intro) after playing with building leaves from 4.5" packs and AALs to acheive a desired lift height i found the ride to be to stiff and not balanced for trail use so i removed the overload leaves and had some 1" blocks fabbed w/ a 2" longer front section (to hlep w/ axle wrap, and aid the droop caused by the extracted leaf).
w/ this setup + 1"lift shackles & just 1 trip to Tellico on 35s and detroit locker the rear leaves came up Gimpy, warped and sagging like h311..
i'm thinking a longer Leaf pack will better serve the duties of rigorous trail use,
i plan to cut away the rear exterior sheetmetal (that between the outboard side of the *frame rails* and the rear quarter panels) also remove the rear shackle mount/box and gring it flush to the frame* and then plate the *frame w/ 1/4" angle and drill thru and crush-sleeve for mounting bolts that will attatch 5/8"x4" flat-bar rails to the now plated *frame for a new (more solid) rear bumper mount...
(then after constructng said bumper, probably from 3x6x1/4" rec tubing)
construct and relocate rear shackle mounts on the rear bumper, thus allowing for a longer length main leaf and thus longer more flexy leaf packs.
i just feel the shorter Xj leaves aren't up to duty of extreme up and down travel on an all-day trail ride.
Basic geometry and strength of materials knowledge tells me that a longer spring can exceed when stressed..
i have a set of MJ leaves i plan to use and will likely relocate the rear axle reward (from stock) about 1" to 1.5", redrilling the main leaf for this and re-positioning the other leaves to match..
** i did a search for examples of this but came up empty
i felt this would be the best section of the forum to post this idea...
has anyone thought this, or tried it and found it did or didn't work?
(even better would be some pictures if anyone has any)
i know i could totally trash the idea of leaves all together and do coils and 4 link but not w/ this jeep (i've got an 89 MJ that is gettin an extreme makeover)
w/ this setup + 1"lift shackles & just 1 trip to Tellico on 35s and detroit locker the rear leaves came up Gimpy, warped and sagging like h311..
i'm thinking a longer Leaf pack will better serve the duties of rigorous trail use,
i plan to cut away the rear exterior sheetmetal (that between the outboard side of the *frame rails* and the rear quarter panels) also remove the rear shackle mount/box and gring it flush to the frame* and then plate the *frame w/ 1/4" angle and drill thru and crush-sleeve for mounting bolts that will attatch 5/8"x4" flat-bar rails to the now plated *frame for a new (more solid) rear bumper mount...
(then after constructng said bumper, probably from 3x6x1/4" rec tubing)
construct and relocate rear shackle mounts on the rear bumper, thus allowing for a longer length main leaf and thus longer more flexy leaf packs.
i just feel the shorter Xj leaves aren't up to duty of extreme up and down travel on an all-day trail ride.
Basic geometry and strength of materials knowledge tells me that a longer spring can exceed when stressed..
i have a set of MJ leaves i plan to use and will likely relocate the rear axle reward (from stock) about 1" to 1.5", redrilling the main leaf for this and re-positioning the other leaves to match..
** i did a search for examples of this but came up empty
i felt this would be the best section of the forum to post this idea...
has anyone thought this, or tried it and found it did or didn't work?
(even better would be some pictures if anyone has any)
i know i could totally trash the idea of leaves all together and do coils and 4 link but not w/ this jeep (i've got an 89 MJ that is gettin an extreme makeover)
