leaf spring question

A previous thread sparked a thought in my "vessel for useless information"(head). Years ago, I heard an old timer mention an old hot rodder's trick to flatten leaf springs. You'd dismantle it and invert one leaf, therefore creating tension going the other way. Would that be useful for our applications or contra-indicated?
I know there are many variables, but how would the spring tension be affected? Purely hypothetical question.


JR

|UPDATED|7/7/2004 6:43:01 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

It makes the spring a lot stiffer, and lower ride height. It becomes very harsh and stiff. The ride is terrible.
That's how they used to lower and stiffen the suspension. Very low tech. You are much better off to get a different rate spring, and or stiffer shocks. Options that were not available at that time. And lowering the height on our cars won't help handling, it will usually hurt it due to suspension angles. In the old cars the angles were not really important. Higher or lower didn't change them, it did drop the center of gravity, which helped the old brutes. They had far less finese. It can hurt any newer car unless other adjustments and mods are performed.

It seemed like a pretty primitive method of adjusting height to me. Thanks for the info, Boss.

JR