I walk to my truck the other day and found that one of my rear leafs on the was missing a 4 inch piece out of it. I am looking for opinions on which way to go. Rock auto as new one anywhere from 150-250 a side, the local spring shop said that they would replace the broken spring and the same spring on the other side along with re curving them for 600. Or I could have local shop, deaver, or atlas spring build me a set that would get rid of the factory block which would cost me around 1200-1500. I would like to know as anyone run leaf that have got rid of the factory leafs and put in after market leafs. Along with when you replaced the leafs did you notice any difference in ride, how the truck handled or lost load capacity?

If your going to do it ......

 

3rd gen leaves with perch relocation 

 

Or softer if you don't need to tow 

In my opinion anytime you increase arch on leafsprings, ride quality goes down if you would keep it same load rating. Unless you do shackle flip it gets better, but I also think that it works your springs harder. If it was me, and I go for reliability vs jacked up on big tires  (I do understand you're keeping ride height same, just thinking of getting rid of blocks) I would use a more flatter spring or stock ones and not as many leafs as long as it holds truck up with little extra waight to spaire and also adding air bags for towing. This way you may have a batter ride when not towing and air bags for when you need them. Just thinking out loud. 

I thought about doing a shackle flip but I wasn't sure is how it would change the rake of the truck with my goose neck trailer. I don't want to travel down the road with my headlights point at the sky, I would like to keep the factory rake. I have seen a few truck with carlis springs but they say that it would add a 1 to 2 inch of lift to the rear.  Do you think that if I got rid of the factory block would It cause more axle wrap? 

Edited May 15, 20168 yr by Explosives87

http://www.zenithspring.com/leaf_springs.html

I got new springs and U bolts from these guys a few years ago. I ended up getting "1 ton" springs because for some reason they were quite a bit cheaper. New shocks and springs made a huge improvement to how it drives especially while loaded/towing. 

local spring shop? here in Flagstaff we have a place called American spring. He can and does build a custom leaf pack for any thing really.  might look see if you have something similar locally.

Check out the junk yards around your place............if any.  

Many ways to go but what ever you choose do both sides the same. The only way I would do just one side is if I replaced the whole spring pack with an OEM pack. Cheapest way would be to have the spring shop just replace the broken spring, problem is if one broke the rests may not be far behind. I used to do a ton of spring work when I worked at Inland truck parts and service years back.

Does going to a full leaf springs pack less the amount of weight that I can haul since I am getting rid of my overloads?

Keep the overloads.