progress pictures of my jeep.

[BrettM]

Look here.....Your rite about this kid Kyle who bought my 92. And it was black with 35s. Chopped fenders and all...... But that rear bumper I made a year ago. Wheather you bougt, traded, or stole I don't know? And don't care. But the fact remains that the bumper thats on the back of that XJ was built by ME. Just like a painter paints a portrait...They know there work and I know mine. It's still got the grayish black hammeredrite paint I shot on it. I don't mind people taken pride in showing there work off or if someone done it for them if they couldn't....But call it like it is.

dude, he said he copied the one you made.

would a painter recognize a portrait he supposedly did if he was looking at it from 30 feet away and it was copied by another skilled painter?

regardless, I don't know or care who made the bumper, but it's possible he's telling the truth so just chill and let it go.

 

[xj_punk]

huh? okay

shackle reverse is better just by design imo. who cares about cjs and yjs, it is just plain a better design. i did my shackles forward like you when i first built my xj but was unhappy with it and went to srs and it was a HUGE improvement!!!!!

man this place turned into pbb real fast with this stupid fighting and cussing :scottm:

 

[BrettM]

huh? okay

shackle reverse is better just by design imo. who cares about cjs and yjs, it is just plain a better design. i did my shackles forward like you when i first built my xj but was unhappy with it and went to srs and it was a HUGE improvement!!!!!

man this place turned into pbb real fast with this stupid fighting and cussing :scottm:

okay, but WHY?

i originally had mine at the back, and felt it was worth a nearly complete redesign to put them to the front.

 

[xj_punk]

okay, but WHY?

i originally had mine at the back, and felt it was worth a nearly complete redesign to put them to the front.

clearance for one. two, if you approach a steep climb with too much force and hit your shackle you will bend your spring pack eventually. as for three, let me try to put this simply... when you come up to a steep wall do you want to have your axle droop down as you try to climb up because the shackles are at the front, or do you want your axle to continue moving into it having no choice but to continue up it?
its just like coils up front, it seems like they need something to limit travel or else your frontend will never go up anything, you can use a limiting strap.
but, with the fixed end of your leaf spring to the front it must go up what you point it at, there is no doubt about it.

and it is like leafs in the rear they are designed the same way, the fixed mount is towards the front and holds it in place as you go over something.

this is difficult to explain and i will try to find some more examples but just try to picture it in your head. think about links in the rear they follow the same concept and "just make sense"

this does not mean your suspension design sucks by any means, it is still a matter of opinion, but if you truly recognize the difference a shackle reversal makes, you will feel the same way i do and tell people about it :idea:

but all that matters is that you keep wheeling. end of story

 

[BrettM]

clearance for one. two, if you approach a steep climb with too much force and hit your shackle you will bend your spring pack eventually. as for three, let me try to put this simply... when you come up to a steep wall do you want to have your axle droop down as you try to climb up because the shackles are at the front, or do you want your axle to continue moving into it having no choice but to continue up it?
its just like coils up front, it seems like they need something to limit travel or else your frontend will never go up anything, you can use a limiting strap.
but, with the fixed end of your leaf spring to the front it must go up what you point it at, there is no doubt about it.

and it is like leafs in the rear they are designed the same way, the fixed mount is towards the front and holds it in place as you go over something.

this is difficult to explain and i will try to find some more examples but just try to picture it in your head. think about links in the rear they follow the same concept and "just make sense"

this does not mean your suspension design sucks by any means, it is still a matter of opinion, but if you truly recognize the difference a shackle reversal makes, you will feel the same way i do and tell people about it :idea:

but all that matters is that you keep wheeling. end of story

I switched mine to shackle forward for a few reasons:

-clearance- this is something you mentioned as well, but I don't see it the same way. a shackle hanging down from the frame rail would get hit alot, and possibly backed up into for the rock trails here in NorCal. If you managed to get the upper bushing sleeved through the frame like Chevys and Toyotas, that would be a good start at helping that. my shackle falls inside the invisible line from front of the tire to bottom of the bumper, so 99% of the time if the bumper doesn't hit, neither will the shackle or leaf

-brake dive- I had TONS of brake dive with the shackle at the back, this is due to the angle it puts the leaf spring on

-climbing- I have actually found it to climb better with the shackle up front because having the rear half fixed keeps the tire planted firmly against a rock. having the shackle at the rear makes the tire push back, which does weird things when you're giving a ledge a quick "bump"

-long travel driveshaft- with the shackle at the rear the axle swings more front to rear and almost always requires a long travel driveshaft


do you have any pics of your setup?

 

[Phil]

Oh I do feel like a man! :yelclap: And a lemming to boot!



But at least I stand by what I say enough to put my name on everything I type.

 

[Phil]

Hey Zebra, you know that all of the members can still see you when you're using "Invisible" mode, right? :nono:

 

[Blatant]

HPI: Nice-looking rig. What wheel size are you running and what's your overall width, outside tire to outside tire?

I'm swapping to leaf, too, and will also run shackles in the front. For our style of rockcrawling out here, shackle reversal's do NOT work as well. Can't comment on other types of wheeling.
dion