Shackle Reversal Pros/Cons

[CJKrawler]

I would like to start this thread, not as an argument starter, but as a way for those who have already done so to share the pros/cons to the their shackle revesals. I am planning on doing the reversal on mine for the ride quality. Now, I must admit, I do not have a lot of seat time in a CJ, with or without the reversal. I am hoping that those of you will share your opinions, with what modifications you have on the CJ, and whether you are happy with it. If you have 38" tires, do only extreme rock crawling and no reversal and love it, your opinion will differ from someone who did the reversal, has 31" tires, and only does mild trails. This might also help others out who have questions as well. I look forward to the replies.

 

[Kane]

Me to. I want to here the thoughts.

 

[BajaEdition]

My experience with shackle reversals is they are t case exploders, guys will do one and not want to pay for the expense of a long travel drive shaft, they hit a hard bump and Blamo, bye bye t case.
on road they cause nose dive as the spring flexes backward and also if they are real flexy springs (lifted) the tires can hit the fenders and take them out.
the pros I know of is they are a softer ride off road.

Any size tire, so........
you must decide,
off road comfort and an expensive drive shaft traded for a soft off road ride
or rougher off road ride of stock and good on road manners.

 

[Old Dog]

What Baja said. Thats what happened to my buddy's CJ8 with a 4' lift when he did the srs.

My jeep is kinda geared more to off road than on, but I do still drive it around some. I like the fact that with the stock shackels they push into a climb instead of folding away.

The big trick to a srs is to run a flat spring, thak way the axle still travels forward. Thats usually a pretty soft spring that creates it's own on road handling problems.

 

[mylittlecj5]

My Limited experience with a SRS (4 years on my CJ, Sometimes DD, but more off road toy) is that yes, they can cause fender problems if not done correctly (means moving the axle forward a couple inches to clear the fenders at full stuff). I had to cut my fenders out to the max after I bought my Jeep. as for the driveshaft, the way mine was built it still uses the stock, unmodified front driveshaft. No problems ever with it or the Transfer Case exploding. And the truck does get abused...This is the rear driveshaft after a 5000RPM launch during a race...

As for on and off road driving, in the mud it really doesn't matter. On the rocks, I have had some strange things happen when climbing steep, rocky hills. But nothing objectionable, and on light trails it works just fine.
On the street, I LOVE it! The Cj drives sooo much better than a stock CJ5 , its incredible. I can take my hands off the wheel at freeway speeds and it tracks straight (until the Super Swampers grab a rut or pothole, that is! )
To me its worth enough that my current build is also getting a set of rear shackles on the front springs, also. And its a straight Trails/Mud truck (no street at all!).

The key is that the SRS must be designed right, and care taken to include all the little details. If that involves cutting fenders or replacing the driveshaft with something custom, then so be it.

 

[BusaDave9]

We have had this discussion before and since my opinion hasn't changed here is what I said:

Yes this is a hotly debated topic and since everyone has a right to my opinion I will put my two cents in. If you don't have much of a lift and the leaf springs don't have much arch to them then a shackle reversal wont' make much difference. But if you have a lift the front axle will move back quite a bit as you go over bumps. For that reason you will need a long travel drive shaft. I have a shackle reversal from the previous owner and this has caused quite a few problems. My drive shaft was bottoming out and banging into my Transfer Case . I had my drive shaft replaced with one with a long travel slip joint. It still bottomed out and I replaced it a 2nd time with one with 8 inches of usable travel (more than enough). The front tires were also smashing into my fender and I had to do a lot of metal cutting to resolve that.

In the above picture my tire is pressing into my inner fender. If I were to turn my wheel to the right it would press very hard into my nerf bar.
Although I already cut my front fenders before the above picture was taken I had to cut them some more. The nerf bars had to go. I then got rock sliders.
Here is a more recent photo.

You can see that the front tire moves far to the rear as the suspension compresses. This is the biggest problem with a shackle reversal and why I to make other modifications to keep my jeep from damaging itself going over bumps.

There were others that thought a shackle reversal is a good idea so you might want to check out the entire thread. Here it is:
http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f19/shackle-reversal-kits-5258/

 

[CJKrawler]

Thanks BusaDave, I did a search before I started, but it didn't bring that thread up, or I didn't dig deep enough. I like the info I am getting here. It is always nice to hear what others have done to correct, deal with, etc.

 

[Vvajk]

My PO was an Army mechanic for 27 years, and according to him, when he bought the CJ7 it had a 4" lift on it and was squirrley as hell on the road. He did some research and decided to put in a reverse shackle and claims he saw a 100% improvement after. I can't attest to how the Jeep was driving before, but I can tell you that as it stands now, it's a pretty smooth ride and tracks really nice. I drove it 400 miles at 75mph on the freeway to get it home, and was pretty impressed.

That said, I'm a bit nervous now reading some of the comments above about it blowing out T-cases and ruining fenders. I haven't had ANY issues with it as of yet however. Maybe seeing as how the PO is an experienced mechanic, hopefully he did the job right and I won't have those kind of issues. Bear in mind I'm not a major off-road maniac out there snapping axles every weekend. But, I've had it on some trails and so far so good. My opinion: My PO put the RS in to address a problem he was having with the handling. Unless you're experiencing some kind of undesirable performance, I wouldn't worry about it. If ain't broke. . .

 

[BajaEdition]

th T case issue is easily taken care of, it is ordering long travel drive shaft
Like any mod, you need to follow through when doing it so all angles are covered. Part of the problem with getting a Jeep is we inherit every 2/3 finished mod the PO did. I think here at Jeep=CJ.com we try to discuss every thing affected by a mod and how to tune the mod in so it does not do damage or is correctly installed. Even though, there will be many who will not follow through taking the cheap road to get a product half finished.
If you want to do a SR, just remember there are issues you need to deal with before you are finished that can adversely affect your Jeep.

 

[CJKrawler]

The main issues that I am seeing with this are getting a long travel front driveshaft, and mvoeing the springs forward about an inch, maybe more if you will be using stock fenders. I am switching to tube fenders, so I will have more rear clearance. I read somewhere in one of the articles posted that the front axle walking out could be an issue, if you are on a steep climb and the rear end loses traction. Has anyone ever experienced anything like that?

 

[Kane]

Thats a pretty significant amount of reward travel on your Jeep BusaDave. I can see why the new driveshaft would be so important. Go write up and thanks for linking it to this thread.

 

[BigDsCJ7]

So I have a question then. I have a 4" skyjacker lift on my CJ7 . I realy don't have a wondering issue, I have a bad bump steer and very rough ride. I was considering doing the reversal to ease up the ride but is there another way to do that? I have the single shock steering stabilizer kit that came with the lift and don't know if that should be upgraded as well. Thanks, hope it's no too off topic.

 

[BusaDave9]

If it truly is bump steer then the problem could be the angle of the drag link.

A dropped pitman arm could help. That or a high steering setup with the drag link mounted on the top of the steering knuckle arm.

Or if you have looseness in the steering it could be mistaken for bump steer. Either way I don't think new or upgraded steering stabilizers would help.

 

[BigDsCJ7]

Thanks Busa, I have a drop pitman arm, I have upgraded the drag link and tie rod w/ ends. Also the wheel barings and knuckle bushings. As far as I can tell nothing is loose in the steering. I also have a new steering box.

Is it possible it could be something with the rear? Aside from being a very stiff ride partly due to weight, it will want to dart off after hitting a bump in the road. I'm so frustrated! I have tried everything that I can think of. I'll post some pics to see if you guys notice anything I'm just missing. Thanks again!

 

[BusaDave9]

I'm not sure BigDsCJ7 but it looks like we are getting off topic.
Try starting your own thread. You'll get more responses that way.