Trying to get leafs right, tell me what you think

I bought a rough country 4.5" with full leafs and as of right now the ride sucks a$$. fine aired down, but no flex, and aired up on road the ride is terrible. so here is what i was thinking.

I want to get one of these shackle relocation brackets so i can improve my shackle angle. as of right now, my angle is virtually non existent, 90* straight up and down.
http://www.hdoffroadengineering.com/collections/frontpage/products/xj-shackle-relocation-kit

I also should probably get rid of the dinky p.o.s. stock shackles and swap them out for something a little longer and stronger, because from my understanding having them longer allows for more flex/droop. how much longer should i go?

another thing is this is going to add too much lift to the back, and in the essence of not looking like an asshat, i was thinking of either pulling a couple leafs or doing a spring under axle setup. which of these will be the best way to bring the lift back down after the relocation & shackles?

its still a work in progress, i am leaning towards pre-runner so i want things to be nice and soft.

thanks

yea shackle relocation brackets will fix your angle, I would remove leafs, defanitly don't go spring under, also what type of setup do you have that keeps the leafs from spreading because some designs will limit flex.

I have the 4.5" RC leaf packs and they flex fine for me. Combined with the Revolver shackles the rear flexes like crazy. With the leafs and shackles I'm at 6" of lift.

I wouldn't remove any leafs if I were you. I'd put on the shackle relocation and keep the stock shackles if you don't want to go too high. That should put you at 5.5"-6" of lift, which is enough room to fit 35's and 37's if you trim enough. I run 33's at that lift height to allow for more room to flex.

whitexj98 said:

yea shackle relocation brackets will fix your angle, I would remove leafs, defanitly don't go spring under, also what type of setup do you have that keeps the leafs from spreading because some designs will limit flex.

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what do you mean by leafs from spreading?

jeepster_259 said:

I have the 4.5" RC leaf packs and they flex fine for me. Combined with the Revolver shackles the rear flexes like crazy. With the leafs and shackles I'm at 6" of lift.

I wouldn't remove any leafs if I were you. I'd put on the shackle relocation and keep the stock shackles if you don't want to go too high. That should put you at 5.5"-6" of lift, which is enough room to fit 35's and 37's if you trim enough. I run 33's at that lift height to allow for more room to flex.

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i still want to maintain the 4.5" of lift so i dont get too high of CoG because like i want to pre-runner it

shortbussrydah said:

what do you mean by leafs from spreading?

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The clamp that keeps them from spreading, some designs will keep the leafs together and wont let them fan while flexing you want ones with a space in them like these,



Ones like these will keep the leafs tightley together, which will hurt flex and ride quality,

oh ok i get it. i believe the RC ones are the latter of the two (not fan-able i guess), is it possible to just convert it to the ones with the space in them? that looks pretty easy to change out but correct me if im wrong

shouldn'tbe any problem changing them out. Heck, could do it with a dremel.
the shackle brackets + shackles will improve ride & flex greatly.
You'll probably wind up with 1.5" of lift from them both... I'd pull springs from the bottom of the pack and leave as much full length meat as possible.

Get the relocation brackets, keep stock shackles, don't remove any leafs as they will settle with time and weight in the back. Best option would be to install a 1.5-1.75 coil spacer on the front that can be removed when the leafs start to settle out.

IIRC Brian(HDOR) Recommends Stock shackles but I could be wrong. Shoot him a PM his SN is Brianho13

I def wouldnt go with a spring under axle! after you get new shackles then imho you should add a 2 inch spacer up front to level it out...q

FlexdXJ said:

IIRC Brian(HDOR) Recommends Stock shackles but I could be wrong. Shoot him a PM his SN is Brianho13

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The relocation kit can be used with any xj shackle, the longer the shackle you use the more flex you will get. No matter what shackle you use the ride will be greatly improved.

BRIANHO13 said:

The relocation kit can be used with any xj shackle, the longer the shackle you use the more flex you will get. No matter what shackle you use the ride will be greatly improved.

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Thanks for clearing that up Brian! :cheers: