Leaf Springs(dead horse revived)

Hey all. im going to bring a dead horse back to life so we can all beat it again. What springs are available for the comanche. rather what companies make springs for the comanche. im looking for some new rear leafs. i know general spring and hell creek make them, although hell creek's website doesn't seem to offer a price or alot of info on them....my main question is, this is a crawler and DD. going SOA, however what are all your thoughts on stock springs vs metric ton springs? i don't want a rougher ride, however im concerned that the stock springs will sag with load. in the bed of the truck at almost all the time i will have about 15 gal of water, 10 gal of fuel(extra), 33x10.5x15 spare, tool set and camping gear including a large cooler.
any thoughts on what set i should go with with the load?
Thanks for your insight!!

In answering Noah, bear in mind that he won't have as much crap in his MJ as I do in Gomer. But, he is my son, and he will tend to have a fair amount of tools and spares.

David Bricker / SYR

I'm running mid 90's half ton dodge ram springs in mine. I like the ride, comfort, load capacity, and flexibility offroad. They are very similar to a stock comanche spring length, but the length is a couple inches different but they are virtually bolt in iirc. The lift from them is maybe an inch or two when SUA, of course being SOA, you will gain plenty to run 33's I think. My typical load is a 40" spare on beadlocked wheel, a couple camp chairs, a couple sleeping bags, a tool set(around 50lbs.), highlift, and a cooler.

It's a very cheap alternative to the aftermarket choices. I got my pair for under $100 on a half price day at PAP. Usually plenty to choose from at any PAP.

Do you happen to know how much longer the springs are than the Comanche length? I'm a little concerned with going soa and having higher springs. I'll be going bds long arm in the front, but I don't want to have to end having to go like 7" in the front to level it out....and since the soa gives 5"on the low end. Also do you know what the spring packs are on the Dodge springs? 3/1, 3/2 packs?
Thanks!

94-01 ram 1500 2wd. Comanche
4/1 spring pack 3/1
2.1875" thickness. 1.5"
2100 lbs. Capacity. 1280lbs
28.25" front. 26"
31.75" rear. 32"
6.6875" free arch 10.25"


Since you are going from spring under to spring over, you need to add pack thickness to the free arch to see a fair comparison. So it essentially becomes 8.875" for the dodge spring compared to 10.25" for the jeep.

Bottom line, swapping the dodge spring loses 1.5", but going SOA gives 5".....net gain of about 3.5" without a shackle or block, and a little stiffer too. IMHO, it's the thing to do...then dial it in with a small shackle or 1" block as needed.

That leaves you with a 2 inch longer spring to deal with. Option A....extend wheelbase 2". Option B....weld in new front mount 2 inches forward of stock.

This is awesome. Thank you!

JohnX said:

94-01 ram 1500 2wd. Comanche
4/1 spring pack 3/1
2.1875" thickness. 1.5"
2100 lbs. Capacity. 1280lbs
28.25" front. 26"
31.75" rear. 32"
6.6875" free arch 10.25"


Since you are going from spring under to spring over, you need to add pack thickness to the free arch to see a fair comparison. So it essentially becomes 8.875" for the dodge spring compared to 10.25" for the jeep.

Bottom line, swapping the dodge spring loses 1.5", but going SOA gives 5".....net gain of about 3.5" without a shackle or block, and a little stiffer too. IMHO, it's the thing to do...then dial it in with a small shackle or 1" block as needed.

That leaves you with a 2 inch longer spring to deal with. Option A....extend wheelbase 2". Option B....weld in new front mount 2 inches forward of stock.

Click to expand...

John, this is great information. Have you found a magic spring catalog that lists these specs for other vehicles as well? The lack of information from spring vendors makes it very difficult to determine the best spring. Things like spring capacity, free arch is valuable in making those determinations.

I'd love to know this info for the XJ as well.

David Bricker / SYR

www.sdtrucksprings.com has a pretty good listing shoeing most of that info for almost any truck.

Hell creek does list prices. Except for shipping.
As far as going soa, do you really want to go THAT tall? Stock springs should do the trick. Maybe bastard pack. Otherwise you will be WAY tall. I would stick SUA and go with Hell creek springs.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

Problem is I don't want the rock grabber hanging down off the bottom.of the axle. And I think in the end I'm going to have dever just build me a set of axles....I'm just going to spend the money and have them built the right way to the lift I want with soa.

Noah, I'm with Jonnie on this one as to staying spring under. Also, if you are looking to go with custom axles, and even if not; there are options for removing the "rock grabbers". Granted these options can have a negative affect on shock length depending on how you mount them to the axle.

I run 97-03 f150 spring packs and RE boomerang shackles. They're slightly longer 2/1 packs and I added an Mj 3rd leaf I had lying around. The ride is a little more firm than I like, but my shackle angle isn't perfect and I'm also running poly bushings (only replacement available). Eventually I would like to have some Deaver or Atlas springs built. Here are some pics of the setup, the truck is on 35s--

There's really not many negatives to being soa on a DD or trail rig. Going spring over with the dodge springs should net about 3" lift....don't forget the dodge spring is flatter than a stock mj spring....you won't be too tall I think.

Fyi, my dodge springs sit flatter than the ford springs pictured above

JohnX said:

Fyi, my dodge springs sit flatter than the ford springs pictured above

Click to expand...

I did a little research on the 94-01 Dodge springs and they definitely got my attention. My f150 springs only cost me 40 bucks but I had to make some steel sleeves for the front bushing because ford uses a larger bolt there. The Dodge springs look to be 9/16 front and rear. I like the extra length and it would help with my shackle angle, but I don't really want to stretch the wheelbase any.

I'm going to have to look into this soon, did a SOA and it is just way to soft. Cant carry any gear without sitting to low, I pulled a second MJ pack from my parts rig and plan to run double main leafs to try and see if it works for me. Hopefully I can find a good medium for load vs flex.

I went SOA axle with my MJ and love it. I run 33s. its perfect. Not too tall. I do run a LWB MJ and swapped in some 2wd MJ leaves to keep it lower, coupled with a .75" XJ RE lift shackle which probably ended up being like 1/4" -3/8" lift on the MJ. I run about 4.5" of lift up front, and the rear is raked good unloaded, and when I load it down a ton it settles to about normal.

Ride quality got better after the SOA, it started tracking straighter too, all around the SOA was much much better than the SOA in my specific case. for the cost of a ruffstuff kit(perches , U bolts, spring plates and shock mounts) its a n brainer to go SOA.(RS is also having a 20% off sale this weekend FYI)


I ripped my U bolt plates to hell on the first major run on it, Brewer/swamp/red lake/bald mountain all in one week and all in a row. Littererally just destroyed the spring plates being SUA on 33s, had to cut the u bolts and plates off when I got home they were so mangled, and snapped U bolts on the trail from the abuse , and bent the center pins.
and the shock mounts hang crazy low.

all of that is now fixed with a SOA and flush mounted shock mounts.


It is a little on the soft side, but you can always add a second main or second second leaf.

I did a SOA on mine and it was sitting a little high in the rear with just the 35 spare sitting in the bed, now that I added the rack about 160 Lbs it's sitting a little lower.
So I need to figure out a way to increase the load capacity so when I have camping gear it is still usable...
Thinking i'll try just doubling the main leaf as a start.

yeah I would start beading a second main and cutting the eyes off and see where that gets you at ride height.

I just installed ford explorer leafs and did the spring over, installed new lower shock mounts that I welded to the D44. Overall it gave me a 3.5 inch lift in the rear, installed 4 inch coils in the front.