Long Travel BS Thread

I have 57” as a measurement right now. I had intended on bringing my front hanger back to compensate which would have also helped with shackle angle and centering the tire.

 

57" is way off, that shackle is too vertical at ride height

moving the front hanger back 3-ish + inches is too far to get to a 53" ish spread

can you get to your bolts/nuts for the shackle pivot boxes through the dimples on the frame boxing ?

If you can drill new holes and mess with your shackle pivot box position, I'd move it forward at least 3 inches if not more

Or once you get the pivot boxes off, strip the paint, tack the pivot boxes for cycling, and when you find the right spot just weld them on

if you have room to move the front hangers back 1" or whatever you need for wheel base do that 1st then mess wit the shackle but i think you will still need to move the shackle on top of moving the front hangers if that's what you want to do

AGAIN 53" is a ball park for a 9" shackle on the bottom of the frame going basically flat at full bump so use it as a starting point

Go work on it now !

 

Thought was moving the hanger back about 1.25” that would center my wheel and help with shackle angle, then yes the shackle pivot would be moved forward.

Definitely H70 springs as well. Those dimensions have been checked numerous times now.

I would need to make new shackle hangers as well as they will not allow the shackle to travel back much further.

 

Looks like the shackle could pivot pretty far back if its in the bottom hole , maybe trim that angled cut of the back of the pivot box that goes to the side frame plate if it hits there ?

I'll have to take your word for it if you say it won't clear because I'm just looking at pics online

That's all your gonna get out of me, hope you get it sorted out, they are just leafs , good luck !

 

I do appreciate your insight immensely. Confirmed a few things and learned a few things! Thank you!

 

I'll just add if you didn't have to mod / shorten your driveshaft , your wheel base shouldn't be off that much

 

The first picture looks like there is enough room to drill holes back or towards the rear shackle at least an inch.

 

maybe its just the angle but yours looks like it is forward of mine.

 

Unfortunately my shaft had to be shortened about an inch. It would cycle but the slip was basically bottomed

 

Shortening shafts is never bueno.... that extra inch goes a long way so they say.

 

It looks that way to me too but I cant compare because the frame brace changes that mount substantially. Which might explain why folks with newer revisions and/or the frame brace don't have this issue.

 

That setup is so clean

 

Looking on JD's site looks like it is setup the way theirs is in the pics for the leaf kit
You have the shackle pivot boxes all the way forward for the 3 holes and your front hanger looks like it's in the correct-ish area

I have my way of setting up leaf springs inline with the way most people did on older Toyota pickups and 1st gen Tacomas using 12" shackles above the frame or 9" shackle either through the frame or on the bottom.
Handles great but doesn't love bigger bed weight / payload changes

I'm sure they designed their kit the way they did for a reason, they've been in the game for a long time.

There is enough free travel in the shackle for the cycling of the spring so there is room for different ways to set things up
If I had their kit I would move stuff around closer to the dimensions I listed earlier because that's just how I personally like to setup leafs

The older I get the more I realize there is rarely a single "right" way to build things

 

DMZ setup is 59 3/8 from the center of the hole on the front hanger to the center of the hole on the rear hanger.

 

Front hangar is 11 1/8 measured from a rectangular hole in the frame to the front of his hanger. Pic is horrible. Sorry.

 

Welp. I can’t pull my OEM brake booster out because of the JD fab inner fenders. Time to cut out a chunk to get this out.

 

I had to massage my fenders a lot to clear the booster.

 

It’s gonna take a lot more than massaging, it’s interfering by like over an inch

 

Yeah. 4lb hammer massage

 

I’m thinking angle grinder massage