Tightening Shackle Bolts

A few weeks back I put in a brand new set of RE 3.5 packs to replace my old stockers with an AAL. I had to be on the road that day, so I tightened all the bolts on my packs to make sure nothing "funny' would happen on the highway. After getting back two days later I decided to loosen the shackle bolts in an effort to break in the leaves faster.

I started with just my normal stuff in the back (about 100-150 lbs), then added an 80 lb bag of rock salt. Last weekend I hauled a load of bricks on top of all that stuff and it came down to a nice height (about 4.5 inches of lift). When I took them out it went right back to the 5.25 to 5.5 it started at.

Today I've been running around with a load of pavers that weighs a bit more than I thought it would (1050 lbs!!-35 lbs each x30 of them...) It's dropped my rear to 2.5 inches of lift! I'll be taking them out tomorrow...

I've heard of tightening the bolts while there's more than normal weight on the springs, but is this too much? Should I take out some then tighten the bolts? TIA!

Well, I thought about how high the rear end was sitting and decided to take out all but 12 of the pavers (about 420 lbs.). I'm going to run around with them for at least another day or two, maybe hit an easy trail, then tighten the bolts. I figured that if I tightened the bolts with it sitting way below the expected final height I might risk a new bushing binding and messing it up... The 4 inches it's riding at now is just under what I'm hoping it'll settle to (4.5 without all the weight).

Thanks for taking the time to read all this! :wave: