Hi XJ Gurus,
I would very much appreciate your advice on an unusual rear leaf spring question:
I don't go off-road, and use my 1995 4.0 Limited SE (UK variant) to pull the trailer for my Folkboat (nice little wooden yacht vintage 1945), which weighs in at 2.5 tons on the road. The Jeep is great, but the rear springs were worn out when I bought it and are already flat when the unloaded car is parked. I just found this ad on eBay (400025713218) where they sell extra heavy duty 5 leaf springs that "might give up to 3" of lift".
Can I use them in my XJ if I have no front lift and actually don't want lift? I will often use use the car close to the load limit, so maybe it is not a totally stupid idea. The load on the rear by the trailer alone will be ~80-100 kg. Or should I stick to the normal heavy duty no lift springs. My Jeep has the tow package and was manufactured with 'heavy duty everything'.
Thanks
Andreas

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=400025713218

PS: Before you say that I should not do this towing because the XJ is not heavy enough: The XJ is one of the few affordable cars in the UK that are legal for that towing capacity, and I have towed the boat from Sweden to Oxford with no problem in rather bad November weather (first snow in Sweden already back then). I have an excellent trailer with superb brakes. But the springs made me a bit nervous, I have to admit....

 

If you dont want lift then dont use them.

 

I say go with air bags
then you can adjust your ride when not towing

 

You could try putting in a big helper leaf out of an Dakota.
i just happen to have one, you can have it for shipping cost.
heres a pic:

 

If you're not looking for lift... Just buy yourself a set of hd leaf packs off quadratec.. Yea at first you will have almost 2" of lift in the rear. But after towing with them for a bit, they will prob settle to you alittle over an inch more than stock. As they continue to settle you will see that you will have a level ride height when towing.

 

Thanks a lot for your rapid replies, and special thanks to Mark for offering the helper leaf. I've never considered air bags, and after a first look this seems to be the best option for load leveling and not even very complicated. I've got to research if this is legal in the UK.
Thanks again
Andreas

 

i dont kno if you have autozone in the uk but they sell air shocks too that go in place of you stock shocks and allow you to air up and down as you like

 

I don't think you're a fool at all for towing with your Jeep. I do it almost every week (look at my pic) I haul a pretty heavy trailer myself, and the straight 6 will pull it 75 mph down the hwy no problem at all. L6= torque monster!

I am suffering the same problem as yours- my rear springs were squatting pretty bad. Just a couple of hours ago, I installed a set of Pro-Comp helper springs, part number EXP13120, that I got from a place called 4 wheel parts. I paid 35 bucks for them, which is much cheaper than air bags. There's two kind of helper springs. Ones that are long and thin, designed for lift, then there's the short thick ones that are more of an overload spring. The EXP13120 is short and thick like an overload, but unfortunatly, I just installed them this morning, and it has given me about 2" of lift (not sure how many CM that is) Maybe you're old enough to remember the Imperial system.

I'm hoping that pulling the trailer loaded down will settle them a bit, and I've been told over time that it WILL begin to level out- but as of right now, without the trailer hooked up, it's looking a little silly. Hope this helps; I'll report back as soon as it starts to look level.

P.S- have you ever driven the XJ Cherokee with the diesel in it? I think it's a Renault..like a 2.1 maybe? is it a dog? Just curious...

 

I`ll also second (Or third) the "helper" springs..JC Whitney has a nice inexpensive selection of them on their website.

 

You could consider Old Man Emu springs. They have different spring rates, Light, Medium, and Heavy Duty with overload spring. The HD springs would fit your needs better and only lift it about 1.5-2 inches.

http://jeepinoutfitters.com/scripts/...idproduct=1186


Or you can get OEM HD springs. Both would work well with your application.