My "Hero" Blog

[Mike1331]

Full widths say what? Last I checked he was on stock axles. What'd I miss?

 

[goodwilljeeper]

Full widths say what? Last I checked he was on stock axles. What'd I miss?

He has them in his garage

 

[goodwilljeeper]

waaiiiit he might have sold them. i don't remember

 

[Jeep450r]

Haha yeah I think it looks rad! He will sell the 37s to me cheap too. Tempting.

I did have some 8 lug full widths but sold them a few months ago because I told myself I didn't want to go bigger. :banghead:

 

[GordoSmasho]

You cant believe those lies kev. They have screwed me many times over.

"No i dont want this 92 2dr manual. Just strip out the suspension, sell the drive train and scrap it." Three years later im building that same rig.

 

[Jeep450r]

Lol the famous lies! I will figure out what I really want one day...

I installed the drivers side bumpstop and went to flex it out to see how much Fine tuning I need to do. Im trying to bump it so up travel stops just as the leaf spring goes flat. I do not want it going into negative arch at all.

The problem with this is seen in the following pictures. I need to add roughly 4" of "spacing" between the frame and the bumpstop to keep the spring from going negative - which is fine. I'll add a 2x2 box under the bumpstop itself, and one 2x2 piece on the bottom of the frame. No big deal. The bad part is I'll have barely any up travel. My springs are relatively flat at ride height, and if I bump at zero arch, I lose the majority of my up travel. See the below pictures.

But first, A sexy poser pic. Got the rear tire 33" off the ground before the front pulled off.




Now to the tech. Look at how much room is left in my wheel well for my tire to move up into.





Still have a solid few inches to go.

Now look at how far the front of the leaf spring is ALREADY inverted.



No Bueno

No wonder I keep breaking main leafs.

Now here you can see how much room there is between the bumpstop and the frame. Lots of room to fill.




How have other people done this? Does nobody else bump to the spring arch? Does everybody else only care about rubbing the fenders and not about inverting the spring? To bump my springs properly id have 4 or 5 inches of unused up travel in the fender. It just doesn't seem right. Thoughts?

 

[goodwilljeeper]

so this is my serious two cents. if you go 37's you won't have any more room in your fender to flex more so that could help u out. also have you thought of those sliding shackles? I've heard they slide farther back so that your spring only zeros out and not negative.

this makes me wonder what mine is doing...

 

[GordoSmasho]

So i am facing the same scenario minus the breaking of leafs. Almost all of your lift is coming from the shackle and relocators. As is mine. Im swapping to the nolift relocators and a 5" shackle(instead of the 9.5" shackle). Then some more arched leafs with a ladder bar. Later down the road shocks through the floor.

 

[blondejoncherokee]

Kevin you are not considering 37s on those axles ?

 

[Jeep450r]

so this is my serious two cents. if you go 37's you won't have any more room in your fender to flex more so that could help u out. also have you thought of those sliding shackles? I've heard they slide farther back so that your spring only zeros out and not negative.

this makes me wonder what mine is doing...

Good call on the shackle sliders. I'll have to do some research on this.

So i am facing the same scenario minus the breaking of leafs. Almost all of your lift is coming from the shackle and relocators. As is mine. Im swapping to the nolift relocators and a 5" shackle(instead of the 9.5" shackle). Then some more arched leafs with a ladder bar. Later down the road shocks through the floor.

Thats true - it does look like the majority of the lift is coming from my shackles and relocators. Which surprises me because these are RE 3.5" springs if I remember correctly. I still have my old rough country leafs so maybe I should swap a few of those in. For some extra stiffness. That probably won't do anything to help the arch of the pack though.

I have similar plans as far as a ladder bar and shocks through the floor. The amount of axle wrap I have on soup bowl is unreal.

Kevin you are not considering 37s on those axles ?

No sir I am not. Just rolled the tires up for that picture to motivate me to do something on the jeep lol. Though I am in the market for a 5 lug 44 though for a plethora of reasons - in which case my roommate has some wheels and tires for it for cheap.

 

[XJensen]

After 6 or so years of use my old re 3.5 leaves were pretty flat especially with camping gear loaded

 

[zachandandy]

I think axle wrap is costing you main leaves more so than negative arch. factory xj springs are flat at ride height. under the zero negative arch strategy, most people would have little to no uptravel. Or just 4 link it and give up on leaves all together?

 

[831_xj]

What about adding another leaf and raising the shackle hole up?

 

[blondejoncherokee]

What about adding another leaf and raising the shackle hole up?

and a traction bar.

 

[831_xj]

Yeah I need to add one as well.

 

[Mike1331]

Looks like you Could put a stock bump in the factory location and have bumps on bumps as a quick temp fix to get back to wheeling...?

 

[blondejoncherokee]

bolt some 2x2 or 2x4 to the frame

 

[Jeep450r]

I've got some ideas for an extended bump pad. Maybe I'll start on it tomorrow. Gotta get my measurements dialed tonight. I need to study for finals at some point though..

In different news, my rear frame is buckling at the front of the shackle boxes. Looks like I'll add rear frame plating to my list too.






Not sure what it's from but maybe i should stop backing up into rocks using my hitch as a ramming point... That might be a part of it lol

 

[831_xj]

Yeah man I noticed mine is too. Hasn't cracked yet noticed it before the con. I need to plate the frame and maybe tie in the relocators a bit.

The struggle

 

[twinhauler]

1st, stop backing into things. When I made my rear bumper setup, I made my internal
nut strip go into the frame almost 1FT to prevent a issue like that. I still would like to plate rear frame.