Which Leaf should I remove?

MachineMan · Jun 5, 2005

I have a set of Rusty's 6.5" heavy duty 7 leaf! mil wrap springs. Thery are very stiff and the ride hieght is a bit to much. I have a teraflex 1.5" greasable shackle which helps a bit with stiffness but also increases the ride hieght. The leafs are over a year old and still have ther sharp arc shape.

So if I was to remove a leaf from the pack, which one?? 2, 3, 5?? Im hopeing to drop one inch and gains some flex. Or should I put 1000lb of rocks in the back and drive around for week or so!!

Kudzu · Jun 5, 2005

1. Drop some weight in it

2. How much wheeling do you do with it, Is it more of a DD

3. If your gonna remove a leaf you might as well go buy a new leaf pack. Not knocking Rusty here all of my rigs have his stuff it just that the pack is made a certain way and if you take one out you run the risk of it being to soft and breaking. I know one guy who decided not to get new Ubolts and took out a leaf and the main leaf broke.

calvin andrus · Jun 5, 2005

start with the bottom most leaf and drop them as needed, I have bigoffroad 8inch alcans that I removed the bottom 2 leafs and they flex much better and gave me my desired ride heigth.
-cal

MachineMan · Jun 5, 2005

Its not my daily driver but will have to see several hundred mile of freeway to and from camping and wheel'n spots.

XJ_ranger · Jun 5, 2005

fix your shackle angle by remounting the front or rear end of the shackle box...

the shackle should be at 45* back allowing 45* of droop travel and whatever is left in the other direction for stuff travel...

right now, your spring cant droop much...

fordtech · Jun 5, 2005

start at the bottom.

I dropped about 1" (to 4" hieght) by pulling the bottom leaf from my rustys '3 inch' packs.

Dropping it should help your shackle angle too.

tealcherokee · Jun 5, 2005

rustys said to remove the bottom most leaf to drop my rear 1"

i put my boggers in the back and made a 300mile round trip, that bairly moved it

MachineMan · Jun 5, 2005

tealcherokee said:
rustys said to remove the bottom most leaf to drop my rear 1"

i put my boggers in the back and made a 300mile round trip, that bairly moved it

Do you have the 7leaf mil wrap like I do? and if so when you took out the bottom leaf did you get the 1" drop and more flex?

JohnJohn · Jun 6, 2005

Your ride sucks because your shackle is straight up and down, not because of that pack. I have never seen these leafs in person, but it almost looks like they are installed backwards or the pins are in the wrong place. Your shackle should sit at an angle similar to this for the MOST comfortable ride.

Jeepkid8037 · Jun 6, 2005

While we are on the topic of removing leaves from leaf packs....i have rusty's 4.5" lift and i desperately want to get rid of those wimpy stock shackles. I just ordered a pir of 1.25" lift shackles. If i take out the bottom most leaf from the pack (its a 6 leaf pack) will that be bad for it? or should i remove a different leaf.... I just need to lower the back about an inch so my ride height is level w/ the 4.5" coils upfront. any advice would be great. thanks.

hunna · Jun 6, 2005

tealcherokee said:
rustys said to remove the bottom most leaf to drop my rear 1"

i put my boggers in the back and made a 300mile round trip, that bairly moved it

MachineMan said:
Do you have the 7leaf mil wrap like I do? and if so when you took out the bottom leaf did you get the 1" drop and more flex?

i think he's has the 4.5" leafs.

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to Jeepkid8037, i'd put spacers in the front rather then pull a leaf, if you like the ride quality as it is now and just wanted to make it level.

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i also run rusty's 4.5" kit.

teal why did you pull a leaf. did you not like the ride or was flex a problem. i think you just got bigger tires for your rig. are you selling the 33"s i'm close to your neck of the woods if there up for sale let me know.

Eagle · Jun 6, 2005

JohnJohn said:
Your ride sucks because your shackle is straight up and down, not because of that pack. I have never seen these leafs in person, but it almost looks like they are installed backwards or the pins are in the wrong place. Your shackle should sit at an angle similar to ... for the MOST comfortable ride.

Nope. With springs that are arched, the shackle should be vertical when the vehicle is at normal curb weight. That allows the spring to arch more when the axle droops, and the spring to flatten and get longer when the axle gets stuffed.

The stock XJ shackle points back because the spring is basically flat at curb weight, and either droop or stuff makes the spring arched (shorter). The way the shackles are shown in that picture, it won't take much compression to run out of shackle travel, and that makes the ride harsher, not softer.

JohnJohn · Jun 6, 2005

Eagle said:
Nope. With springs that are arched, the shackle should be vertical when the vehicle is at normal curb weight. That allows the spring to arch more when the axle droops, and the spring to flatten and get longer when the axle gets stuffed.

The stock XJ shackle points back because the spring is basically flat at curb weight, and either droop or stuff makes the spring arched (shorter). The way the shackles are shown in that picture, it won't take much compression to run out of shackle travel, and that makes the ride harsher, not softer.

I would agree if he was talking about flex, but he was talking about the ride being stiff. His shackle actually looks like it's a little over 90degrees. In the current position, on pavement, that shackle is not moving back at all, hence the stiff feel of the back.

Which Leaf should I remove?

MachineMan

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Kudzu

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calvin andrus

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MachineMan

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XJ_ranger

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fordtech

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tealcherokee

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MachineMan

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JohnJohn

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Jeepkid8037

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hunna

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Eagle

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