full length AAL

[comancheman]

who makes them?

[JeepcoMJ]

don't do an add a leaf

[comancheman]

i need to bring the rear up an inch or two to level it out, i already have a SOA in the rear but my spring pack is pretty warn out . it flexes awesome but i need it to match the 5.5 inch front springs i thought about GM drop shackles but i don't like how they push your axle forward

[JeepcoMJ]

make a bastard pack...add one more full length spring out of a stock comanche.

[JohnQ]

don't do an add a leaf

 

Why, does it just make the ride a lot rougher?

[JeepcoMJ]

they go soft pretty quick and you lose the lift faster. adding a completely new spring pack is the best way if it's going to be permanent.

[89eliminator]

yeah, just go with a new pack. add a leafs droop quickly and don't ride as good as a new pack

[87manche]

I've got a skyjacker 3" AAL in the rear, it's not sagged in the year I've had it, and I wheel with 600 lbs of stuff in the bed.

 

It does not flex unless you have weight in the bed.

and it rides stiff on the street.

[JeepcoMJ]

all I have for lifts are 3" rough country kits, all of which are AAL's.

 

my brother has put 17000 miles on his and his rear end is back to stock height. they're stiff, unless you have weight in them. and then if you have weight in them, they go bad quicker.

 

they're just not worth the hassle. save the money and buy quality replacement springs.

[speed_racer]

An AAL has to have a stronger arch than your current leafs, which means its pretty much guaranteed to be the first "component" of your leaf packs that lose performance.

 

Plus it'll effect your whole packs spring rate...

 

And it's not like when it sags you can just remove it and be back to where you were, b/c your old springs will have been affected to.

 

Bastard pack it, or get full packs, as mentioned above. Not only for the sake of ride, but for flex, AND permanance.

[Eagle]

all I have for lifts are 3" rough country kits, all of which are AAL's.

There's your problem.

 

There is nothing wrong with an AAL to gain a little height and extra capacity. The problems start when you try to get a BIG lift using an AAL, and become even worse when you try to do it with a half-length AAL.

 

If the AAL doesn't have an arch that's pretty close to the same as the "native" arch of the other leaves in the pack, the new leaf is really working against the old leaves. The new guy is trying to push them up, and the old leaves are trying to push the new guy down. IMHO this is why the best of all AALs is the main leaf from a matching spring pack with the eyes cut uff. The arch matches, so everything works together. You won't gain mega-lift this way, but it also wan't sag out in six months.

 

And the ride doesn't suffer. For example, I did this to restore the sagging rear springs on an '88 XJ I fixed up for an ex-GF. The vehicle started out about 1/2" lower than stock height, and I knew she wanted a Jeep to get into back country for accessing remote trail heads for hiking. So I put on gas tank and transfer case skid plates, and threw in a pair of main leaves from a junked XJ. The gross lift was 1-1/4", which was a net gain of 3/4" even after adding the skid plates. Other guys in NAXJA who have done the same on newer XJs and using newer donor springs (mine came from an '89) typically got 1-1/2" of gross lift.

 

Once the XJ was done I drove it from Connecticut to Montana, and the ride was excellent. Slightly firm, definitely not harsh. Just the way I like it, in fact, and much better than it was before the lift.

[comancheman]

antidisestablishmentarianism about the rustys 4 inch pack with a leaf removed, i only need an inch or two

[GirsMJ86]

antidisestablishmentarianism about the rustys 4 inch pack with a leaf removed, i only need an inch or two

 

i have the rustys 3" lift and i think it is going to go once i get the money. this thing is stiff, and it actually sits lower then my stock 86 did. and from what i have seen, I'm not much higher then stock, i can barely fit 31s.

 

i don't know much about rustys packs but i have always heard rusty and rough country are not that good.

 

I'm with the bastard pack. just get 2 or 4 main mj leafs and cut the eyes off. this is what i will be doing once i get the money to get a few sets of mj leafs.

 

Alex

[Eagle]

antidisestablishmentarianism about the rustys 4 inch pack with a leaf removed, i only need an inch or two

Get a set of MJ main leaves, Explorer or old S-10 or Dakota main leaves, or even XJ main leaves, cut the eyes off the ends, and use those.

 

Or go new. Rancho makes an AAL kit. They list the same part number for the XJ and MJ and their catalog says it produces 2-1/2" of lift in both. That's impossible, of course, so I called and spoke to their engineers. After some checking, the slide rule chick told me it's 2-1/2" in the XJ, and 1" to 1-1/2" in the MJ. Runs about $50 for the kit.