how many leafs is to many?

Im in the process of building up a pack, a buddy gave me his old 4.5" tomken leaf pack free of charge with a 1.25 RE shackle on It, only problem is both overload leafs on the bottoms of the packs were cracked in half at the leaf center pins. So I tossed those, both packs were a bit rusty so I took them apart and sanded them down and painted everything with some black rustoleum, well now that those overload leafs are missing theres only 4 leafs in each pack. So I took a stock pack apart I had laying around, cut the top two main leafs and cleaned them up. I was going to add them to the packs for a couple more Inchs and to beef the pack up a bit, this means there will be 6 leafs in each pack, Im wondering If 6 seems like to many? I know the more leafs the less flex so Im curious what to do....does 6 sound to many to anyone? I was thinkin this would net maybe 7ish" of Lift?

my full traction 6" leafs have 7 leafs in them, so I guess 7's not too many. :wierd:

wow and is that how It came? How does It flex, by the way I do realize It depends how stiff you want for ride in the back and If you want It to match the flexibility of your front coils, Just lookin for a general Idea...Iv seen a picture on here and the guy had about 8-10 leafs in the pack and they were giving him hell about It not flexing...

Flexiness depends on the thickness and arch of each leaf, and to a lesser extent the friction between each one. Your best bet is to just try it and see what happens. You could always add or subtract leaves to tune it.

Well, in my opinion, if the leaves you removed where really just overloads, why replace them unless you are going to tow something or have that much stuff in the back. If the overloads where more flat that the arched pack like mine, then all you should loose in height is the thickness of the overload. Or, is your overload arched with the pack? I think my pack is about four or five plus the overload leaf. Maybe it just depends on what kind of a spring rate you want.

It really has to do more with spring rate, arch etc. Like Lawn Cher already stated. Some National springs I have seen 11 leaves. One guy I wheeled with at the Fall fling had 10 in his homebrew bastard packs.

XJ99 said:

the overload was flat...I was taking the 2 main leafs from stock pack and sticking them accordingly in size with the tomken pack....

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So, the overloads only really did any work when enough weight made the arched pack flex enought o come into contact with it, right? Well, why replace them?

XJ99 said:

Iv seen a picture on here and the guy had about 8-10 leafs in the pack and they were giving him hell about It not flexing...

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Coulda been my pack you're talking about...

Although I've never gotten hell about it not flexing...

I leave the flexing to Kid4Lyf's rig...

Mine aren't too bad...

9 skinny leafs with teflon sheets sandwiched in between and painted/coated with Slip-plate...

Build what works for you...

Ignore the Monday morning quarterbacks...

That or just buy some nice B.O.R. packs

if you have a stock xj pack laying around a good idea is to cut the eyes off both ends then install it in your leaf pack ON TOP of your main leaf and clamp it down on both ends, helps reduce axle wrap and helps your main leaf from bending. as mentioned above though it all depends on how much lift you want and how much arch are in the leafs that will determine how many leafs you want/need. ive seen most lift packs have 6-9 leafs give or take 1

I have 8-9 leaves in my homebuilt spring pack. My last pack had 10-11. It's what you end up with that's important, in other words, how it works. There's no such thing as too many leaves. If a pack sags, you can add leaves to bring it back to the performance it had new. If you keep the friction down, you can add more leaves to get the weight carry capacity that you want.

I've always used homemade springs, and I've always kept the friction down by cleaning and painting the leaves and using full length liners between each leaf, and I've ended up with very flexy springs that perform well on the trail and can handle getting loaded up on the camping runs......and that's using 8-11 leaves per pack. It's a trial and error thing, so just give it a shot.

Oh, BTW, I've never heard of clamping a spring on top of the main leaf to improve axle wrap. Clamping the spring down would keep the leaves from sliding freely, and would decrease the performance of the pack. Now, what has been done by some good spring makers is to add a half leaf to only the front half of the pack, above the main leaf, which uses a snail wrap around the front spring eye, thereby not adding any resistance to the leaves sliding freely. The other thing that can be done, but it's mostly street racers and not off road rigs, is to place a leaf upside down on top of the main leaf, which gives a good amount of resistance to axle wrap. This wouldn't work so well on an off road rig because droop would be limited. That's why on an off road rig a spring above the main leaf is only on the front half, which is where the spring deforms anyway with spring wrap.

just a little question while its beign discussed, where do you get that paint for the leafs and the liners? would Kragen or Autozone carry them?

01_XJ said:

just a little question while its beign discussed, where do you get that paint for the leafs and the liners? would Kragen or Autozone carry them?

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nope...

I found it in a Grainger catalog...

I understand some Farm and Fleets carry it...

You won't find it at an auto parts place...

More likely an industrial or farm implement supply place.

try here:

http://www.slipplate.com/

thanks!

Thanks for all the tips guys, well Im actually probably going to be selling them, I have a 5.5XDSA kit to put on so I dont really need them. Before I obtained the kit I was planning on running these packs after I rebuilt them so now I will pry Just end up selling them. I think Im gonna go with the 6 leafs for now and Include extra's Incase anyone wants to add or take away. So about the amount of lift, anyone think I could expect about 7" out of them? 4.5" tomken pack, 1.25 re shackle, and 2 main leafs from stock pack?

It's all trial and error. Every leaf pack is collapsed a different amount.