Jd fab or dirt king rear spring under question

Wish I saw this thread earlier.

I Made a thread a few weeks back comparing exactly this. I had Dirt King hanger and shackle for SUA using Deaver H70HDs but eventually ended up fabricating my own shackle flip similar to what JD offers.

Build thread here if interested:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/shackle-flip-design-for-sua-lt.781431/#post-28127183

Pictures below are comparing the inverted DK hanger and shackle vs my shackle flip design with a 9" flip shackle. I just used bushings on my design but I hear JD fabs uniball within the shackle offers some good articulation.

Shackle flip is better in my opinion, it follows the natural arch path of the leaf spring compression, higher ground clearance, and offers some adjustability with ride height and spring rates.

JD all the way. They are the only company I know that makes a shackle flip style for LT.
Highly considering their LT kit for the front with the pivot skid that moves your LCAs an 1" forward.

 

If I went with a 16” shock, would I still be able to use it if I ever went with your SUA kit with the shackle flip?

This is excellent—would this in anyway compromise the strength and durability of the shock towers?

 

No you will need the shorter shock if you want all the uptravel

 

Stop the consideration for anything JDFab- JUST DO IT. Once I found JDFab and talked with Harry I don't even look elsewhere. I still plan to do more as they are always working on developing new stuff.

 

The 14” it is, then! Thank you and Merry Christmas!

 

What shocks did you end up going with? My plan for the rear of my truck is their shock towers with the 14” 3.0 free bleed, but I was going to stay spring over. I have to yet to find a video or anything of someone running jdfab shock towers and their custom king bypasses.

 

Anyone know if you can run JDs shackles and shock mounts and stay SOA?

I just read about their shackle design and like that much more than anyone else’s hangers. I was just about to pull the trigger on the Deaver U402 pack (with Archive hangers in the future) but not if you can’t run those with the JD shackles.

I know you might be wondering why not just go SUA but I daily my truck and don’t drive it as hard as I think I do so I’d still like to use it as a truck and have the ability to tow light loads/load the bed without having to worry too much.

 

You’ll likely run into bump issues with that setup. Shackle flips are known to ruin up travel on a SOA setup but work well for crawling/droop. All depends on what your goal is.

 

I can see that. Goal is to have a solid all around daily, capable of trail riding and higher speed stuff, without suffering too much on the load capacity (I realize that’s sort of too much to ask for lol) I’ve never towed anything and if I did it would be rare, but in the event of buying a toy or hauling stuff, I’d like to be able to do that without worrying. Is there a SUA capable of lighter loads? Or would I be better off staying SOA with a shackle hanger.

 

You won’t have bump issues because the shackle is moved up to the side of the frame, not below like other shackle flips. The issue you will have is the kit is designed to move the springs outboard of the frame so you will need to move the spring perch’s. Also the kit only comes complete so purchasing the rear only isn’t an option

 

I see. Well thanks for the quick reply! I’ll have to look into other set ups

 

I installed the JD 62” kit last month.
The rear shackle design obviously isn’t like the “boat anchor” design dirt king and camburg or giant utilizes. Also the rear shackle allows for 6 levels of adjustment for ride height and spring rate tuning.
For the shocks I am running a 14 fox triple bypass. I was able to pull 16” total wheel travel, so a 14” shock cycles perfectly with the shock towers . Also their shock towers are very clean / low profile with almost zero bed space lost and the shocks are not visible in the bed. Very clean look.
If you are trying to pull 18-19” travel with a frame notch then maybe get a 16” shock . But more work and things to consider.


Side note about spring over axle . If you are into high speed off roading , you will de arch your aftermarket springs in one trip. I have seen this happen to j66 deaver , 402 deavers , icon and stocks springs. Something about the high speed cycling and bottoming out over and over that will dearch a pack in one trip. I think it’s how short the springs are , the geometry of Tacoma leaf mounts , and how much they go into negative arch due to stock design. I’ve never heard anyone mention this fact about spring over Tacoma setups. If you are not bottoming out fast and hard you will probably never notice this happening. But for me and others who drive faster on trails all it took was one trip to notice sag in our springs. Tacomas short spring over axle design is bad. Either lower your bump stops so you don’t de arch springs or go SUA.

 

I would love to go SUA but due to me being real with myself about how I use my truck, it wouldn’t make sense lol maybe one day. Mine is my daily and although I really want to build a go fast truck, I don’t bomb trails/dunes as much as I’d like to so I feel like I’m limiting myself with load capacity/hauling if I went SUA.

 

Definitely go JD, they did it right.

Similar to old school Yoda setups, very nice.

 

Even for the street SUA is still a better option than SOA/stock set up. Unless you want a significant amount of lift. But that does not help on the street.

 

hey man, do you rock crawl your truck with the spring under setup?
If so how does it do?

 

I do but not to the extent of @snowsk8air2 . I've had no issues. Plenty of articulation and no issue with being hung up on the shackle. I have hit it a few times though.

 

Yeah no issues since inverting the shackle to the more traditional style. Before with my DMZ shackle hangar I would drag that quite a bit when crawling.

 

I’m looking at the giant motorsports 64” kit.
I’m running a shackle flip now that does okay but i really want a truck that handles the desert well as well as the rocks. But didn’t know with the height I’d lose if it would snag or hang up a lot or how it would do in the rocks in general

 

I've had a couple buddies in the past wheel with sua in the rear, and their springs would snag every boulder out there. On my tacoma I got small dents and dings in my axle tube and rear truss, so I definitely wouldnt want a whole leaf peak underneath. But it is a tradeoff for all the uptravel for the desert stuff