Front coil offset to axle centerline on fabricated brackets

[motorman]

Goatman, Beezil, OneTon, Crash and others........
For you gentleman that fabricated your own spring/control arm brackets, how far forward of the axle centerline did you put the center of the coil spring? Searches have not produced much of an answer.
Stock appears to be about 1" forward of the centerline. Farmermatt, in using an EB setup, is centered over the axel housing, which puts his axle forward in the front wheel well opening. Looking at Goatman's pictures, his spring is forward of the centerline. I am just wondering how much? It looks similar to stock.
Obviously the less forward you place the spring the less you push the axel forward, the shorter the wheel base. But at some point having the axle too far forward in the wheel well has to create clearance issues.
Dimensions and opinions will be appreciated.

 

[Safari Ary]

Keith, what size tires are you planning to run, how much lift, and what axles? I pushed mine forward about an inch to an inch and a half. I haven't measure exactly but the coil is centered over the tube. With 35s on approximately 7.5" of lift and a trimmed bullbar I don't rub anywhere as of yet, except the LCAs. I also haven't fully flexed it out to the bumpstops, but so far so good. Hope this helps.

Ary

 

[Jeff 98XJ WI]

Something else to consider is your control arm arrangement. If you are using drop brackets at the frame, the axle won't push so far forward with compression. If you are using long arms of one type or another, this will also work into the equation. When I built my D44 front end, I stuck with the factory axle end configuration, but moved the attachment points up 2". I built a jig that allowed a stock axle to fit in some cradles and had arms that were located off the stock control arm mounts. Then I made new cradles to position the axle 2" lower and also shifted forward about an inch to allow a stock sized lower control arm bushing to clear the axle tube and housing. This had a net effect of raising the control arm attachment points on the axle 2" over stock and pushed the axle forward 1" or so. When I got to making the coil buckets fit, I shifted them back 1" or so in order to have the coils sit in a relatively stock position. I have a detailed article on my axle project at http://www.madxj.com in the tech section for your viewing pleasure. Hope this helped some. Jeff

 

[MrShoeBoy]

When I did my 1 ton steering on the Dana 30, I had to relocate the spring perches. I centered them over the axle tube. I did this to clear the steering linkage in addition to gain some wheel base. I made new longer long arms but kept all the control arm brackets in the same place. This increased the wheelbase just like Ary said, about an inch to an inch and a half. I feel like my Jeep steers, rides, and climbs better with the longer wheelbase but then that could be my mind thinking it works just because I did it I dont rub anywhere with my 32s stuffed to the bump stops execpt on the LCAs at full turn.

AARON