strange bump stop question

[Demonoid369]

i have a 97 cherokee that came with the up country lift, hadn't know this till i pried it from one of the people at the jeep dealership lol but kinda figured since it sat at 18" front and 18.5" rear but the question is, ive added gc v8 coils and 1.75 spacer upfront and 2" shackle in the rear bringing it to 3" front and rear.
ive flexed it and the rear goes in to negative arch and that is a no no lol the issue im having is that the leafs are flat..... how does one go about adding longer bumpstops when the leafs are already sitting flat? do i get longer stops and just get longer travel shocks allowing for droop? kinda lost on this since from what im seeing, everyone else has some arch on their leafs

 

[bluejeepkid]

I thought negative arch was fine, as long as it isn't shaped like an S?

 

[Demonoid369]

ive heard good and bad but mostly bad that negative arch isnt good for life of the spring

 

[Tim_MN]

Extended shackles will cause leaf springs sag with stock XJ leaf springs.

Get some square or rectangular steel tube, and make a spacer for the rear bump stops. Use some hockey pucks on the front axle.

Negative arch is not good for leaf springs.

 

[Demonoid369]

Funny thing, they were already flat with the stock shackles lol amazingly still has a 1" factory lift though lol
So is my only option is to ride on bumpstops and get longer travel shocks? Still confused because if I lengthen the bumpstops to stop negative arching, ill only have at the most 1" of up travel.

 

[jeeperjohn]

I suggest looking at doing some bastard packs to replace the worn out leafs.

 

[Demonoid369]

Well could some one explain to me why everyone thinks they are worn out? Like I said earlier, with stock shackles and the leafs fairly flat, I still had and still have the factory 1" lift. I would think if the leaves were worn out, they wouldn't be having that 1" of lift but go to the same height as the stock leafs.
Stock height-18.25" rear
2" shackles brought me to 3" in the rear

 

[zachandandy]

Stock leafs go into negative arch if you wheel a stock xj. Regardless of weather its bad for the spring life. It doesn't mean they are worn out, they are nearly flat to start, so they are designed to go negative. Wheel it as is.

 

[chedisme]

Extended shackles will cause leaf springs sag with stock XJ leaf springs.

Get some square or rectangular steel tube, and make a spacer for the rear bump stops. Use some hockey pucks on the front axle.

Negative arch is not good for leaf springs.

what I was going to say

 

[Tim_MN]

Stock XJ leaf springs have positive arch. Worn XJ leaf springs are flat, or inverted. Extended shackles will accelerate stock XJ leaf spring sagging.

An Add A Leaf or a bastard pack would be a better solution than extended shackles.