(admittedly) Tired leaf spring question ... with a twist

Shopping for rear leafs for my project. Did a search and read most of the recent leaf spring threads. Here's my dilemma: I will be swapping to leaf fronts at the same time.

Here's my proposed setup for reference:

-- 86 XJ, full-width axles (44hd and 60), 37 MT/Rs, 4.3 Vortec/4l60e. I will be running Rancho 44044 springs up front, likely with one or more leaves removed. This is a rockcrawler project that needs to be streetable (i.e., I drive to the trails). Main concerns, maximum rear flex, reasonable life span. Not overly concerned about good ride as I'll only be driving to the trails ... and show-and-shines (I keed, I keed). Will build a traction bar.

Weight in rear: steel bumper, spare 37 on steel wheel, small selection of tools and spares (figure 200 pounds at most). I do NOT want to be tall; I will cut as much out of the body as I can to fit the tires and keep the lift as short as possible.

Question: Which rear leaves will fit the bill? BOR 6-inch. RE 4.5. Rusty's. Something else I'm not considering. I also have a bunch of stock Wrangler springs I can pad the packs with if necessary. Want a fairly even front to rear height/flex. Remember, I'm using 44044s in the front.

Sorry for the long read and thanks.
dion

Did I forget my deodorant today??

Give Alcan Spring in Grand Junction CO a call. 970-241-2655. They can build any spring you can dream up.

44044s up front will likely give about 8-9 inches of lift. Remove too many leafs and you start having problems with axle wrap.

As someone that has leafs up front, why do you want 44044s? I know they're the "cool" leaf pack, but the main reason they became that is they were good, lifetime warranty, and mainly CHEAP. They got so popular they aren't cheap anymore. I think you'd be much better off with some BDS YJ leafs. I use the 3.5" front YJ leafs which gives me about 7 inches. They are double military wrapped, life-time warranty, HALF the cost of 44044s ($60 each), and they flex pretty darn well:


sorry, can't really help with rear leafs, I've got an MJ SOA

I'm using them because I have them ;-), plus the little bit of extended wheelbase is nice. I used stock 6-leaf Waggy springs on my YJ with no wrap, so I can't imagine these will wrap much even if I remove a leaf or two. Just trying to match them up to some appropriate rear springs that are reasonably priced (did I mention that?).
d

I just stacked a pile of xj and yj leaves (9 I think) to run 33's...and wound up needing 3 more inches after I finished my front leaf conversion so I have 3" blocks (yuck) too...havent wrapped a drive shaft out yet but do plan on putting some sort of traction bar in...eventually...its been 2 years now.

Thanks. Any other insight?
d

Don't really know forsure, but since your fabing the front hangers for the front leafs, you could move the rear springs underneath the uni-rail if you reinforce the rail, then you could run a leaf that did not have as much arch in it to gain the lift you need....also it would increase rear flex as the springs would be closer together, then you could move the shocks as far outboard as possible if your worried about loosing some stability.


This was just off the top of my head, but??

Justin

Hmmm. Off the top of my head, you're talking about inboarding the springs, what, 3 inches on each side? Seems to me it would make the rig pretty tippy, particularly on the rode and in off-camber crawling stuff. I could be wrong, though ...
d

Blatant said:

Hmmm. Off the top of my head, you're talking about inboarding the springs, what, 3 inches on each side? Seems to me it would make the rig pretty tippy, particularly on the rode and in off-camber crawling stuff. I could be wrong, though ...
d

Click to expand...

I don't know specific measurements, but....xj's have a rather wide spring perch width....I don't even think that Fullsize GM trucks have that wide of a rear spring perch width.... but like I said, you can move the shocks outboard of the springs to offset the "tippyness"

Just thinking aloud.

Justin