School me on shackles/ Share pics

So I am in the process of building a one ton cherokee and I am researching my rear suspension setup. It already has rustys 8" leafsprings in the rear, but I am curious what my other options are. I have been looking at a lot of pics of big cherokees I like, and it seems a lot of them are running a shackel in the rear. It seems these shackels are keeping the leaf a lot flatter. Are they running stockto minimal liftleaf springs with a shackel to keep the leaf flat? I have been out of the offroad game for a while, and back when I was into it shackels were the "cheap" way to lift your rig. It seems a few have stretch their wheelbase a bit with shackels also, is that from the leafspring relocation brackets? Are there any pros or cons to using shackels? Any insight or help will be greatly appreciated. I wanted to link the rear, but it's not in the buget right now. If anyone has pics of what they are running please share, I am trying to get a visualization of everything.

Oh and here are a few pics of me gathering parts
Kingpin D60 and 35 spline D70


38s on H1s mocked up

Re: School me on shackels/ Share pics

The flatter the leaf spring, the more flex. With a high arch there isn't much room for downtravel. The shackle allows for increased lift with a more flat leaf.

Re: School me on shackels/ Share pics

At compression the leaf will flatten and has to lenghten. It would be limited by the travel of the stock short shackle with a high arch spring and possibly something will break. The longer shackle allows the higher arch spring proper full range of travel.

Re: School me on shackels/ Share pics

what i did is take the bttom couple of leaves out and run a yj shackle conversion so i can tune in the amount of flex i want the guys at battlement fab have a set thats bolt on and super strong my rear springs are 6.5 rustys with the bottom two leaves taken out and a stock length yj shackle

Re: School me on shackels/ Share pics

Re: School me on shackels/ Share pics

rockthrasherXJ, got more pics of that rear bumper? looks sick

Re: School me on shackels/ Share pics

Re: School me on shackels/ Share pics

thats probably my favorite rear bumper/tire carrier ive seen yet. Thanks. :cheers:

very interested in the shackel conversion. I need something different to run the longer Alcan springs that are now on my rig, installed the relocation brackets but still flatten the springs. Gonna try boomerangs but your set up looks interesting also. More info would be great, thanks again. If ya get to Moab, holler at me

http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/leaf.shtml

Hope this helps

Shackle angle can change the progression of the leaf spring.
I'm not going to tell you what is best. That's trial and error or what you feel is best.

If you want more flex the more inboard the leafs are the more flex you will have the further out the more staple so you pick. A wheel coming off the ground isn't the end of the world take if from someone that competes in rock crawling comps in a CJ on leafs against TJs and still very competitive.



Couple considerations I put shackle stops so my shackles cannot invert, and helps against bending leafs at the shackle.
Another option is slider boxes. They don't give you any extra performance, it gives you a constant spring rate. the angle of the slider can reduce or increase the spring rate.
I think they are stronger against the rocks. Liquid Iron now makes weld in sliders for the XJ you might want to look into. I made my own for the CJ.

Good luck.
~Justin