XJ Shackle and Leaf Spring Options

[rtd16]

Hello
I am putting back together a 1993 XJ Sport. I picked it up with what looks like a cobbled together 4.5" lift, appears to be most likely Rough Country, which I want to remove and step down to 3". I sourced the front coils I want, but now I am trying to figure out the correct combination for rear leaf springs and shackles to ensure good ride quality. The rig does have a Smittybilt rear bumper/tire carrier setup I would guess is around 200 lbs with the spare. I'm looking for the following:
-Maintaining about 3" of lift
-Leaf springs which will provide good ride quality with the rear bumper/carrier weight
-Establishing the proper shackle angle
Any help you could provide in getting the right combination here would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Ryan

 

[Tim_MN]

Cheap lift parts and lift kits are cheap for a reason.

I would buy top quality leaf springs, and fine tune the lift with shackles after they are broken in. I have an older 3.5" Rubicon Express lift and the ride quality is excellent. I ran it on the stock shackles for many years. The load carrying capacity is good, and fully loaded it doesn't squat much. I have added coil spacers and longer boomerang shackles to for an extra 2.5" of lift.

Iron Rock Off Road has good quality stuff. Old Man Emu products always get good reviews. Top quality shocks are a must for a good ride quality and good control on the trails.

 

[RCP Phx]

Also consider removing a leaf or two and adding a boomerang shackle from SFR!

 

[rtd16]

Cheap lift parts and lift kits are cheap for a reason.

I would buy top quality leaf springs, and fine tune the lift with shackles after they are broken in. I have an older 3.5" Rubicon Express lift and the ride quality is excellent. I ran it on the stock shackles for many years. The load carrying capacity is good, and fully loaded it doesn't squat much. I have added coil spacers and longer shackles to for an extra 2.5" of lift.

Iron Rock Off Road has good quality stuff. Old Man Emu products always get good reviews. Top quality shocks are a must for a good ride quality and good control on the trails.

Thanks, those RE leaf springs were one of the options I was considering. Did you have any issues with ride height or shackle angle running the stock shackles? I’ve heard the RE springs can ride up to an inch higher than the 3.5” spec, but I would imagine with the heavy bumper it would help settle out

 

[JonnyCat63]

I've run both the RE leafs and the IRO leafs. All 3 of my XJ's now run on the IRO ones. I didn't care for the RE ones at all. Mainly because I felt they are just not long enough and you get a shitty shackle angle. It seems that most aftermarket leafs are are the same length as stock, just arched more to be higher. It always seem to result in bad shackle angles. There's a reason why so many people install shackle relocation brackets.

The IRO leafs are purposely made longer, and with their boomerang shackle, it gives you a higher lift, with better shackle angles. These are the ones I like and currently have been using for a few years now.

XJ 3.5" Leaf Springs

Check out the deal on XJ 3.5" Leaf Springs at Iron Rock Off Road

www.ironrockoffroad.com

Deaver makes great springs, too, but they are pricey. And I've found Deaver's customer service to be a little less than satisfactory.

Anyway, that's my experience. YMMV.

 

[RCP Phx]

The SFR shackles have the best clearances for the shackle box bolts!

 

[Bent]

The SFR shackles have the best clearances for the shackle box bolts!

Quality is top notch as well. I run several of their products.

 

[phydeaux33]

I run Ironman 4x4 Fab relo brackets, they were quality and function great.

 

[Tim_MN]

IMO shackle angle less of an issue than people portray it to be. A really bad shackle angle is really bad, but a less than perfect shackle angle is not the end of the world. On the stock shackles the RE 3.5 leaf springs had an acceptable shackle angle, good pavement ride characteristics, good off-road performance, so I ran them for about 10 years. This included numerous of Midwest 4x4 events, and two or three trips to Moab for the Fall Fling.

All of this was long before any of the shackle relocation brackets were created. At that time, your choices were longer straight shackles, or dog leg shackles. I eventually added longer dog leg shackles and coils spacers to bring the lift up to 5.5". The good ride quality was unchanged and it still performs well off-road.