adding leaves to RE pack

prerunnerXJ said:

im not really looking for more lift, im just looking to try to replicate deaver's philosophy (more thin leafs instead of less thick ones). my jeep sits just a tad nose-high with 4.5" RE XJ coils and 1.75" spacers with my 3.5" RE leaf packs. im not really looking to level my jeep out, id just like to have a few more leafs in the pack to soften the ride up (my springrate is perfect with the shocks and valving i have in front, i want the rear to match it cause its too stiff right now) on and offroad.

what kind of leafs should i add to the pack (i was thinking stock XJ leafs) or should i add some kind of 2" long AAL (which i dont think would add any lift) or maybe some waggy leafs. any suggestions?

also, im building my XJ for prerunning, and the frontend is just fine. just trying to get the rear to be a bit softer.

Click to expand...

prerunnerXJ said:

so if i were to take a RE leaf or two out and just add some waggy or stock XJ packs would that be a good way to soften the packs up a bit and keep the current ride height?

Click to expand...

Goatman said:

Unfortunately, you can't do what you want to do. If you add more leaves, it will add more lift and stiffen the spring rate. If you take out leaves it will soften the spring rate, but also decrease the ride height. Also, taking out a leaf will change the progression of the leaves in the pack, with a side effect being potentially greater spring wrap and quicker spring fatigue.

Here's something to consider. You could decrease the friction between the leaves in the pack by taking them apart, cleaning them up and painting them with a high quality paint, and adding full length spring liners. This should give you a better ride, though I couldn't tell you how much better.

You could also remove a longer leaf from the RE spring pack, and add back in a shorter leaf from the stock spring pack, and see what that does. Try to keep the length progression as even as possible.

If you want to try removing one leaf, look the pack over and see which leaf looks like the best one to remove, trying to keep as even a progression of spring lengths as possible. Then take a couple of old discarded leaves and cut them off in the middle, leaving a short length about the length of the spring pearch, and bolt them to the bottom of the spring pack. Those leaves are 1/4" thick, so two of them on each side would get you back 1/2" of lift, which you would probably loose by removing the one leaf. Something to try.....it will all be trial and error.

Click to expand...

Goatman said:

Mine are home made........I haven't run anything else since I dumped my first Tomken leaf pack many years ago.

I used to run the stock XJ pack with a couple of the Tomken leaves added in and a couple Wrangler leaves, cleaned and painted with epoxy paint and full length liners. I had a friend tell me that it rode better than his rear coil ZJ. My logic was to add leaves for lift and weight carrying ability, and reduce the friction for a good ride and flex. It worked, and I could load it up with camping gear and run trails with no sagging.

My current springs use an older 1/2 ton Chev pack with an MJ main leaf, which is 5" longer than the XJ main leaf, plus one or two stock XJ leaves. I say one or two because I always have to run one more leaf on the passenger side. It would look like it would be too stiff to flex and ride well with so many leaves, but it's not. It is just a touch stiff in the back right now, since I've removed some stuff and it's lighter in the back, but that's pretty subjective. It still rides very well, I'm just looking for a little less kick up in the back over the whoops, and my last shock valving put them one step too stiff on rebound in the rear. I'm thinking of trying it with one leaf removed, but don't know what that will do to the lift, I really need to adjust the shock valving one more time.

Click to expand...