TL;DR - the ride on the Chevy 63s is great, but I have a little too much lift, so I'll be removing a single leaf.
Not even fully flexed out, it's nice to see the tire easily drop down to - essentially - the bottom of the wheel well.
After running the new-to-me Chevy 63 leaf springs for 10 days on the trail and a little more than 5,000 miles, I have a few impressions:
The Good
- The ride is fantastic. With the longer arch and more flexible individual leafs, the springs really soak up a lot of the imperfections - be they on pavement or trails - very nicely. I always described the ride of my most recent set of Alcan's as "too harsh" (understandable, since I think they were way over-speced from a weight perspective), and I definitely don't feel that way with the Chevy 63s.
- Flex is amazing. I'm now getting full use of my 10" rear shocks, which I was never able to achieve with either of my Alcan leaf packs.
- They have no problem holding up the weight of a loaded Tacoma. This shouldn't be a surprise, given that they came off a much heavier truck, but it's nice to confirm.
The Bad
- Not so much bad as expected, I'm going to need to revalve my shocks to take into account the more flexible (softer) springs. I'll need to slow my rebound a bit (so I get a hair less "bounce"), but otherwise, things seem good.
- The lift is still a bit high for me. I'd like to lower it by about an inch, so the truck is nearly level when fully loaded. I hope to do this by removing a leaf from the pack.
The Unknown (So Far)
- I'm a little concerned about the front hanger where it is frenched into the frame. We frenched it an inch into the frame, which left about an inch sticking down past the bottom of the frame. I don't generally drag my frame along rocks, but I wonder what will happen if I get into a situation where the frame is sliding along a rock and then the rock hits the front perch. It might be nice to build a small ramp there, in order to facilitate easier "sliding."
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