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If you just fitted heavy duty leaf springs to your truck, and now you can feel every individual grain of sand on the road. If your unladen ride is so harsh your teeth rattle. You will have seen the same advice posted a thousand times on every forum: just remove one leaf.
Almost nobody will tell you exactly which one to remove. And almost nobody will tell you what happens if you get it wrong.
Quick Answer
If you absolutely have to do this, the only leaves you should ever even consider removing are the very bottom overload leaf, or the shortest secondary leaf.
Never under any circumstances remove the main leaf. Ever.
No matter which leaf you remove, your payload rating will drop. Your stability will change. If you tow anything heavy, do not do this.
What has changed?
The spring rate of a leaf spring pack is determined by thickness, number of leaves, steel grade and arch height. All other things being equal, more leaves = stiffer spring.
When you remove one leaf you reduce the total spring rate, lower the maximum payload, and get a softer ride when empty.
Multi-leaf spring structure
Almost all production leaf springs follow exactly the same layout from top to bottom:
Main Leaf: The top leaf, the longest one, with the eyes on the end that connect to the shackle and hanger.
Secondary Leaves: Progressively shorter leaves that make up the majority of the spring rate.
Overload Leaf: The very bottom leaf, usually separated by a small gap, that only touches and carries load when you are more than half loaded.
What you can remove
Overload Leaf
This is by far the most common and least bad modification. If you almost never carry or tow anywhere near maximum capacity, and your ride is unbearably harsh, removing the overload leaf will soften the ride significantly with the least possible downside.
If you tow regularly at full weight: do not do this.
Shortest Secondary Leaves
On spring packs with 5 or more leaves, the very shortest secondary leaf at the bottom of the main pack carries almost no load at all. Removing it will give you a small reduction in stiffness, with almost no noticeable effect on maximum payload.
Important rule: Whatever you do to one side, you must do exactly the same to the other side. Never modify only one spring. Ever. Your truck will lean permanently and drive like garbage.
What you must never remove
Main Leaf
If you remove this your suspension will literally fall apart on the road. This is not an opinion. This is just physicst.
Any middle secondary leaf
Every single leaf in the main pack above the last one is carrying a significant portion of the load. Removing one of these will not just lower your payload, it will change the way the entire pack flexes, and will very likely cause the whole spring to break catastrophically under load.
Risks
1.Maximum payload will be reduced.
2.Tyre wear will increase slightly.
3.Sway stability while towing will be noticeably worse.
4.This modification is illegal for road use in some regions; please ensure that you do not violate any laws or regulations.
Other Options
Before you start cutting up your spring pack, consider that there are almost always much better options:
1.Stop using overrated heavy duty springs for a truck that will never carry maximum weight.
2.Fit removable helper springs. They give you the extra capacity when you need it, and add exactly zero stiffness when empty.
3.Replacethe shock absorber.
Removing a leaf is a valid modification, if and only if: your springs are massively overrated for your actual use, you almost never tow at full weight, and you understand and accept all of the tradeoffs.
Leaf springs are designed first for safety and stability. Comfort is a very distant second priority. In the vast majority of cases, rather than cutting up a spring that is wrong for your use, you will be far better off just replacing it with a set correctly rated for the load you actually carry.
At Everlasting we manufacture leaf springs in every possible rating and specification. If you have come to the conclusion that you fitted the wrong springs in the first place, or you just need advice on what rating will work best for your use case, feel free to contact our team at any time.