Rockhead

A couple of months ago I installed the Rough Country shackle relocation brackets. When off-roading the leaf spring end of my shackles would rotate up and make contact with the bracket. This post is to show the modification to the bracket that I did to fix the issue. I took the brackets off my Cherokee and made the cuts using a heavy duty jigsaw with a metal blade. The first picture was taken soon after installation, the second and third were taken soon after the modification was made. You can see in the second pic where the shackle was making contact with the bracket. Can't make the third pic post. Hmmm.

DieselD

What shackles are those?

SteveMongr

Looks like Rough Country. They add a lot of leverage to the stock shackle box due to the drop (added lift).

DieselD

Yea I actually have that relocation kit sitting around to go on my 99 its a DD that probably wont ever see the trails. I was kind of glad the kit didn't fit on my 91 (not to mention I destroyed its stock shackle box) so I went with the HD off road ones on my 91, the weekend wheeler. Lol

I'm worried about how much height those brackets will add, I only want to be at about 2.5" on my DD, I have stock HD leafs, those brackets and RC shackles to use. We'll see soon enough.

SteveMongr

Looks like it moves the shackle bolt almost 4" down.?

DieselD

In that picture it does. Most of what I've googled says most people only gain an inch. But what I'm wondering is, if they're at 4+ inches, with a crappy shackle angle, are they losing height by getting the shackle angle right then gaining it back from the brackets, netting 1" lift.

SteveMongr

That is the idea, yes. I plan on using HDoffroad 'no-lift' brackets. According to my measurements, this will drop the lift by 1" by changing the shackle angle from vertical to 45-50 degrees.

DieselD

Yea you need em. Lol. The no lift ones are great, a bit of a pita to get the stock box out unless you have a plasma cutter (or o/a torch would work too I guess) I used an angle grinder.

I may end up not using the RC relocation kit if it adds too much height. I just don't want a ****ty shackle angle on my DD.

Rockhead

I was a little worried about how much lift I'd gain and surprised that the gain was only about half an inch. This link shows both products used; http://www.roughcountry.com/suspensi...ehicle_year=75
The shackles were already installed and I was using the lowest mounting hole. The stance that I like for my Cherokee is six inches of lift for the front and five inches of lift for the rear; that was the starting point. After installing the kit and moving the leaf spring to the upper hole in the shackle (and cutting off the lower hole) the lift gain was about half an inch.