I am sort of always tweaking my suspension to get what I want. Too cheap to just buy leaf springs I guess. I had a set of rear springs consisting of the main and a S10 heavy duty rear spring. If I used three leaves, it was good riding but not tall enough. If I used the whole thing, it had the right height but was too stiff. Our XJs are apparently quite a bit lighter than other comparable rigs which might explain why they do so well off road. So anyway, I have always wanted to experiment with some Isuzu Rodeo springs. They are slightly shorter than S10 springs, have about 2" more arch in them and have thinner leaves. The width is a metric size that is about 1/16" shy of the width of our springs, close enough. Here is the spring out of the vehicle.



As you can see, it has quite a bit of curve to the leaves. Here is an S10 leaf next to the Rodeo leaf

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It is a well set up spring, here it is disassembled. Notice the space between each leaf. This space is called "snap". Probably because the spring will snap apart when the center pin is cut.



To use this spring, it is necessary to cut off the eyes with a torch and use the main leaf as our #2 leaf. I tried using all three leaves with the bottom leaf upside down. This would be a good design for a two stage spring and not allow the leaves to over flex and loose their temper. I set it down and got an amazing 6" lift with it. However it was too stiff like that. I then removed the #2 Isuzu leaf, which would be our new #3 leaf and kept the bottom leaf upside down. It looked like this.



This gave a very soft spring with something like a stock spring rate with 3" of lift. But it seemed a little soft like that. So I took the leaf I removed and cut it to 10" from center on the short side and 12" on the long side and put it right side up in the bottom. This changed the spring from a two stage spring to a single stage four leaf spring, which is what was factory and a little stiffer, but still flexible. My estimate is that it is about 1/3 greater spring rate just like my front RE coils. This netted a 4" lift together with my 1" spacer blocks gives me 5" rear lift which gets me level, which is where I started only now I have softer springs.

I am going wheeling Sunday and try them out. But I can tell already that it will be more enjoyable without those stiff rear springs.

 

I was in a hurry to post on the bastard pack, so I didn't have time to give my evaluation. So here it is. If you like soft flexy springs, this is the ticket. But you need to run your bump stops down about 4 or 5" or you can over flex them and take the temper out of the leaves. To show you how flexy here are some pics.





These two pics were staged in a deep hole in the road.





These two were going up hill and I was stuck and had to stretch cable.

So between the S10 and Isuzu packs, which is better. Well, that depends on what you want. The Chevy spring would make a better hill climbing spring because it has a higher spring rate and is also a multistage spring with the flat leaf in the bottom. However, if you want a ride that is like a stock spring, the Isuzu is the better spring. Also, they are flexier than the Chevy spring due to being single stage (no flat leaf). Both sets of pics were taken with my front sway bar connected and with RE 210# front coils. Also, if you are into higher speed on the trail, or hit those rail road tracks at speed and love those big speed bumps, the Isuzu springs are much better. The back end stays down much better and is a more balanced suspension package with the RE springs.

 

your hood intrigues me....

 

think i might have to see what the local wrecking yard has in the way of isuzu's.... any specific years?

x2
i really want to see whats on the other side of your hood. are those electric fans? any pics?

 

wow.....

 

Any of them that don't have the coil rear springs.



Working on louvres. Haven't made any I'm happy with yet