I was down visiting GMracer last night, dropping off some door panels for him, and we were looking at our trucks.

His: Bone stock 1999 2wd
Mine: 2004 4x4 lowered by removing lift blocks and 2" shackles (as well as turned out the torsion keys)

Here's the problem: his truck is easily 2" lower than mine in the rear. Technically I should be 2" lower than him because I have shackles, but I'm not. Now, my tires are bigger than his, but it shouldn't cause that much of a difference.

We then looked at our RPO codes...

Mine: Z82 : TRAILER PROVISIONS, SPECIAL EQUIPMENT, H.0.
His: Z83 : CHASSIS PACKAGE, SOLID SMOOTH RIDE

Are my leaf springs different than his? Are they sprung higher?

 

Count tge leafs, my dad's 97 c1500 work truck has 4 leafs for his trailering package, my truck is a smooth ride susp package and I only have 3 leafs.

 

i have 3 leafs; 2 leafs and an overload. here is a picture of my current set up:

 

His might have sagged alot more due to being 5 years older...plus it seems the '99-'00 trucks all sag in the rear, both 2/4WD. I have my blocks removed and when I'm on stock 265/70/17s I'm still sitting higher in the rear than most stock '99-'00 Z71s...most of them sit at SS height or even lower it seems.

Every '99-'06 1/2 ton truck I've seen has the 3 leafs...I always thought the leafs were all the same between the 2/4WDs, the 4WDS got the 2" blocks for height and obviously all trucks got diff. shocks depending on what susp. pkg.(Z85, Z83, Z71, etc)

 

Z82 does not have any thing to do with the springs, that a trailering RPO.
You probably have Z85 suspension. That the heavy duty suspension thats normally used with the Z82 option.

Don

 

What's HD about the suspenion to make the packages different?

Andrew

 

Most of the 2 wheel dr trucks have Z85 suspension. If you look up that RPO code it will say heavy duty suspension. I would say the springs are a little stiffer. The smooth ride suspension will squat more under load.

Don

 

yeah i do also have the Z85 suspension.

 

I just looked the RPO code Z85 up and it says increased capacity.

Don

 

I would think that u have more springs than he does being a Z71?