Lift - Leaf Spring help needed

New to the board and decided to jump right in. Not new to wheelin but this my first jeep.

I recently purchased a 2001 XJ. It was stock when I got it. I probably should have done lots of reading before purchasing a lift but its too late now.

I purchased and installed a Rouch Country complete 4 1/2" X-series kit.

So far I have been very happy with all of the components except the rear leaf springs. This kit included their full leaf packs. They are extremely stiff. They remind me of something that would be on a 1 ton truck. In addition, the rear is sitting at least 1 to 1 1/2" to high.After getting my kidneys beat out the last couple of weeks, I decided to make some changes. As stiff as the spring rate is on these springs, I do not ever see them "breaking in" or settling any.

Over the weekend, I installed a set of the Liquid Iron Leaf Sliders. They made a huge improvement over what I had. Ride is much smoother but still not acceptable.

With 250 lbs added to the rear cargo area, the rear does not drop any. With 600 lbs added, the rear drops less than an inch. The movement is all from the sliders, the springs do not give at all.

So here are my questions:

What leaf pack would be recommended for a 4 1/2" lift that does not ride like a skate board?

Anything decent out there besides Devers? (sp?) They are very pricey.

Could I take a leaf out of the spring pack I have and get better results? If so, which one should be removed?

If removing one leaf is not an option, what about swapping a leaf or two from the factory spring pack into the Rouch Country spring pack?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Try removing the shortest leaf and see what that does for your ride quality. If that doesn't get you where you want, mixing and matching from the stock spring pack is where I would go next, but I'm a cheap ass.

Welcome to TX01XJ!!

If I were you I would check out these 3 links...

http://littlekeylime.com/MrN/mrnimages/leaf_springs.png
http://www.generalspringkc.com/Default.asp
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/leafspringrate.htm

From there you should be able to determine your desired spring size, & rate. Then I would find another vehicle that has something as close as possible at the junk yard and make it work. I say junk yard because if you get a good spring its already going to be broken in. Then if you need to make minor adjustments for height you can do an Add-A-Leaf (AAL) or shackles etc. This is just my approach, a lot of people aren't big on AAL, for good reasons, this is just my approach. A thorough search on here for leaf springs will bring up a bunch of info on this matter, you just have to cull through it all.

Also, be sure to stop by the Red River chapter, since your in Texas im sure you'll like what you'll find in there. a lot of us like to get together on projects and trade parts etc...

Bds, Clayton, and or alcan.. All cheaper than deavers, and made with quality material.

Before you do anything like take the pack apart I would load the rig up with some weight and drive it around like that for a few week. The packs might just need to break in. Most packs settle and soften with time. You can just speed that process up.

TX01XJ said:

New to the board and decided to jump right in. Not new to wheelin but this my first jeep.

I recently purchased a 2001 XJ. It was stock when I got it. I probably should have done lots of reading before purchasing a lift but its too late now.

I purchased and installed a Rouch Country complete 4 1/2" X-series kit.

So far I have been very happy with all of the components except the rear leaf springs. This kit included their full leaf packs. They are extremely stiff. They remind me of something that would be on a 1 ton truck. In addition, the rear is sitting at least 1 to 1 1/2" to high.After getting my kidneys beat out the last couple of weeks, I decided to make some changes. As stiff as the spring rate is on these springs, I do not ever see them "breaking in" or settling any.

Over the weekend, I installed a set of the Liquid Iron Leaf Sliders. They made a huge improvement over what I had. Ride is much smoother but still not acceptable.

With 250 lbs added to the rear cargo area, the rear does not drop any. With 600 lbs added, the rear drops less than an inch. The movement is all from the sliders, the springs do not give at all.

So here are my questions:

What leaf pack would be recommended for a 4 1/2" lift that does not ride like a skate board?

Anything decent out there besides Devers? (sp?) They are very pricey.

Could I take a leaf out of the spring pack I have and get better results? If so, which one should be removed?

If removing one leaf is not an option, what about swapping a leaf or two from the factory spring pack into the Rouch Country spring pack?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

I had the same problem so I removed the bottom leafs and all is good now, I am at 4 1/2" lift and a softer ride.

Thanks for the kind welcome and the advice. I'm going to give it one mild off road outing and try to load it with some weight and see what that gets me. Maybe they will loosen up. If not, I will try removing that lowest leaf and see what I get out of that.