toddz, any knowledge why it has an add a spring in there? Probably because it was heavily loaded? My old 73 springs looked to be arced as new-ish, nowhere near what your picture shows.
The add-a-leaf is in there because I installed it 6-7 years before the photo was taken. It was my first 'big' project I did on the Bronco by myself (at least I started it by myself). I was 17-18 at the time and really sick and tired of our sagging rear end so I spent $30-40 of my hard-earned $$ (I was probably making $3.50/hr. at the time) and bought a pair of Rancho add-a-leafs. I started working on a side by myself, the truck supported precariously on some wood blocks. I realized after awhile that I was in over my head and called for back up (dad). He helped me finish the one side before it got dark.
He was always a good sport and drove the very lopsided Bronco for several days until we had time to do the other side. I have pictures of it somewhere that I'll post for people's amusement. The add-a-leafs basically brought the Bronco up to a level ride height front-to-rear. Add-a-leafs have a bad reputation for giving a bad ride but in our case, it made the ride height and ride tolerable again. We put a pair of variable rate Moogs on the front end in '85 or '86 that really helped the front end ride nicely.
Our truck had 132K miles on it when we bought it in '81. It sagged badly then. We used it for everything: second vehicle, daily commuter, 4 wheeler, snow extraction vehicle, grocery getter, driver's training vehicle for 2 kids (my brother and I). In terms of towing, it occasionally pulled a load of trash in our old army trailer to the town dump and we sometimes pulled that same trailer, loaded with a cord of juniper firewood, out of very rough country. Typical duty for an old 4WD in small mountain town in that era.
Todd Z.
except i never saw a bronco as a kid other than my friends, I added a leaf to a 65 econoline cause those were negative arc. Later spent the 200 bones to have them rearced. Like I said just depends on what was in the thing. Remember, our folks would load these things up until they bottomed out.
