[Shop-talk] Help springs (sort of)

[John Miller]

> A couple of weeks ago I hauled a load of alder lumber home in the back 
> of my half ton, short bed GMC 2WD pickup.  About 620 board feet....Way 
> overloaded.  I had to stop in route and buy a new pair of rear tires as 
> the overload shredded one of the rear tires.  They were OEM General 
> tires, probably not the best, and they had 45K miles on them, but still, 
> I wasn't ready for a new set of tires just then.

I once filled the back of my 3/4-ton '91 Suburban with 90lb sacks of 
ready-mix, then did the math while I was driving home and just about 
crapped.  Fortunately, the tires are slightly oversize Load Range E 
things, and I'd had them well aired-up.  It didn't even put the thing on 
the bumpstops or otherwise cause any distressing vehicle behavior.

Since I've decided to keep the thing a while, I'm actually thinking of 
swapping out the 8600GVW springs for springs out of a 6500GVW version to 
soften the unladen/lightly loaded ride a bit, and add some air helper 
springs to get the load-carrying capacity back.  Anyone have any 
thoughts on that approach?

John.