Leaf springs from vans other than rascal

[felstmiester]

I done the rascal rears and ruf on my sj last year (rascal ones was used). They haven't been on long and they look knackered and flat already. I had some leafs left over from my old fronts so I thought about adding a couple of leafs to my rascal rears to help them out for now. I went down my yard to sort it and next to the old front leafs was a set of old transit van leafs so curiously I checked and they was the same width as the sj ones. Obviously there longer but I just cut a leaf to the length I wanted and added it to my old rascal rears to perk em up. Now before someone corrects me I understand that the transit ones being longer may not have as much of an arc as the sj ones but surely they're much stronger.

As most vans and trucks these days still run leafs on the rear I wondered if anyone else has used em or have heard of anything like this being used.

[ScottieJ]

I would imagine that the spring rate will be too high on transit leaves so it might end up really stiff and won't flex.

[felstmiester]

Yeah make ya right Scott. Transit leafs are so much cheaper though thought it could be worth a try. Mine seems rock hard whatever leafs I have to be honest. That's the only thing I hate about the Zuke lol.

[ScottieJ]

What shocks are you running?

[felstmiester]

Standard at the moment. To be honest Scott I done the engine conversion and had to raise it because the sump was a bit close to the front axle so I threw a set of prolly bushes on it along with the rascal rears and ruf and kinda carried on with sorting the engine. I've had numerous race and track day cars over the years and I would like to say I know a lot about coilovers and how to make a car handle. But I'm buggered if I can get my head around this leaf spring lark. I was hoping to get time this weekend to flex it up without the shocks on and have a measure up. I'm learning from this forum so fingers crossed.