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Homemade Shackles?/Correcting Shackle angle?

T

tayman

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Niceville, FL
A) Ok, so I have a shitty shackle angle. It's vertical. I want to fix this by relocating either the leaf spring foreward eye more toward the rear, or the shackle mount foreward. What will work best, and how should I go about it?


B) I want to make some longer shackles to regain the lost height that I will incur from the lesser shackle angle (or greater, depending how you look at it). Has anyone done this? How did you go about this/how should I go about this? Or am I completely stupid for wanting to do this?

Yes, I did use the search button, but everything I found on the subject was not thorough enough. I found nothing about homemade shackles.

Thanks guys!
 
Last edited:
Or... Box the bottum of your shackle box up, then make tabs to mount your shackles further forward, thus giving you the said angle. NCCHEROKEE has this set up, its nice. You can use your stock shackles even. This also gives you more flex as the shackle now can go completely horizonatal.
 
that actually sounds like a pretty good, simple idea. I'll wait for some more responses before I go that route though.
 
sweet. That's a good thread, but I like this one (referenced by that thread)

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=934581

better. I'm leaning towards it. do you think I'd need longer shackles? It was mentioned that the short shackle may get pushed flat and stick that way.
 
Well, I started on it today... I made the boxes for it. now I need to give them some holes for plug welds, weld them up, put tabs on them, and put them to work!

On a side note... Theres a guy in my welding class that keeps saying "revolvers.., revolvers". Don't they only give you DROOP rather than flex? I mean what kind of up travel would you get with them? it'd be like a vertical shackle still wouldn't it?
 
Revolvers rotate as well as drop down, letting the leafs to XXXX sideways a lil more if you catch my drift..The allow the shackle to be a pivot point on the X axis
 
the problem most seem to find with revolvers is that they unload on off-camber situations, and I suppose on steep descents. Apparently they take some serious getting used to if you do much off camber stuff.

I have a little shackle box setup to move my shackle mount forward. If you do it right, you can design it so there is no loss of lift, as you are moving the mount down and forward. If you want, you can probably get some extra lift out of it.

Mine is completely bolt on, rather than welded on, because I wasn't sure if I was going to keep them. I basically had to pieces of flat stock welded together at a 90* angle to go around the front and bottom of the shackle box. Tabs were welded on with a piece of tube between, and that was bolted to the original shackle mount. Now if you look at the front of the stock shackle box, you'll see two holes. I made a little nutstrip for those two holes, and bolted the front of the box to the nutstrip. So far it has help up fine for over a year with plenty of highway miles. My shackle angle is about 45*. I'd post a picture, but my camera took a shit, so its being repaired right now.

FWIW, there was another thread on hear about shackle angle, which i used, to make my box. it was a bolt on type deal, and I copied it almost exactly. I'll see if I can find it.

Kenny



Edit: i found the thread I used. It was freerider15, the same guy that had the really good "cut n' fold" write-up for the lower rear quarter panels. http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101028&highlight=correcting+shackle+angle

he has some good pictures in it. I built mine pretty much exactly like he did, except with 2 holes for adjustability rather than 3
 
yeah, I saw that post. I didn't even realize that it was bolt on! looks good, but I already started mine, and it's pretty simple, so I think I'll keep it along the lines I'm going. I'll take some pics of the after tuh show ya what I do. right now it's a stock shackle at a vertical angle..... doesn't take much imagination.
 
well, apparently I didn't do enough measuring... I put everything together and my shackle lays too flat now... a longer shackle should help to fix this right? RC has 2" lift shackles for $45 on ebay. This looks to me like it would work from the mock ups I did.
 
so here's my thinking... the shorter curve is the approximate stock shackle swing curve. The longer one if for that lift shackle. the X's are approximately where the shackle bolts to the spring when under load. The shackle has to pivot to meet up with the spring as it is traveling along the dotted line (approximate spring motion without excess spring compression). if my calculations are correct :geek:, this should solve my problems?

Untitled1.jpg
 
am I right? I just want a bit of affirmation before I buy something that won't solve my problems.
 
I won't have them by tomorrow... it'd be a few days... I haven't ordered them yet.

Hey Chris, Maybe we can yank your shackles off and see if that fixes my issue... What do you say? do you know how much lift your shackles are supposed to give?
 
NCCherokee said:
the problem most seem to find with revolvers is that they unload on off-camber situations, and I suppose on steep descents. Apparently they take some serious getting used to if you do much off camber stuff.

I have a little shackle box setup to move my shackle mount forward. If you do it right, you can design it so there is no loss of lift, as you are moving the mount down and forward. If you want, you can probably get some extra lift out of it.

Mine is completely bolt on, rather than welded on, because I wasn't sure if I was going to keep them. I basically had to pieces of flat stock welded together at a 90* angle to go around the front and bottom of the shackle box. Tabs were welded on with a piece of tube between, and that was bolted to the original shackle mount. Now if you look at the front of the stock shackle box, you'll see two holes. I made a little nutstrip for those two holes, and bolted the front of the box to the nutstrip. So far it has help up fine for over a year with plenty of highway miles. My shackle angle is about 45*. I'd post a picture, but my camera took a shit, so its being repaired right now.

FWIW, there was another thread on hear about shackle angle, which i used, to make my box. it was a bolt on type deal, and I copied it almost exactly. I'll see if I can find it.

Kenny



Edit: i found the thread I used. It was freerider15, the same guy that had the really good "cut n' fold" write-up for the lower rear quarter panels. http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101028&highlight=correcting+shackle+angle

he has some good pictures in it. I built mine pretty much exactly like he did, except with 2 holes for adjustability rather than 3
Click to expand...

Here's my thread if ya wanna see it...

http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101028

Mine have worked great and have yet to have an issue with them. If I had the time/resources I have an idea for making ones that would require little to no cutting and would bolt right up, seems to be a market for them.
 
yeah, I saw that thread... that looks really good, but it's kinda late now. The question has changed to will a longer shackle fix my TOO flat problem?
 
well, it did... the ride is a lot smoother now, and it lifted the rear more, giving me an excuse to go higher!!! :D:D

Here's how it ended up.

shacklebox006.jpg
shacklebox005.jpg
 
so with the new coils, and new shackle angle, I do this! (I'm too lazy to reset the date on the camera...)

000_0957.jpg


000_0958.jpg



Now, I know I have more flex in the rear, but I couldn't get it here in the farm ditch..... I went wheeling on monday, and they worked out great!
 
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