QA1 coilover spring rate

Western chassis has 4" drop leafs

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WST-821014

I recommend the ZQ8's because they have a more predictable spring rate/drop and I haven't heard the complaints of sagging or wheel hop like I do with any other drop leaf.  From my understanding the wheel hop issue with drop leaves is they are too soft, which is how they get the large drop.  ZQ8's are less likely to have that problem, but sounds like you're already at the same drop with your pulled leaf. In theory the shorter the block the less leverage your axle has to induce wheel hop.

Personally I'll stay away from any other leaf besides a factory piece unless I had it custom made for the rate/height I want, but knowing myself I'd probably, instead, spend several years building a custom rear suspension before I went that route.

I spoke to a local spring shop a while back about having my stock leaf pack de-arched.  I'm not sure how much drop that would provide but I would sooner do that and move to a shorter block than go aftermarket.  I have a few more things on the priority list before looking at the rear suspension again but I'll definitely think about it. 

Any info on adding a panhard bar?  I know length and mount placement really affect things, correct?

Western chassis makes a 4" drop leaf, but given the overall height difference and arch difference, I bet that the extra drop comes from a softer spring.

Any info on adding a panhard bar?  I know length and mount placement really affect things, correct?

I haven't looked into it in detail.  For the Blazer packaging to the gas tank (behind axle) and tail pipe will be tight.  When I was looking at packaging both the panhard and the hop shock the tail pipe was right where I wanted the hop shock and that discouraged me from digging deeper on either.

I will eventually have a panhard on my blazer(which has an engine in it and the packaging is a real PITA, but doable. There is a reason most circle track guys run a J-bar instead of a straight panhard.

It looks like I'll be measuring my coils. This is a 550lbs spring with 2" spindles and ART LCA's.


the collars are all the way down and there's a 4.8 longblock bolted into the engine bay...

What are you measuring?

The only other information/help I was able to get from QA1 is the S10 springs are 10" long, tapered with 2.5"/4.1" diameters, and have flat spring ends.

Your truck is probably an awful lot lighter than mine.  They do settle a bit and it looks like you have some more weight to add to the front end though (bumper).

$5 says they're within a half inch. 

If I interpreted facebook correctly there is no oil pan or transmission in the truck either.

correct, i'm just concerned because rentedmule is saying his has another inch of collar adjustment and he runs stock spindles... Mine has 2" spindles and collars are bottomed out. I doubt there 3" of settle/weight to add. But I wont worry about it too much until it's done, always an option to change coils later if for some reason mine are wrong

Mine has settled quite a bit since I installed the new coils a few weeks ago - I need to adjust it back up an inch or so.  I'll try to get a more exact measurement on how much adjustment room I have after I do that.

Are both of you running ART lower control arms?

I have spohn's
(an old pic)

this is without motor

At first thought, I'd say the ART arms would give more of a drop, but different arms can very well give different ride heights.  It's all determined by where the shock is mounted for coil overs.  Just another variable in why the ride heights are different.

One thing to watch is not to limit shock travel by lowering the ride height too much.  My suspension travel was definitely limited when the new coils settled - I cranked the ride height up quite a bit yesterday and it's much less harsh.  I suspect it was bottoming out frequently at the low ride height. 

I have 1.5" of threads showing on the shock body below the lower lock collar now and I'm probably just below stock ZQ8 height (I measured fender lip heights but left the numbers at home).  I left it high for now to see if it's going to settle again.   

I think Ridetech fixed the travel problem with their new LCAs and coilovers - the LCAs allow them to fit a shock with more travel which I think is a big issue with the QA1 stuff.

when the shock is fully extended, there is about 1/2" of compression on the coil to get the shock to bolt up.. That's with the collars at the very bottom. That very much so leads me to believe that i have the wrong coils. Your coils are hidden in the frame completely in the pics.