[hat_man]

OK. So the pipe dream may have just turned into a hypothetical situation after seeing freebeard's bug.

First a couple of questions for freebeard. First, how hard is that to align with the offset rear wheels? Second, how does it track down the road? Third, how does it handle (in general and in a cross wind)?

Oilpan4...a couple for you. First, I can see with a Suburban how having multiple points to support the body weight is a good thing. But with my Ranger we're talking a fraction of that weight. The step-side, with the narrower metal bed/tub and fiberglass body sides, probably weighs less than 150 pounds. Factor out towing or load in the bed. I don't tow anything and even if I did it would be a 4x6 trailer with a riding mower in it. And if I were to actually build this truck it wouldn't be for load hauling anyhow. Highway transportation to work and back. No real load other than clothes and stuff if I have to stay in a hotel for an extended job. I would probably be OK with only 2 points (mono leaf attached to each side of the frame) supporting such a light load? Second, the Corvette mono leaf is made of a reinforced fiberglass of some kind. I think the article says it's something like 4 times stronger than steel. I don't think I would have to add any extra leafs. At 4 times stronger 2 points should be OK. Imagine the pic of the mono leaf mounted on the ends directly to the axle with something similar to the pic of the brackets welded to the axle and where the 2 "blocks" are mounted to the frame or a fabbed attachment point. Being a mono leaf the "blocks" aren't clamps that sandwich the leafs together and maybe can be moved? I've never seen one in person only in pictures.

Another thought that occurred to me is that when I hit a bump or corner hard and there is body roll, do the leafs make up for this keeping both rear wheels in contact with the pavement? This concerned me so I started looking on the Web and found the pic below. (Great, I forgot to save the pic and now I can't find it. I'll keep looking and edit for it.) If the mono leaf works like this wouldn't it work like the stock leaf springs I have now and compensate for body roll? The stock shock and spring set up in the front would take care of the front.

In searching the Web I did find this pic and it only opened up more thoughts. I was actually looking for a pic of how the rear shocks attach to the frame and the axle and found this one. It looks like they relocated the leafs to the underside of the frame. You can see the holes where the front shackle was removed and the rear attachment point. I think this would raise the bed though, and I would have to attach the leafs under the axle instead of over it. I don't think it would lower the bed any, and that is something else that I would want if I ever followed through on this grand idea.

The search also lead to pictures of these coil-over shocks. Is this something that could be substituted for my regular shocks and still support the weight of the bed with the steel leafs removed? The shocks in the pic with the bed removed (NOT MY TRUCK) have been relocated. The stock rear shock set up is like the close up pic of the black shocks. The shocks mount at an angle of about 60° in each direction towards the front and rear and attach to the frame and tabs welded onto the axle.

Any new thoughts?