I believe proliator was the first to do this, and then ivanribic followed his footsteps.....later fishman did as well. I belive all three of these guys have pictures of there designs in their galleries.
Shackles or hangers?
The rear tension shackle will lower the truck if you lengthen the shackle, and just lengthening front shackle will only net 1/2 of the amount of lift based upon the length of the shackle since you will only be raising =one end of the spring.
Caster and pinion angle will be affected by any shackle change.
for shackles, i definitely recommend bushings.
when i flex my truck out, the shackles aren't anywhere near perpendicular to the upper bolts' axis.
Edit: no pics of flexing where you can see the shackles at an angle... all my flex pics were where I still had the leaf pack retainer pins removed, so the top leaves just twisted instead. w/ rockwells, heavy ass 46's, and no ladder bar, you can't take those off. amaaaaazing amounts of axle wrap haha
Edit 2: see here, if you look reaaaally closely. you can see the bottom of the rear differential, figure out its axis from the diff pan. over 20 deg of wrap-rotation http://www.flickr.com/photos/nallabo...91002/sizes/l/
Edit 2: see here, if you look reaaaally closely. you can see the bottom of the rear differential, figure out its axis from the diff pan. over 20 deg of wrap-rotation Flickr Photo Download: IMG_8036
Reminds me of my pickup. lol i was thinkin about getting a set of rocks the other day.... Might be my next upgrade, but who knows.
Whats the wheelbase on that thing? mine is set at about 145 inches.
I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to see in that picture. Pretty cool looking truck though. Haha.
If you look really close, you can see how much axle wrap there is w/ rockwells and 46" tires. Point being, don't remove the leaf pack retainers. Instead, you should use a bushing on your shackles to allow them to angle laterally as the axle articulates
Quote:
Originally Posted by hav24wheel
Reminds me of my pickup. lol i was thinkin about getting a set of rocks the other day.... Might be my next upgrade, but who knows.
Whats the wheelbase on that thing? mine is set at about 145 inches.
Rocks are the way to go. Mine's roughly 145" as well
sorry for the hijack, i wasn't trying to whoor my truck
Not nit picking any one in particular, but there are a LOT of poeple out there that should take a little better look at the fabrication desert guys typically do. It's a higher quality level than seen in most other fields.
Now that I'm down off the soap box...
Both pics above are shackles for the rear of toyotas and both a for use with a 62" rear leaf spring kit. For longer shackles and more droop most guys keep the shackle pivot above the frame - some go through the frame though.
I've seen guys run delrin sliders on either side of the boxed frame so the LONG shackles (about 12" eye to eye typically) can't twist.
The top pic is a very strong design, yet is still lightweight. Although they are a bit more labor intensice they are a good way to do it.
I talked Ed (75F350) into doing the front shackles on his red truck this way a year ago or more. He seems to be happy with them
As for the second one - flimsy???? it's a .120 wall tube structure. It seems people always tend to just go to a thicker "plate" steel when they want to strengthen their shackles. This is silly. Try bending that skinny little strip of plate and then go back and try bending a 1.5" tube. 3 dimension design gain rigidity. While I think the 2nd pic above could use a cross piece typing the 2 together I wouldn't be afraid to run some of a similar design.
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As for the second one - flimsy???? it's a .120 wall tube structure. It seems people always tend to just go to a thicker "plate" steel when they want to strengthen their shackles. This is silly. Try bending that skinny little strip of plate and then go back and try bending a 1.5" tube. 3 dimension design gain rigidity. While I think the 2nd pic above could use a cross piece typing the 2 together I wouldn't be afraid to run some of a similar design.
It's not about the tube, its about the bolts. Sure, the tube isn't going to bend, I agree 100% with that. Apply lateral force, and you're more likely to shear your bolt(s) though.
I'll bet $100 my shackle is stronger
Although it weighs at least 5 times as much as it needs too
If I were remaking them, I'd definitely go the tube route w/ an H brace & speedholes. I like the delrin idea too.
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