How many rear leafs in '42-'47 PU's?

[Mike B]

reason I asked I bolted up a rear fender (never had them on since I bought the truck in pieces) and there's a good 8-10 inches between the top of the tire and bottom of the fender.

From other "original" side pics I've seen of these trucks, mine is much higher.

I counted 16 leafs in the rear spring pack...I'm wondering if someone in the past added some, or put on some from something else?
Thanks

[expavr]

Attached is a photo of the rear spring in my 40 Tonner. It has 14 leaves not counting the overloads. As you can see from the second photo there is quite a bit of clearance between the tire and the fender even when loaded but the bottom of the fender would never be higher than the tire. One possibility for the discrepancy might be that the original wood cross members that supported the bed were changed out at some point and replaced with much thicker wood which elevated the bed changing the relationship between the fender and the wheel, but if that were the case the running boards wouldn't match up to the fender.

[Stanley]

[Mike B]

Thanks for the photo's/info gents.

I don't overloads...but my be is much higher...in fact looking closer, I see your running boards are about "inline" with the center of your wheel...mine would be about 3 inches higher (or so).

I'll put up a pic of mine after the camera charges, let ya see what I'm talking about.

Thanks again.

[Mike B]

Here's mine....

[Stanley]

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This is how my truck looked with all thiose leafs in there....



This is how it looks with the overloads gone, and about half the normal leafs gone....

[Mike B]

That's a nice stance...I think I'll start soaking the nuts on the U bolts

[expavr]

Mike
As a frame of reference the bottom of the fender/running board on the Tonner is 2 1/2" BELOW the center of the wheel and I'm running 30.5" Michelin radials. There is 13" clearance from the top of the tire to the inside of the fender. This is using the 14 leaf rear spring.

[Mike B]

Originally Posted by expavr

Mike
As a frame of reference the bottom of the fender/running board on the Tonner is 2 1/2" BELOW the center of the wheel and I'm running 30.5" Michelin radials. There is 13" clearance from the top of the tire to the inside of the fender. This is using the 14 leaf rear spring.

Thanks for the info.

Pretty sure, based on Stanley's pic, springs have been added or changed from something els e at some point...I noticed his spring retainers would allow a bolt over the spring pack...no way on mine.

I've a set of rear springs off a '48 F1 I'm going to dig out tomorrow, they should take care of it, pretty sure they will swap right in.

Thanks again all, hope to have some pics up of the new "stance" later in the evening

[Mike B]

Well, this looks a whole lot better with the F-1 pack in them, seems like more stock/factory height.

Before and after: