[Highbird420]

I own a 07 aspen beautiful truck same as the 07 09 durango not the werid bubble body (04- 06) but my rear shocks are soft and she bounces now i use to own a 02 durango much smaller fame and all and had the 392 rear end and it had leaf springs under it

why has chrysler taken the leaf springs out on the 2 second gens this makes not much sense at all as the 2 gen is bigger and would be put more to the task of pulling with the 335 hemi under the hood ??
Is this a mistake, cheap fix to suspension handling or for an actual reason ..

 

[Highbird420]

I wanted to take a 07 ram frame and swap it with the drivetrain and lower km engine it would give me 2 and 4 wheel instead of just 4x4 all the time but it seems like it would be quite a job id lose the 48 52 front rear drive ratio which is pretty well known but for the 40 60 but again frames arnt every where and 2wd drive would be better for highway trips..

Can anyone give me an idea why chrysler did that and if it would be a waste to even try this swap

 

[Don Fox]

Highbird:
The best way to cure your Aspen's bounce, is to put Bilstein shocks at all 4 corners. Like you, I have owned both a Ge1 D (2001), and now Gen 2 (2004). The Gen 1 D's were based upon the Dakota truck platform, and had a truck like ride. The Gen 2, was a total from the ground up new Durango, which rode better and had more power with it's available 5.7L engine.

My 2001 had the 4.7L engine, which is an excellent engine, but the extra 100 hp and torque of the 5.7L was a no brainer, and the fuel economy did not suffer.

Don

 

[Tin Foil Hat]

They switched for the reason Don mentioned, a new model generation. That included coil springs and shocks for a better ride on the unibody. You would be wasting time to try to put the DD on a truck frame as they aren't compatible with each other. If you like leaf springs so much then get a Gen 1 or a pickup.