 foot camper in tow, a little height can be a good thing. Last night my cousin and I played around with the camper and car and it pulls it just fine, but the front end of the car gets a little light around 45 mph and is totally undriveable beyond 50 mph. On the stock rear leafs, it drops the car about 3 to 4 inches and the arch in the springs is gone at that point, meaning they are flat and level. There is still another 3 to 4 inches of spring travel before the bottoming out point is hit. One thing that I did note, is that the front end raises up 2 to 3 inches with the trailer hooked up.

I expect it to sag some, but not enough to cause driveability problems though. I will be adding an electronic brake controller and all the other safety goodies required for towing to the car, so no worries there. On a different note, the car rode way better with the trailer than it does without it. Ride quality without the trailer is not an issue for me as I am usually the only one driving it.

 

[chop509]

You can also look into a weight distribution hitch.
I used one of these on my wife’s Ford Explorer Sport-Trac PU when pulling an open car trailer. It helped a lot as far as weight on the tongue, but when the trailer was loaded with a car, the tow vehicle was still a bit light in the front end.
http://www.etrailer.com/faq/aboutwd.asp

Jeff

 

[galaxie50059]

I will have a hitch being custom made for it as there isnt enough demand for trailer hitches on the old cars for anyone to make them commercially any more. The one that is on the car right now was built for a heavy boat trailer so it works, but not too well for a camper. It pulls the tow dolly with a car on it just fine, but I do realize that a tow dolly and a camper trailer are two different things.