blistovmhz
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
Hey all. Trying to figure out what to do about my rear suspension bottoming out, and/or deal with on-road ride quality.
98 XJ, 5.3L/4l65e, 6.5" lift, long arm front, 63" chevy leaf rear, blah blah blah.
Rig is about 5000lbs now, and while I've done a tonne of work to the suspension, it's still not quite right.
Front weighs 2470lbs
Rear weighs 2670lbs
I've also got a full size roof rack (only about 80lbs) and a swing out tire carrier with full size spare. The lift, plus tires, plus sprung weight, plus 63" leafs all conspire to make for a bit of a squirmy ride. I ended up adding an XJ main leaf to the bottom of the 63" pack to stiffen things up for now, and it certainly did stiffen things up nicely, but it also gave me a little more lift than I wanted and the ride is much harsher. Ride with just the stock 63" 3.5" lift chevy pack was amazing on the trail, and soaked up absolutely everything really well, but on the highway it'd sway a bit into the danger zone, and on the trail over the moguls, it'd bottom out constantly.
Bottoming out ain't a big deal as I can bumpstop the hell out of it, but I don't like that being the ONLY answer, nor do I like adding a leaf. Both answers aren't really solutions. More like bandaids.
This seems like the correct answer should be in the shocks. Currently running some 12" bilstein 5125's, through the floor, dead vertical. They do ride nice, but I feel like they're not valved stiff enough on either compression or rebound for my weight. I think they're supposed to be 255/70, which for a stock XJ would probably be a bit stiff, but with 2600lbs of ass end flopping around, I feel like I should go stiffer still.
Thoughts/input on this? I don't like adding a leaf to solve what honestly, is a shock absorption problem.
98 XJ, 5.3L/4l65e, 6.5" lift, long arm front, 63" chevy leaf rear, blah blah blah.
Rig is about 5000lbs now, and while I've done a tonne of work to the suspension, it's still not quite right.
Front weighs 2470lbs
Rear weighs 2670lbs
I've also got a full size roof rack (only about 80lbs) and a swing out tire carrier with full size spare. The lift, plus tires, plus sprung weight, plus 63" leafs all conspire to make for a bit of a squirmy ride. I ended up adding an XJ main leaf to the bottom of the 63" pack to stiffen things up for now, and it certainly did stiffen things up nicely, but it also gave me a little more lift than I wanted and the ride is much harsher. Ride with just the stock 63" 3.5" lift chevy pack was amazing on the trail, and soaked up absolutely everything really well, but on the highway it'd sway a bit into the danger zone, and on the trail over the moguls, it'd bottom out constantly.
Bottoming out ain't a big deal as I can bumpstop the hell out of it, but I don't like that being the ONLY answer, nor do I like adding a leaf. Both answers aren't really solutions. More like bandaids.
This seems like the correct answer should be in the shocks. Currently running some 12" bilstein 5125's, through the floor, dead vertical. They do ride nice, but I feel like they're not valved stiff enough on either compression or rebound for my weight. I think they're supposed to be 255/70, which for a stock XJ would probably be a bit stiff, but with 2600lbs of ass end flopping around, I feel like I should go stiffer still.
Thoughts/input on this? I don't like adding a leaf to solve what honestly, is a shock absorption problem.