Leaf Springs, Coils, and Trailing Arms

I made a quick trip to the salvage yard last week to look for a replacement differential. I found several correct for my year model of truck, but they are all intended for trailing arm suspension trucks. Mine has leaf springs. I could convert the brackets from trailing arms to leaf springs but it would be some work.

Last year I started thing about swapping the truck from leaf springs to trailing arms/coil suspension but decided against it for a couple of reason. It would take extra time/effort. The major benefit of making the swap is that the truck will ride smoother, more like a car than a truck.

Now with the differential housing needing to be replaced, I revisited the idea of swapping to the coil suspension. It definitely makes more sense now. Perhaps that is because it is what I wanted to do in the first place. Or perhaps it is because the parts are readily available for a coil truck but not for a leaf truck.

So now the plan is to pick up an old rusty differential housing and some trailing arms at the salvage yard. It's like Christmas in July.