Tell us about your suspension

Well, I haven't posted much on this board, but i've learned a lot from some very knowledgible people and i thought I would try and start a suspension sharing thread.  I thought we could post what we're running as far as suspension goes.  What benefits you've experienced from it, what you would change or have changed.  It might help some people to solve some problems they've been having, or give some direction on what combination of parts work well together.
I hope this is helpfull for everyone.

I'll start it off.  1993 GMC Sonoma 2.8 RCSB

Current Setup:  2" DJM Drop Springs, Poly-graphite bushings, 33mm ZQ8 front sway bar, 3" Beltech drop leaves and DJM shocks, Trans-Am steering box.  Thoughts and opinions: My Beltech springs are bouncy and harsh, i've tried beltech shocks with them and the condition worsened, so they're getting changed out.  Also, i'm not happy with the poly-graphite bushings, even though they have graphite impregnated into them they still sqeak and bind just like poly-urethane does when it gets dry.  I don't recommend them for moving parts like control arms or leaf springs bushings.    As far as handling goes, the truck does fairly decent, little bit of bump steer and as stated before bouncy and harsh due to binding of dry bushings that are not greasable. 

New Setup: (Not yet installed)  2" DJM springs, 2" Beltech Drop Spindles, KYB GR2 shocks front and rear, Power and Performance Tall upper and lower ball joints, UB machine tubular upper control arms with greasable bearings, ZQ8 rear leaves, ZQ8 front and rear sway bar, ZQ8 frame supprt, Moog Problem solver lower control arm bushings, and new coil spring insulators, and i'm retaining the trans-am steering box.   (Once, installed i'll be giving my thoughts and opnions, but I think i'm going to be really impressed and hopefully have a much more comfortable ride.) 

Alright who's next?

1987 s10 Blazer - 4.3L TBI 5spd

Front: 2" Belltech spindles, 2" Belltech springs, Belltech Nitro2 Drop Shocks, zQ8 Swaybar, zQ8 steering box, Stock control arms/balljoints/steering components

Rear: 3" Belltech drop leafs with a leaf removed, KYB Shocks (Unknown model), 2* Alignment shims

Review: The front rides good but I wish the shocks were a little stiffer, it bounces quite a bit on the highway (Granted the shocks are getting old). The front bar made a huge difference over stock, noticed it right away. The zQ8 steering box is amazing, however my pump is broken so I only have power steering over about 2k RPM. It handled like a dream (to me) when I had my 17x8's with 245/45r17's on in the summer. The rear rides nice, too soft for handling though. Terrible axle wrap and my axle hits the frame on small bumps (no bumpstops, no blocks)

Future Setup:

Front: ART StrongArm LCA's, UB Machine UCA's, 2" Belltech Spindle, Tall UBJ/LBJ's, QA1 Double Adjustable Coil-Overs with 450lb coil? (small block), zQ8 Sway Bar, zQ8 steering box, Flaming rivers steering joints

Rear: Custom Back-half, Parallel 4link with QA1 coilovers and 250lb coils?, panhard bar level at ride height, ford 9" with posi (hopefully)

2002 S10 Pickup - RCSB

Current Setup:
Front:
3" Ground Force drop springs, Doetsch Tech Nitro Slammer shocks, ZQ8 bump stops, Moog problem solver bushings, ZQ8 bar with all poly bushings, stock steering box with jeep u-joint steering shaft, stock 98+ blazer DP spindles.

Rear:
3" Belltech drop leafs, KYB monomax shocks, Belltech rear sway bar, JTR axle setback plates

Review: I currently have no issues with the rear setup of my truck, it's pretty stiff and follows the front nicely (it should be noted that I have a 2.2 and of course I have zero traction problems).  The front on the other hand is on the soft side.  In sharp cornering is just lays over on the bumpstops.  I think my front shocks are loosing some stiffness, I'd like to replace them with a set of monomax's like i have on the rear.

I switched from zq8 leafs back to belltechs and am glad I did. The rear of my truck would hop around, and if I was going fast enough I could have probably spun it around, if I hit a bump or dip midturn. My friend Jimmy has a stock 03 ex cab xtreme and his does the same thing.

My current setup
Front - 2" spindles, stock 4cyl springs with 3/4 coil cut off, ub machine uca's with truck ball joints, pp tall lower bj's, zq8 front bar, zq8 bilstein shocks. 225/60/16 tires on ronal r9 wheels.

Rear - 3" belltech leafs with the bumpstop bracket cut off, zq8 sway bar, bilstein shocks with some of the cheap autozone helper springs on them (actually helped alot) 2wd gov bomb 3.42 gear ratio disc brake 7.6 rear. 245/50/16 tires on ronal r9 wheels

My rig is a little different because it's 4x4, so I don't have control arms, or coil springs. Yet.

00 ZR2 Blazer Safari AWD T case, ZR2 7.625" open diff front axle:

T bars and machined surfaces on my cams, Energy control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, adjustable heim sway bar links, from Grainger. Stock steering center link, heims outside of that, Ohlins adjustable/ rebuildable 16" coil over shocks up front, but no coil springs on them because of the T bars.

Rear:

Stock leafs with the shortest leaf removed, 26" Penske rebuildable rear coilovers with 150lbs coils, Rear sway bar end links and chassis connection links all changed to adjustable Heims, and all rubber removed.
8.5" rear end 3.73 gears auburn pro series differential.

I have about a 7" ride height, and I am using bump stops on the rear and I've limited the extension of the from shocks with an internal bump stop, along with an external poly bump stop on the shaft. I also put limiting straps on all 4 corners to save the shocks. Took out some castor, put in more negative camber.

It sits a little higher off the ground, but what little body roll I get is what helps to make the truck really handle well. I can adjust preload into the front sway bar, and the front shocks were rebuilt and tuned to keep the wheel sucked up into the fender.

With the stiff shocks and lighter springs, the daily driving isn't too harsh. it does have a lot of dive when i brake hard into a corner, but the shocks and sway bar do their thing well laterally. I would like to get tubular control arms and ditch the t bars.

The front shocks were "out of this world expensive, and the rears are only really expensive, but I got 4 rears and both of the fronts on racing junk from a Wisconsin dirt track racer.
 

Front:
UB Machine UCAs, steel bushings, with Howe 0.5" tall balljoints
Spohn coil-over-specific LCAs, delrin bushings with Power Performance 0.5" tall balljoints
QA1 single adjustable coil-overs with 450 lb coils
ZQ8 swaybar with poly bushings
ZQ8 steering box with FR U-joint
265/40-17

Rear:
Z85 leafs with 3" angled blocks
QA1 stocker star single adjustable shocks
G80 LSD with 3.42 ratio
Currently running without ZQ8 swaybar
295/35-18

Review:

The front is firm but reasonable for daily driving with the shocks dialed down.  I dial in about 5 more clicks of adjustment when I race and it firms it up significantly.  The rear is stiff for a daily driver but it does well on track without the rear swaybar.  I dial up the shocks about 4 clicks when I race and it cuts down on roll in the back but still lets the axle articulate enough so the inside rear tire won't lift. 

It sticks significantly better than the stock setup did with the same tires.  If I'm not on the brakes it's fairly well balanced and will 4-wheel slide before it plows or comes around on itself.  On the auto-x course it understeers more but it's easy to kick out the rear with a bit of throttle.  Conservative alignment settings have made that worse but I had to run more toe-in to keep out of the ditches on the highway.

2" belltech drop spindles for 98+ blazer with twin piston calipers, 2" drop springs from western chassis, doetsch shocks up front, stock upper and lower control arms with poly bushings, 98+ blazer sway bar.

2" drop leafs by eibach, 2" drop blocks, with factory 98+ blazer bilstein shocks and cut down bump stops, 98+ blazer rear sway bar

front rides good and handles great.

rear rides fair, but on bumps it bottoms out.  I'm swapping to a 98+ blazer rear axle with disc brakes and cutting the bump stop mounts off the frame for more clearance.  I'm going to put in a bolt in notch sometime and that should ride better.

My current setup
Front - 2" drop spindles , LS1 brake conversion ,
tires 225/50/16 goodyear eagles


rear -  stock
tires 225/50/16 goodyear eagles

reading stickys and buying slowly

Currently

Front:
Eibach 2.4" drop springs
QA1 non adjustable shocks
cut down ZQ8 bump stops
Hotchkiss 1 3/8" sway bar
Nitto 555 245/45/17 tires
ZQ8 steering box

Rear:
1" de-arched ZQ8 leafs w/o overloads
QA1 double adjustable shocks
removed bump stop and hump
Hotchkiss 7/8" sway bar w/factory ZQ8 mounts
Nitto 555 275/40/18 tires
Caltrac traction bars

I don't like how the Caltrac's handle... looking for other axle wrap solutions.

OK. 95 LS V6 standard cab . Was a 4.3 now a LT1 Corvette. With a bed shell. 3800 lbs wet with me in it.

4.5/2 drop using All belltech parts. Front: 2in spindels with 2in springs. 1 1/4 Front sway bar. Street Performer shocks. Tall ball joints.

Rear: 2 in blocks. Nitro II drop shocks. Richmond gear locker posi with stock 7.65 3.08 gear. 1 (?) in rear sway bar. Caltrack traction bars.

15/8 forged wheels. P225/65R15, P275/60R15 

Energy Suspension polys all around. 

A arms with tall ball joints next month. New spring isolater for Chevy lean correction. Remove bed shell. Relocate battery to bed. Ceramic hedders.

Front: ZQ8 coils, drop spindles, Bilstein shocks, ZQ8 sway bar, energy sway bar bushings, Belltech bumpstops
Rear: ZQ8 leafs, Bilstein shocks (including hop shock), 3" Belltech blocks, ZQ8 sway bar, Prothane sway bar bushings
Tires: BFG G-Force Super Sport A/S 245/50R16 on 1st gen ZQ8s

Review: I'm pretty happy with how the truck handles. The Bilstein shocks and rear sway bar bushings made the biggest difference in handling. Before the truck would bounce around a lot and dove in corners. Now it rides quite well with what feels like minimal dive. The rear end is pretty stiff. It is a good setup for a daily driver. On the street I run 35psi in the tires, but at the track I have to up the fronts to 45 to keep the tires from rolling over.

What Bilsteins are you running?  Anytime I look them up all I can find are sets for a stock height S10.  GM still has part numbers for the factory ZQ8 Bilsteins but last time I checked they were crazy expensive. 

The retail on them I think was $64 per shock. I'm not sure on the part numbers but I still have the boxes so they could possibly be on there.

'98 Regular cab, short box. 1998 5.7L vortec L31, NV3500

Currently:

Front: 3" DJM springs, Belltech spindle, Belltech nitro 2's, de-humped lowers with modified bumpstop. Stock ball joints. Zq8 box and sway bar

Rear: 4" block, Belltech leafs, C-notched frame, Belltech sway bar. Air shocks, G80 with 3.08.

On the street, the truck rides very well. Under heavy acceleration, though, the pumpkin will hit the bed and the rear end will dance around a lot. It's almost scary. Due to this reasoning I haven't yet taken it on the road course. 

Future plans:

Front: Belltech street performance shocks, tall upper and lower ball joints, Michigan Metalworks flat plate arms.
Rear: Triangulated 4-link, Qa1 ___________ (to be determined), RCI fuel cell (ordered). More frame notch and some bed material removed. New G80 and 3.42 gear.

This should all happen within the next 2-3 weeks. I'm very close, finally.