Rear End Too Heavy
 

So I installed a Smittybilt XRC over the weekend. Everthing went smoothly but now the back end weighs a lot more. That's ok, except the back sits uneven.

Stock height from center cap to bottom of fender is 17" on the rear, 17.5" on the front. My lift before the bumper was 20.75" on the front and the rear. meaning my front was lifted 3.25" and my rear was lifted 3.75"

I remeasured after I installed the rear bumper because I noticed it looked a little off.

My front sits the same, 3.25" of lift, but my rear has definitely changed. Passenger side now sits at 2.5" and driver sits at 3.5"

The 3.5" I can live with. The 2.5" I can't. My question is what do I do. Can I run a 1" rear shackle on only one side? Will that throw balance off? What are my options?

Pics...


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...49d4ac26b9.jpg




Passenger Side


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...9a1134574f.jpg


Driver Side

This may be a stupid question, but are you 100% sure your measurements are correct and were taken on level ground? Something seems off here. If the numbers you provided are right, it sounds like the weight of the tire carrier isn't distributed properly. This seems really odd to me. Based on your description, it almost sounds like more load is being placed on the driver side. That may sound backwards. but think of it this way:

Say you have two fence posts in the ground and a horizontal post connecting the two in the middle like an H. Now, add another horizontal post going across, but only attach it to the left post. If you put weight on the right end of the top horizontal post, it will start to pull the vertical post to the right and transfer that force across to the other vertical post. This causes the whole system to lean to the right. The end result in the case of your XJ would be a lower passenger side.

This is just a bit of a shot in the dark, and it seems odd that a tire and carrier would be able to affect the load distribution so much. Did you contact Smittybilt about this yet?

shackle it up buddy, or look for some new leafs or both.

I measured a couple of different places and all measurements were with a few fractions of an inch, and all showed the same droop of at least an inch, sometimes closer to 1.25".

The swing arm is on the passenger side, so I have to assume all of the weight is on that side. The weight of the carrier and the tire itself. I haven't contacted Smittybilt yet. I've been at work all day but I plan on calling them later, just wanted to see if you guys had seen anything like this before.

Rear leafs were a brand new pack and are only 2 years old. They've never had any kind of major weight on them before so I wouldn't think that would be the problem. But you think it's totally fine to put a shackle only on one side?

Rear End Too Heavy
 

Different length shackles is bad. After two years your passenger side leaf likely has torque fatigue. It takes most of your normal torque when driving. Sucks but I would look at new leafs. You could AAL the one side but this also wouldnt be recommended. I feel for you but new leafs is probably your best action. My passenger side is about 1/2" lower and definitely softer so Im due as well.

Maybe a trucker could answer this better, but I think my buddy could use a Truck Stop scale and it would be able to say how the weight was distributed in the trailer. So maybe you could do that and see how much more weight is on one side versus the other.

If the weight is that off centered to cause a 1" drop, I would be looking for a new bumper/tire carrier.

Or one of the leaf springs has a broke leaf in it or something.

I would not suggest using different shackles on each end or any thing like that.

Definitely talk to SmittyBilt and see what they say.

Rear End Too Heavy
 

That bumper is pretty balanced on every other jeep I've seen I would check your springs to make sure a leaf hasn't broken.

I drove around some, retorqued some bolts. Drove around some more and did a little adjusting. The difference is minimal now. Maybe a tenth of an inch.

I ordered some JKS boomerang shackles that should take me back to where I was pre-bumper. Thanks guys.

Rear End Too Heavy
 

Good deal. I was going to edit my post and suggest maybe doing that. Thought something might have been binding.

Honestly it was good to read that this was abnormal meaning something probably just wasn't sitting right. I was worried I was going to have to take the whole thing off and ship it back.

This is not all that uncommon on tire carrier bumpers that the tire isn't centered in the bumper, to much weight on one side. This gets much worse with larger/heavier tires/wheels.


Also affected somewhat by the quality of the leaf springs to how much sag you will get. I think your going to have to live with more sag on that side with the tire, but shackles will help increase the height overall. Boomerang's are the way to go but any must be installed in pairs, no singles.