ya theres alot of good points. im looking for someting i can beat the living hell out of in the mud. plan on dana 60s with 38 boggers thats why i mention leafs

 

its been done, the people who have done it seem to like it.


but, i would never do it to an XJ i own

 

Read his thread https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f33/pr...l-width-40201/

 

also a recent winner of COTM (the green one in the banner) has front leaves, seems to love them

 

Full leafs will ride like ***. Even most well done mud trucks I've seen or help build have coils and alot of times have replaced the leafs out back for coils. For exsample this is a good friend of mines mud truck next to my jeep. He's sitting on 44's and has coulda all the way around.



Brandon

 

Who cares how it rides, its gonna be a mud truck. Leafs are perfectly fine for mud and light trails. Now if you were crawling i'd say no leafs, but for the mud....Go for it.

 

My.02 cents is it is a lot of work for lil benefit. Rusty's makes 8.5 coils for 110 (only part I would recommend from there) SO that will give you the clearance you need to clear just about anything up to a 42 with proper cutting and trimming. Also if you have the skills to do a leaf spring swap you have the skills to build a decent 3 link/4link.


I say build it, and do a build thread with before and after flex pics and show us that leafs are better

 

I love how everyone says you can buy give coils so.cheap and.that's the obvious route.
What do you do with the.rest of the suspension at that much lift?
Go to pirate and check out some builds, tons of leafs conversions. Some that even crawl. They work very well nut will never flex like a properly set up coil rig. Although I've seen some some close. With a big axle like a 60, and properly set up mounts and shackles it should work great for what you want, and maybe even flex more rhan your 6.5 with short arms.

 

I posted what to do with the rest of the front end....

 

Leaf sprung front would be much easier to fab than a 3 or 4 link front.

 

Don't see how.
Link new cross member or frame mounts, arms, track bar and then springs of course.
Leaves plating frame (actually recommend this for both) fab mounts front and rear for springs and shocks and springs, this will be fun since you'll have to figure out what rate, length and amount of lift needed.
On a truck with a frame leaves are easier but with the unit body not so much. Lots of reinforcement needs to be done to do it right especially with an axle as heavy as a 60.

 

Well with 3/4 links you have to figure out the trigonometry of the long arms, make the arms, make the mounts which usually involves making a crossmember to beef up the chassis, plus making clearance for the arms to get the correct separation (not much room in a unibody) and then you have to fab up all the axle brackets.

With leafs, you just have to build a front and rear box to mount the springs as well as weld perches on the axle if they dont already have it. Plating the unibody is a given with both.

Theres pros and cons with both and different was to do both, but leaves are simpler. They weight of the axle doesnt matter much because its un-sprung weight.

 

Weight does matter when you start bouncing around in mud and ruts. The axle will pull you around and that extra weight will come into play.

 

Doing 3 link/4links is so common right now that most brackets can be purchased and at your door in 1-2 days. As for figuring out angles and seperation.. some searching and some work with a 4link calculator and you can get real close while you wait for parts to show up.


Its not like you will be the first person doing it

 

Both leaves and coils have their drawbacks, but either can be made to flex like crazy and leaves are easier to fab then coils, plane and simple. The parts to do it are in every junkyard on earth or can be bought, and theirs not allot of math involved, least not near as much as a 4 link. Tho I myself would go with coils based on the fact that their is more adjustment possibility, and more options than with leaves, tho leaves with a shackle at each end and 4 link arms is the best of both worlds from what iv read