[Nates93sTEN]

Lowering your truck yourself opens you up to all kinds of hazards. Here's one you may have never considered.

Leafs Springs: A few months back I installed 3" Bell Tech drop leafs. While removing one of the stock leaf springs it snapped, and slapped the ground hard. How did I do that? Well, I had already unbolted the u-bolts form the axles, and supported the rear-end with a floor jack. There was no weight load on the springs. I had loosened, but not removed the bolt from the front of the leaf. I was loosening the rear bolt of the leaf, and the leaf snapped. It was very fortunate that I was clear of the leaf, and it merely scared me instead of maiming or killing me.

Why did it break? I don't know. It is an eight year old truck. When tightening up the new leafs I noticed them stretching and flattening as I torqued the bolts in. I believe when i loosened the bolts I was causing them to bow up, and they snapped. I'm convinced that I was doing everything correctly

You can see in these pics that the spring snapped near the center where the axle rests.

Keep limbs clear of the spring, and where it may impact if it should happen to snap.

 

[Phildo]

good gawd...good thing you're ok....that could kill someone... good advice man..

 

[99Supercab]

Holy **** Nate,I`ve never seen that happen.

 

[2001jimmy]

If you look at the end of the spring, it is rusty... It could be that the spring was already cracked or broken, but held together by the weight of the truck. When you unbolted everything, it caused it to let go....

 

[Nates93sTEN]

The rust on the cracked area has formed in the 3 months or so since I put them into my garage. So, those are recent pics of an old break.