Coils or leafs.........

I am going to move my front axle forward 4-6" on the Xj I'm building up. The unibody is going to have 3.5" w c-channel welded to the bottom and side plates from it to the bottom of the body. I can do leaf springs on the front pretty easily, but am not sure if I want to go this direction. Has anyone done this on the board?
I can get 8" or 9" coils for the front, but don't really want to build a long arm setup (which I can). NO, I won't buy it either, I build almost all of my stuff.

Thanks.

i would stay away from leaves if at all poss. you can get much much more flex out of coils then leaves.

Post pics of your project.

if it was me I would stick with coils and since you are moving the front axle 4-6 inches forward I would use stock locations for the control arms and just make custom length arms, not really a long arm but sort of since its longer. Maybe do a trilink but you could probably just use the stock upper control arm locations and make it work good, Overall I think you could make something really cool that performs well with the coils and the stock control arm mounts. just a thought
-calvin

I hadn't thought about using the stock locations. They are pretty flimsey for what I want do do though. If I do the coils, I will use a 3-link setup. The big coils just seem to have too much side to side pressure to deal with. I feel they get a bit too squirly when there is not much weight on them. I can't feel where my axles are with coils either, the softness wigs me out. I almost rolled my friends wifes TJ and didn't even know how close I was to it. Other than his eyes being the size of basketballs. She runs a 9" long arm kit. I'm getting about 10"+ of travel out of the front on my CJ5, that's the only reason I was giving leafs a thought.
Thanks for the input

I would give you what info you want to know but search mutha fuka:flipoff2: (XJ leaf conversion) would be a good start

Originally posted by snagtooth
I would use stock locations for the control arms and just make custom length arms.

Not a good idea. Already seen a friend rip one off the unibody. :eek:

been there done that :flipoff2:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=1003992


http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91161

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94515

You can go either way and get about the same amount of flex. But, if you go leafs and do it the easy way, you'll end up with the shackle in front. I prefer a rear shackle, but to do that and keep it out of the rocks, have a flat spring angle etc. you'll need to box into the "frame" in the back and have the top of the shackle through the "rail".
At least with leafs you won't have to worry about the trackbar anymore.