BARILLMS Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 Well, I'm shortening my long bed's wheelbase, and I'm moving the axle forward and chopping the end of the frame. No bed. The less hangover the better, but with leaf springs... you're gonna have some no matter what. My only concern was having my shackles hanging down in the back?? This takes away from your departure angle, and also they will be getting crushed on rocks constantly and risk breakage. I even though about putting the rear shackles in the front of the rear leaf.... but I don't think that would work well. I FOUND A SOLUTION!! Ha! Perfecto! These leaf spring sliders are perfect, plus they can be used in the front of the rear leaf Spring!! Completely gaining huge departure benefits!! Check them out! Link: http://www.secureperformanceorder.com/a ... ductID=985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 The problem is that if you use those, you will mess up the leaf pack geometry. The shackles have to extend down far enough to make the leaf pack centre flat. If it isn't - it does bad things. My front end is like this, and will need tweaking to fix it. To use them correctly you'd have to drop them to the same height as the old shackle extended too. Really not saving any departure/approach. Oh, I'm concerned with their lubrication. Might be fine, but I think they did it a hokey way in that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 12, 2007 Share Posted February 12, 2007 I've seen it in magazines where a guy will add little wheels or casters to the leaf springs at the back (or front if the rig has front leaf springs). Doesn't sound all that hard to pull off and I guess the truck will roll off the rocks. :dunno: Also seen it done on the corners of bumpers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARILLMS Posted February 12, 2007 Author Share Posted February 12, 2007 I like these things, I think I'm gonna use them. They have roller bearings, they are very smooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Why only issue is how much they are going to make the leaf spring twist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BARILLMS Posted February 13, 2007 Author Share Posted February 13, 2007 C'mon people... seriously... These things gotta work. I was thinking the might be able to be used in FRONT of the rear leaf spring.... but after more thought, when the back end HITS hard on a ledge or something, the front of the rear leaf needs to be mounted solid to hold the entire rear end in place. They would only work in the back, but if done properly they would save you like 6-7 inches of departure, tucked up on the frame rail.. How about this? Use these in conjunction with a buggy leaf?? A "goofy leaf" that's people used to use?? My buddy has the homemade goofy leaf on the rear of this 47 CJ2A and it helps tremendously with droop b/c he has short leaf springs. Boy, this project is gonna be freaking fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tracker Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 The RV stores would have a huge selection of steel wheels made to be scraped at the back of a vehicle. Many RV's, and especially class C's have a ton of overhang and use either clamp on or weld on wheels in the rear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 C'mon people... seriously... These things gotta work.I was thinking the might be able to be used in FRONT of the rear leaf spring.... but after more thought, when the back end HITS hard on a ledge or something, the front of the rear leaf needs to be mounted solid to hold the entire rear end in place. They would only work in the back, but if done properly they would save you like 6-7 inches of departure, tucked up on the frame rail.. How about this? Use these in conjunction with a buggy leaf?? A "goofy leaf" that's people used to use?? My buddy has the homemade goofy leaf on the rear of this 47 CJ2A and it helps tremendously with droop b/c he has short leaf springs. Boy, this project is gonna be freaking fun. You can't just use them to save departure. Unless you find a leaf with considerably more arch - in which case you could have ran a shackle in a higher position to mimic the same effect. With those, you have to mount them WHERE THE LOWER SHACKLE BOLT WAS. Hence, on a MJ they'd need to be about 5.5-6" down and 1-2" back from the top hanger bolt hole. And that's where the rear leaf bolt (lower shackle bolt) has to be at static position - which should be in the middle of that hanger to allow for the most flex. So they'd actually have to stick farther back than a stock shackle would. If you were to swap them in with the stock leaf springs and maintain the same ride height and NOT screw up the leaf pack geometry - you would have less depature angle than before. And if you want me to get into screwed up leaf pack geometry - realize that there is entire TEXTBOOKS on making leaf springs work. They are NOT as simple as they seem. If they were a wonder, everyone who still ran leaf springs would run them. As it is, I'm not sure what lasting effects or inherent problems they may pose. It looks to me like they are ment more for cars than off-road applications. And yes, running them in the front of the rear leaves would be bad - unless you hard mount the rear of the leaf. Which actually causes another conundrum - say hello to needed a long spline driveshaft and having a poor riding suspension. If you didn't hard mount the rear you will break things - the axle will flop about as nothing will control its movement then; other than if the bolts bottom out on those hangers... And I don't know what a goofy leaf is. I know what buggy leaves are - more correctly called a 3/4 elliptical suspension. They have their own problems. Which I touched on in the other thread - but didn't get into detail on. You can't use those moveable hangers with a setup like that. These setups were (and to an extent still are) common on really SWB vehicles such as GPWs, CJs, and Zukis. But they have 30-40" leaf springs and don't experience the negative effects of this setup anywhere near as much. Still, the zuki guy I knew who ran them went back to a standard leaf setup... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regger Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Just do a 4/5link rear coil setup.. Then you will have nothing past the rear tire... Thats the only true way to go.. Those sliders may work for street rods which they were designed, but would be terrible offroad Ryan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feerocknok Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 No offense met, but I'm not understanding how shackles are hurting departure angle. The leaf springs are what's hanging over the most on any unbobbed vehicle sorry for the crappy truck/picture, but it shows it: The rear end of the leaf spring is what would hit first, and if you want to get the rear of the leaf spring higher, you'll have to do something like put the top shackle mount over the frame. 3/4 elliptical would lower the leaf spring aLot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirsMJ86 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Just do a 4/5link rear coil setup.. Then you will have nothing past the rear tire... Thats the only true way to go.. Those sliders may work for street rods which they were designed, but would be terrible offroad Ryan i was going to say that same thing. just mod up a dual coil kit and you will be good to go. i was thinking about doing this once i say how they did it on the new gladiator. but this is really the only true way to make it so nothing is past the rear axle. Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 3/4 elliptical: http://jeeptech.com/susp/elliptical.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now