Trucks! Comanche

[motodh1983]

Anybody catch the comanche on trucks today on spike tv?

[BIGHEEP]

Yep, I am not impressed with the flex they got with thier 3 link setup. My old XJ flexed out better than that on short arms. It was a nice MJ though.

[mvusse]

Ditto. My Comanche on a short arm 4 link flexes more than that and is limited by the shocks.

[TylerJY]

Someone on this forum owns the MJ.

[shelbyluvv]

I want to know why they left those stupid and dangerous Revolver shackles on the back.

[huck731]

my stepdad told me about this while we where putting the new clutch in my mj today. I sure wish I had cable.

[motodh1983]

Why are revolvers dangerous?

[shelbyluvv]

They are for ramp queens. They unload under hard braking and while you lean in a corner or a off camber situation.

[motodh1983]

Ah well I did like the baja's i thought they were great offroad tire.

[my96z]

my stepdad told me about this while we where putting the new clutch in my mj today. I sure wish I had cable.

 

You can watch it the Internet. http://www.powerblocktv.com/player/show_player.php?ep_num=TK2012-10&ep_show=TK

[Dadinator]

That's how I watch it. Haven't had cable since I am unemployed. Watch ESPN online too, but that's another story.

[Garvin]

Please, PLEASE, do not take these guys advice, they are so full of crap and don't know anything about how suspensions work from how they explained and did everything. Guessing where stuff goes is not the way to do the vehicle correct and that flex was just a joke. I have a 3-link suspension that I built on my MJ and can easily get the rocker above the tire on a 38.5, and this is only on around a 6" lift (can do the same on a 4" if a notch the frame slightly and raise the front shocks, which I plan on doing).

 

First of all, do NOT mount the upper link on the frame sidewards like that. That limits flex MASSIVELY. Heims only give you about 22 degrees of misalignment in that position vs the endless amount of articulation if mounted straight up and down. If it's an offroad only rig (as they said it was) use heims for the lowers also as they are stronger than the cartridge flex type joint and are cheaper. If used on road then use the cartridge type joint on the uppers and lowers as they did just on the lowers.

 

Secondly, the panhard (track) bar doesn't just get mounted where it fits randomly. You need to match the drag link angle and length or you will get horrible bump steer and flex steer. With running the inverted-T setup steering, they really need to lower the axle end massively. If clearance is a concern then kick the track bar out towards the front or rear of the axle more, there's nothing saying that it has to be mounted in the factory position.

 

Third...Don't guess on how you want the shocks to go. Get everything done beforehand then measure for the shocks and see the length and mounting position needed. It is not hard to remove a shock to get to the control arm bolt if you wanted to mount the lower bracket in 180 off (so the angle iron has the flat part below the bolt instead of above). This could actually net you a longer shock which would give you more overall travel.

 

While rear flex and front flex are great by themselves, it is more important to match the flex from front to rear. They never did stuff the rear to see if the shock was long enough.

 

And more importantly, on the shocks, they did not adjust the bump stops or add limit straps. In my 3-link, the shocks are the only thing that really limit my droop while the control arms limit my stuff when they contact the frame. I max out 12" travel Bilstein 5150's with only ~4" of up travel and ~8" of down.

[Dadinator]

Haven't watched the episode yet.

I've found in watching that Trucks does better for street trucks and XTreme 4X4 is better for the off road crowd.

IMHO.

[SW86]

They are for ramp queens. They unload under hard braking and while you lean in a corner or a off camber situation.

 

just curious as to where you got this information?

[MichiganDuck]

I was told about this after it was on! I don't get that channel, but knew one of my fellow club members would have a link!

[mvusse]

First of all, do NOT mount the upper link on the frame sidewards like that. That limits flex MASSIVELY. Heims only give you about 22 degrees of misalignment in that position vs the endless amount of articulation if mounted straight up and down. If it's an offroad only rig (as they said it was) use heims for the lowers also as they are stronger than the cartridge flex type joint and are cheaper. If used on road then use the cartridge type joint on the uppers and lowers as they did just on the lowers.

 

I was wondering why on earth they decided to do that too.

 

As for the revolver shackles, I watched it again this morning to get a good look at it, and they are NOT revolver shackles. They are boomerang shackles. They work good on a lifted Cherokee to clear the end of the shackle "box", but don't do much if anything for a Comanche other than they are stronger than the stock ones.

[shelbyluvv]

 

 

just curious as to where you got this information?

 

First hand. I ran a set of them on an XJ and it was scary. I almost totaled it during a panic stop when they unloaded under hard braking. I also had a great time at Tellico when they opened up on an off camber spot on Guardrail.

 

 

[Pete M]

I was wondering why on earth they decided to do that too.

 

As for the revolver shackles, I watched it again this morning to get a good look at it, and they are NOT revolver shackles. They are boomerang shackles. They work good on a lifted Cherokee to clear the end of the shackle "box", but don't do much if anything for a Comanche other than they are stronger than the stock ones.

 

I'm looking at them right now on my paused screen and they are definitely revolvers or revolver-esque. :thumbsup:

[Comanche County]

I liked the cage, nice design aesthetically speaking.

[mvusse]

Your TV is probably better than mine, but to me they looked a lot more like this first picture than the second one. Didn't record it, though, so I couldn't pause it.

 

Boomerang shackles:

 

Revolver shackles:

[Comanche County]

[ComancheKid45]

Definently revolvers.

 

So are we to the conclusion that they don't help suspension travel at all and are unsafe? Ive always have the idea to try em out someday...

[Automan2164]

What the sam hell is the purpose of the boomerang shackles? It doesn't seem like they would apply any sort of different leverage or anything... They are still attached by a piece of steel, with essentially a straight line between the two bolts. I could see if there was another attachment point or somehow changed the geometry of the shackle...

 

Can anyone explain the purpose? Or am I missing it completely?

Rob

[shelbyluvv]

Rob, boomerang shackles are used for clearance issues on XJ shackle boxes. The dog leg allows more clearance than a straight shackle because of their offset design.

[Comanche County]

They made one of JP's dumbest offroad mods. They can flip backwards when unloaded, if there was some way to prevent them from going inverted that would probably work. Sliders would be safer and more stable.