Torsion bar weight rating upgrade

[project_x]

Hi All,
I have been here for a while, on my second 2005 Suburban...caught up all the maintenance and repairs on the first one and now digging in to my 2nd. The first one was a white LS and I came across a Bermuda Blue Metallic (which is by far my favourite colour) LT in slightly better shape... so I'm now catching up all the maintenance and repairs on it...

I have a long driveway in Canada and am looking at adding a plow to keep it clear. We are far enough out of the town that the snow removal companies don't really service us... or sporadically.
All the torsion bar searches I do... are about upgrading the keys... I'm interested in a torsion bar that can handle more weight... to not over stress the front end with a plow. It looks to me like the 2500 torsion bars will fit our trucks... how do I tell what I have and to find something that can handle another 6-800 lbs without any issues....

Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[project_x]

Here she is

 

[nonickatall]

I have absolutely no experience with that, but I would not use such a heavy plow and upgrade the torsion bar, which for sure makes the normal drive comfort worse.
9 month bad drive comfort, for 3 month snow sound not like a good solution. And the handling of such a heavy plow also sounds not very comfortable.

I would look for a lighter solution. Just googled once and found a plow which only weight 290lbs:

WESTERN® DEFENDER™ Straight Blade Snowplow

The Plow-Only Package contains the plow and lights only. It does NOT include any truck-side equipment. Choose this option if your truck is already equipped for a Western plow. The Plow & Truck Package contains the plow, lights, controller, mount, headlight harness, and isolation module. SAY...

newhydraulics.com

 

[Alex_M]

There are also heavier 1500 torsion bars. I believe they came with Z71 package trucks, at least that's what I pulled the one set I had out of. The standard set are marked L and R, the heavier set were not but I would still try to keep them in the side they came out of because of 20+ years of spring stretch.

2500 bars should also work. I wouldn't be too concerned about the worse ride quality if it served a purpose, the 2500 trucks ride fine and the geometry is the same. I would be more concerned about your 4l60e transmission. Not known to like plow work. If you're going to be plowing a lot, I'd try to just trade the half ton suburban towards a 3/4 ton which has the 4l80e. Then you'd also have lower gearing and your suspension would already be heavier. Especially if the rig is pretty clean - nothing kills a rig quicker than plowing. I have a 1 ton truck with 60k original miles which started life as a plow truck. There's nothing left because of rust. Lower control arm is folded in half it rusted so much.

 

[project_x]

I have a 400ft driveway, that doesn't get cleaned out as much as I would like....because of location we seem to always get serviced last (and tbh we pay accordingly). I figured having access to a plow would let me stay on top of it myself.
I picked up some used torsion bars from a 2500 on ebay for cheap....will give them a try and see how they do.

 

[project_x]

I got my new bars...and tried to remove my old ones to install them..

I can't get them to budge.
Sprayed them with acetone/brake fluid generously... Took all pressure of LCA. .. banged with a hammer and air hammer... No luck ...

Any tricks to try?

 

[Alex_M]

Brake fluid? I've heard of acetone/oil or acetone/transmission fluid - not brake fluid.

Only way is to just keep hammering. A lot easier when it's up on a lift over your head. 4# hammer and a steel bar on the back side. They can be a real booger sometimes.