Hey everyone, I use my XJ for long car camping trips off-road, and we are usually sitting at exactly GVWR. I was rocking 3.5 inch rear OME dual rate leafs that I got from DPG off-road, but I flattened them pretty badly over the course of a winter so now I’m trying to decide what to do next. Right now I’m looking at the same spring pack, but with an extra leaf added. OR I can get the OME 4.5 inch, and just let it squish down to my desired ride height. I honestly have no idea which direction I should be going with this? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!!

 

I've heard that a lot of the aftermarket leaf springs flatten shortly. I'd try searching for a local shop that might make leaf spring packs to fit your needs.

 

I have their spring packs on two 4x4's (199xj, 2019 Nissan Frontier)- the standard pack for my truck (550#) raises the back 1 inch higher.then the front. Pulling a trailer with a 300lb tongue weight- the truck sets level. According to ARB's web-site the OEM lief pack for an XJ is rated at 256#/in. How much weight do you carry?

XJ fully loaded with Otter cooler, food, tent etc.. for 5 days

 

I highly recommend Alcan Spring, they are very helpful and guided me in a very quality product. I carry a lot of weight all the time, and only more when I go on a camping run. They had me scale whole vehicle weight as it would normally be loaded, and then just the rear axle load, from there they gave their recommendation on known factory numbers. I was very surprised that they recommended 700lbs over load, the leaves were purchased with 4.5 lift and the overload. In 2 years, 12 camping trips, and carrying all my normal weight I have not yet to receive any sag. With the rig normally loaded rides great like there is nothing even in it, empty you know it (rides like an empty one ton truck), fully loaded you can do fairly aggressive trails with little body roll.

 

If I were in your shoes I would be looking into adding some air bags to assist your leafs when loaded. iMO it is the proper way to accommodate extra load. If you go for just springs it is going to drastically affect your unloaded ride. I did a quick look and see some listed for the XJ but definitely do some homework if going this route. There are likely a lot of options to go with air these days.

 

I bought some AIR LIFT air bags last year only to promptly return them. In order to run air bags, the exhaust needs to be routed and possibly terminated differently otherwise it will rapidly burn a hole in the bag if it can even get mounted (not much room for the bags to expand). I ended up getting some Sumo Springs for those heavily loaded camping trips to help the springs out.

I have the OME 3.5in springs and the helper spring. Rides pretty decently in this configuration. I have heard good things about Alcan Spring and Deaver Springs, but never have called them up.

 

Proper height bumpstops are key to not abusing the leafs. I made my own version of these

https://dpgoffroad.com/product/dpg-a...top-plates-xj/