in the class that i pull in were allowed to block the rearend but must have a min. 2" of travel. however i have a very heavy duty set of "overload" springs on my truck. they're the kind that are just another spring pack that touch to blocks that are mounted on the frame of the truck. anyway what i've been doing is sliding a couple pieces of wood between the helper pack and there bumpstop's. thus being pretty much blocked solid but legal according to the rules because it's still sprung. now my question is, if i was to jack the truck up higher and put a bigger block in to get more rake and get the hitch up in the air more, what effect would it have on the main spring pack? i realize that it's going to take alot of weight of the main springs but not sure to what effect. i do have a set of traction bars on it to keep the rear end located.

not sure i understand.

How are you going to jack it up?

If you literally jack the truck up and stuff a big block of wood in there, you wont have 2" of travel. You will have more rake and a higher hitch, if your truck needs it though.

If this is your intent, shouldnt bother the springs much, since they won't be getting much work anyways with the block of wood in there. All the weight will be transfered to the block to the axle.

Us e paint and draw a simple pic, might help some.

sounds like you would be better off taking your axel stops out and bolting box tubing to where it was down to the axel and stoping just short 2" of the axel

if your helper springs are strong enough to carry the load by them selves it shouldnt hurt anything. but if there not then you will lose hitch height as they give in to the weight of the sled.

Cory

ok here's a paint shop drawing. it's not great but should show what i'm talking about. the black arc is the main spring pack which is bolted to the frame and uses a shackle so the springs can move. the red arc is the "helper springs" that are designed so that as the truck sag's it contacts the black box's above them. the "helper spring's" that i have in it are out of a international dump truck and are quite stout. i'm not allowed to block the rear end solid, it must be sprung. so what i've been doing is putting a block in between the spring and the black box in the drawing(the blue box). i've just been putting a big enough block in there to be snug and not actually lift the truck, just a bit of support to keep it from sagging. what i was thinking of doing is putting a larger block in (the blue one) to lift the rear of the truck up giving it more rake and hoping to help keep the front tires down, as i'm pulling the suspension all the way up now.

like that will seperate the leafs in the main spring pack and could cause the axle to wrap up which may casue it to bounce. But you have to do what you can to stay within your rules.