leafs setup for speed

[88budget4X4]

i wanna set my B2 up for more high speed offroading... i have 3" blocks in the rear... those have to come out i know... but i also wanna make sure i have a smooth sturdy ride at high speed while taking on obstacles.. my plan was to pull the blocks and add-a-leaf and extend my current shackles to the desired length via welding to them. ive read people rather add to the frame mount then the actual shackle...

bassically im looking for the best leaf setup you guys can come up with other then "heres some nice brand new ones you can buy" 91-94 four door exploders sound like they ride too stiff...what other options do i have and do you reccomend i just add to the frame mount rather then my shackles to get my 3'' of lift back.

kenny

[TJDukit82]

Adding to the frame instead of the shackle would work I suppose but the main problem with that is to gain one inch of lift with shackles you have to extend the shackle two inches and thats alot of adding to the frame and your pinion angle is going to get messy unless you do both spring mounts which is still kind of shady to me. I know you don't want to hear this but most people's response is going to be "new springs". I know there are some good threads somewhere on making your own leaf packs and which leaf packs will work so I'd look into that. I know 2WD F-150 springs will fit not sure about how much lift. Another thing is you might want to add ladder bars to help with wheel hop and axle wrap if you are looking for "high speed" off road driving, which I have to say the B2 isn't the best candidate for with it's high center of gravity and all. This is just my opinion but your better off starting from scratch and just going coil overs with a four-link or even a three-link you can't beat the ride quality of a well designed system but thats alot of $$$ so just go with new leaf packs with ladder bars, oh and at least and 8.8 preferibly from an explorer, the ranger 8.8's bolt right in but the explorer axles come 31 spline as opposed to the 28 spline of the Ranger.

[88budget4X4]

ok so the lift ratio on the shackles is 2/1 thats good to know.. and why do you reccomend the new axle?

[87xjmike]

There’s no cheap junkyard way to create a safe high speed driven vehicle. Do not extend your stock shackles. Get some quality built ones that are as long as you need or build your own beefballs. I’d call deaver or national for a high speed leaf pack. That’ll run you around 650-700. Or you can find a used set on race-dezert.com and move you’re spring mounts accordingly.

I went with the 10 leaf pack from national for my Cherokee built for high speed and a very beefy custom built 3/8” thick boomerang shackle. Found this set up from a guy that races jeepspeed for $500


Shot with DSC-T1 at 2007-10-11


Shot with DSC-T1 at 2007-10-11

You’ll also want to get some nice shocks; you’ll achieve higher speeds if you go with a 2.5” and thicker body with reservoirs.

I went with the 18” travel 2.5” body shocks from FOA that went for around $180 each to give you an idea of what they cost. That’s dirt cheap compared to a king or fox of the same size.


Shot at 2007-12-18

Sorry to bust your bubble but there’s just no way your going to fly through the dirt at high speeds safely with a junkyard pack and shitty shocks, you need military wrap springs with several thin leafs in your pack to get proper compression companied by a well built shock set up.
And don’t forget about bump stops
Here’s my poor mans rubber bump, I can’t afford the air bumps at the moment. This works quite well though and the rubber feels quite a bit better than poly


Shot with DSC-T1 at 2007-11-28


And for the 8.8, it’s noticeably stronger by just looking at the housing and size of the ring gear and comparing it to the 7.5. Although, I’ve always wondered if you could put exploder 31 spline axles into an 8.8 from a ranger with 27’s.
In all retrospect the only experience I have with the 7.5 is on the rocks and I’ve beat the hell out of it with no breakages.

[88budget4X4]

ok thanks for the info. this is very helpful.. now is your Bii 2wd or 4wd?

[87xjmike]

everything above is installed in my cherokee 4x4. But the same rules apply to any application. If you decide to build a shock hoop i'd attach your hoop and any supports to the frame. cherokees are unibody so i was able to get away with what you see above, it has taken lots of abuse and nothing has tweaked or cracked. I plan to tie it into a cage soon. I should have built a cage first and designed my suspension around it. Which is what i sugest for you as well if you wish to haul ass in the dirt.
But i have a 4x4 bii that is strickly for the rocks and mountains it will never see any speeds above 40 or so.
If you decide to swap in explorer axles up front, be weary of the drop down suspension systems that soo many have. If you bottom out a d35 hard enough all your SOL unless you get creative. I wached a friend puncture a hole in his d35 diff housing out at pismo beach after he bottomed out. Some duck tape and the bottom of a beer can and we were good to go.

[88budget4X4]

well i unfourtunatly am not willing to pay 500 bucks for leafs.. what about those leafs differ from stockers on other vehicles other then the obvious leaf count... i pride myself on making it myself for way less when ever i can... so what do u say to me goin and buying a couple select sets and combining them to make one beefy set? and i found a decent set of shackles at pepboys for 40 bucks.. they are beefier then stock but im still going to beef them up some more myself by boxing in the open side on them.

[87xjmike]

The main difference between deavers/nationals and some stockers is that they can handle extreme travel without breaking while still being soft. I would not ever want to put a stock spring into negative arch as I have seen 3 break on 3 different occasions, one of which included a set of bronco 2 springs. While my springs go into 1.5"-2" of negative arch each time I take it out and national said this will be fine. No problems yet. If you absolutely insist on using some stock springs from the yards then find several thin ones, I’d probably start with a Chevy 63" spring for my main, and go from there. The longer you make your pack the more travel you’ll achieve, more travel means higher speeds. Make yourself some solid spring clamps, bump stop your springs so they never go into negative arch and always carry spare leafs.

[88budget4X4]

so when u say start with 63'' leaf u mean im gunna have to change my mounting point? cus i think stock length is like 58'' right?

[87xjmike]

correct, change the mounting point. Fairly straight foward, look in the tech section at the ranger station of you get confused. Theres a wright up there.