6.5" bastard pack?

[BIGSLVRXJ]

One of my buddies has about a 3.5" leaf pack that an S10 main leaf was used in and the ride is awesome. I have tried out just about every aftermarket leaf pack combination and cannot find a spring that rides how I want it to. Could a person theoretically double up the S10 mains in an XJ pack and gain about 6-6.5"? What do you guys think?

 

[94XJ2door5speed]

Well dunno if you would wanna under go this but i have a friend that is in his mid 50's or so and i talk to him about wheelin and he tells me we luck out with all our fancy link suspensions. When he was in his 30's his friends would build high speed 4x4 racers kinda like what the jeep speed class is today, and they would use all leafsprings all the way around. And they would compete and win with these setups. He said they could change the height, spring weight and travel by doing the bastard pack method and they would use a piece of rail road track, which is slightly curved at the top, and would beat on the center of a leaf to re-arch it. Like re-forging it. He said they could get up 10" of lift doing this and could make them flex all the way past being flat with the proper shackle lenghs. So i asked him how they calculated this and he said they would drink a six pack and beat the thing with a sledge hammer till they got tired, then they would match it 3 more times. They would also make there own shocks but he wont tell me how. So if you and a few buddies wanna give it a whirl you could try it?

 

[NorCalChris]

6 inches huh???...hhmm....might as well give it a shot

 

[tayman]

I bet you could get 6... use like the whole XJ pack, and the whole S10 Pack. I got around 4" (unloaded) on an S10 Pack (minus overload leaf) and XJ main and secondary.

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

Well dunno if you would wanna under go this but i have a friend that is in his mid 50's or so and i talk to him about wheelin and he tells me we luck out with all our fancy link suspensions. When he was in his 30's his friends would build high speed 4x4 racers kinda like what the jeep speed class is today, and they would use all leafsprings all the way around. And they would compete and win with these setups. He said they could change the height, spring weight and travel by doing the bastard pack method and they would use a piece of rail road track, which is slightly curved at the top, and would beat on the center of a leaf to re-arch it. Like re-forging it. He said they could get up 10" of lift doing this and could make them flex all the way past being flat with the proper shackle lenghs. So i asked him how they calculated this and he said they would drink a six pack and beat the thing with a sledge hammer till they got tired, then they would match it 3 more times. They would also make there own shocks but he wont tell me how. So if you and a few buddies wanna give it a whirl you could try it?

That's interesting, sounds like a cool guy to have around.

I bet you could get 6... use like the whole XJ pack, and the whole S10 Pack. I got around 4" (unloaded) on an S10 Pack (minus overload leaf) and XJ main and secondary.

Well I figured there would be a way to get 6" I just didn't know if by bastardizing too much I would be jeopardizing safety or anything. I suppose there's not really any way that it could.

 

[TNT]

I got 5" using an assortment of leafs from who knows what.

MJ leaf springs would work, you could get a full length leaf under the stock XJ leaf.

 

[rockwerks]

im sitting at 6" right now with the XJ main leaf, an MJ main leaf with the eyes cut off and the nest inline MJ leaf then the rest of the XJ leafs

 

[tayman]

Well I figured there would be a way to get 6" I just didn't know if by bastardizing too much I would be jeopardizing safety or anything. I suppose there's not really any way that it could.

I think the only way it would jeopardize safety is if you don't have shocks... I ran mine about a week without any rear shocks and it was bouncy as hell!!!

 

[94XJ2door5speed]

im sitting at 6" right now with the XJ main leaf, an MJ main leaf with the eyes cut off and the nest inline MJ leaf then the rest of the XJ leafs

The MJ leaves are 571/4"s long so is it the length or the arch that is providing the lift i like this info though i gotta a set thats available to me so im interested in trying this saves a little cash.

 

[TNT]

The MJ leaves are 571/4"s long so is it the length or the arch that is providing the lift i like this info though i gotta a set thats available to me so im interested in trying this saves a little cash.

The arch adds the lift. The main leaf is long enough after cutting the eyes off to span from eye to eye on the XJ springs which takes the strain off of them.

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

Thanks everyone, it looks like I'll be making an XJ/MJ bastard pack. I have 2 MJs and I like the way they ride both SOA and SUA so I think that's the way to go. Might as well start off using springs that I like.

 

[TRAILREADYXJ]

At 6.5", if you use an XJ main leaf and stock mounts, your shackle angle will be horrible, even with an extended shackle, although that will help some.

This is what I did to get that height, and it rides and flexes awesome, almost a smooth as stock!http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=901160 Posts 3, 4 & 12.

You can do basically the same thing using the XJ pack, I just wanted to run the longer spring. I know some others on here, like Crash, have done this with great success!

Here is a pic of mine sitting level on 33s. Notice the shackle angle.

And here it is flexed, the other side is stuffed, limited only by bumpstop. (yes, I added front spring clips after noticing the leafs fanning that much!)

Gotta post this one too, 2 XJs taking a piss on a YJ...:roflmao:

 

[94XJ2door5speed]

so you used an f150 main and then what? the whole pack or did you use XJ leaves as well? I understand longer is better is i get the shackle angle just confused on the leaves. If they were all f150 leaves wouldnt it ride rougher cause of stiffer spring rates? And could you use the same concept to net 3.5" then add a 1.5" lift shackle to make 5" or so?

 

[TNT]

Late model Dodge B vans use rear leaf packs that are within 1/2" of the same length from the center pin forward but are about 1.5" longer from the spring pin back when compared to an XJ spring.

 

[rockwerks]

Late model Dodge B vans use rear leaf packs that are within 1/2" of the same length from the center pin forward but are about 1.5" longer from the spring pin back when compared to an XJ spring.

nice find with boomerang shackles they might just bolt in or am I wrong?

 

[TNT]

A 1.5" boomerrang shackle should make them work very nicely. They also have more arch then XJ springs.

 

[rockwerks]

Here is a pic of the leafs I used and an assembled unit. They do ride rougher than stock. but not horrible.

stock XJ leaf
stock MJ upper leaf
stock MJ second leaf
then MJ third leaf
finally the XJ bottom leaf

netted right at 5.5 to 6"

 

[TRAILREADYXJ]

so you used an f150 main and then what? the whole pack or did you use XJ leaves as well? I understand longer is better is i get the shackle angle just confused on the leaves. If they were all f150 leaves wouldnt it ride rougher cause of stiffer spring rates? And could you use the same concept to net 3.5" then add a 1.5" lift shackle to make 5" or so?

My pack was a full F-150 pack + 1 extra leaf, also f-150 (late 80's I think). Yes, the spring rate is higher than stock, but so is the front. You want a higher rate when you lift anyway. It matched my front Rusty's springs very well as far as spring rate goes, never felt unstable. Plus having the longer, flatter pack as well as a good shackle angle, helps a ton! I am saying this in past tense because it will probably all be coming out for a 4 link instead.

Just the relocation of the mount netted about 2", then I used the F-150 shackle, it gives about 3/4" over stock, and has a slight "boomerang". I wouldn't want a longer shackle than that with this setup, they hang down far enough already.

 

[94XJ2door5speed]

My pack was a full F-150 pack + 1 extra leaf, also f-150 (late 80's I think). Yes, the spring rate is higher than stock, but so is the front. You want a higher rate when you lift anyway. It matched my front Rusty's springs very well as far as spring rate goes, never felt unstable. Plus having the longer, flatter pack as well as a good shackle angle, helps a ton! I am saying this in past tense because it will probably all be coming out for a 4 link instead.

Just the relocation of the mount netted about 2", then I used the F-150 shackle, it gives about 3/4" over stock, and has a slight "boomerang". I wouldn't want a longer shackle than that with this setup, they hang down far enough already.

Awesome thanks alot that answeres all of my questions.

 

[BIGSLVRXJ]

Okay well let me give some background. The Jeep in question right now has a Superlift 2.5" leaf already installed in the packs with the original XJ leafs. I am wondering if between what's there already and either an S10 or MJ main leaf plus some Boomerangs would get me 6-6.5". I'm thinking by the sounds of it, it would. But even with the drop shackles, it sounds like the angle is still going to be pretty terrible eh?