Shackle relocation brackets

[coheed]

Looks like Ironman4x4fab is going to make some shackle relocation brackets. I personally would buy a set because it's an automatic inch of lift and if you're running longer shackles you can make sure your shackle angle is correct, instead of extreme like some of the longer shackles tend to get. But they're saying they'll only fit short beds.

 

 

I don't know if the distance from shackle hole to the last bumper mount hole is different from lwb to swb? I measured my lwb at 3 11/16ish. Could someone measure their swb to see how far off they are?

[gogmorgo]

They’re definitely different between long and short bed. On a short bed the shackle hangers are right at the back of the frame. Notice how in their photos it’s right underneath the bumper bracket instead of ahead of it like your long bed. There’s about six inches less frame behind the shackle mount on the shortbed, but the bumper brackets are the same.

The bulge in the factory bumper bracket and the spacers used in the hitches exist to clear the shortbed shackle hanger… although the early bumper brackets didn’t all have the bulge because there were no early short beds so your ‘86 might just have flat bumper brackets, so in that case forget I said anything about that.
 

Unless they expressly said they test fit them on a longbed and there’s no way it’ll work, it looks to me like all you’d need to do is drill the extra hole in the side and bottom of the frame. Maybe put a spacer under the side bolt to account for the bumper bracket not being there. The hangers themselves are the same between long and short and I’m pretty sure both frames are flat underneath in that whole area. Might be interesting fishing the nuts that deep into the longbed but it shouldn’t be impossible.