Bastard Pack Help

Hey there friends.

I got my bastard pack all put together about a week ago and its been great thus far. It rides nice and isnt too still. Problem is its stiff enough that when weighted with the vehicle it doesnt flex the springs much. Sitting on level ground under its own weight the rear springs still have lots of arch. Obviously for it to drop much its got to be somewhat compressed. My thoughts are that I am going to pull one of the leafs so it will be a bit softer so the arch will not be quite so pronounced. Its sitting at about 4 1?2 inches lift right now. Whatever I loose from this endeavor will be made up with a lift shackle. So im looking for a softer spring rate with lift shackle to keep height, hopefully improving overal axle articulation.

For all you bastard pack experts out there, which of the leafs would you recomend removing and how much lift do you guess it will take away? Top is Jeep, bottom 3 are the 3 from a blazer. I was thinking id pull the 3rd down but let me know what you guys think.

Heres pics, both from passenger side.

Sorry that last pic is blurry

To me, it would seem that the biggest bastard leaf would be the stiffest and yet take out the most lift. That might drop it an inch or 1.5" but it should be fine if you are gonna shackle it. Don't quote me on this because it could vary a lot, I'd definitely say to trial and error it to make sure. Start with the top one and see, then work down to the smallest leaf. Did you use the S10 overload leafs? Taking those out alone will give you more flex without sacrificing hardly any lift, maybe like a centimeter, from what I've heard.

Take out your bottom one 1st.

Most importantly, order some leaf pack liners, it will improve your ride and your flex by a great deal.
Also paint them with some graphite paint, you need to reduce the frivtion between the pads, Looks like you have nothing on the top leaf and the bottom one. you need the pads.

The only one that doesnt have pads is the s10 main. It didnt have holes and drilling new ones would be a biznatch. I already messed up a bunch of bits trying to make the Jeep main bigger for the centering pin.

Yeah I know I need to clean them up and put some slippy paint on them but I was just hasty and wanted to get them on. You all know how that goes. Throw it all on work out the querks later. Maybe thats just me.

Any more input would be great, Im gonna wait to do this till I get a hold of some shackles.

And no I didnt use the overload lift. That went the way of the dodo to the landfill. My flex problem is mostly due to the fact that I barely compress the arch so when the axle drops it can only go about 4 inches or so.

What seems odd to me is that your leaf packs are longer than mine. Mine are cut shorter.

I guess they were from a blazer rather than an S 10. They were 3 leafs + overload.