Her is the front of the beast I am working on. It has a terrible front shackle angle. I was thinking of just going with longer springs and a longer shackle - but chances are I'll have to move or remove the nerf bars. Any suggestions???

Pic #2:

Lower the shackle mount in the frame or add a buggy spring.

I made a small buggy, used a spring plate and square U bolts. Works great. That way you can put the shackle angle any damn where you want. It really works great.

what springs are those? if we knew what you had we could sugest something that may work without a moving the shackle mount

Start with a longer shackle

Put the axle under the springs and set the weight on it before you start checking the shackle angle too closely. With the weight the shackle will move back. You make it too much of an angle w/o any weight & the shackle will be fully extended sitting still.

in looking at the photo, your shackles are nearly verticle, if not angled back slightly, and your springs are flat.

1) adding weight to an already flat spring will do nothing for shackle angle.
2) longer shackle still leaves you with crappy angles
3) buggy is not a bad option, but you will need even more driveshaft spline and you may find your front axle will "creep" forward on steep uphills...dragging the spline even further.

IMO, what I'd do....

Remove the shackle entirely, support the spring eye on the frame with the 2" thickness of a 2x4. Set entire vehicle weight on the springs....engine weight outta be enuf. Measure for distances, approximate shackle lengths, and decide if you want the shackle eye recessed in the frame or setup below. Build a new shackle location, either in or below the frame, which keeps the shackle angled forward about 40-45 degrees or so.

I did this with my front suspension...the springs settled to within 3/4" of the frame by the time settling and bushing compression, etc came into play. Remember, flat springs cannot get any longer than their resting length, so you will not have problems with that end of the spring making contact with the frame on compression. If it does, even slightly, you can make slightly longer shackles to compensate.

IMO, the 45 degree angle maximizes ride and flex on flat springs. Arched springs will also benefit, but may require a much longer shackle to keep the spring eye out of the frame. (Used to have this problem with the rear 4" Softrides on my FJ40 when I ran the shackle at 45 degrees there...SOA cured that tho!)

The only info on the spring are - they are 2" lift for a pickup (I'm using a chevy pickup frame). I like the fact that they are flat - and I can't add a longer shackle - that would make things worse. I might think about the buggy idea - but I kinda want to stay away from buggy in the front.

Woody's idea sounds good - take off the shackle, put the weight of the truck on the front springs and then make a shackle mount with those measurements. I really want to make it as simple as possible - so I'd like to have the shackle mounts under the frame like a toyota. Thanks for the ideas and keep them coming!!!

Anyone had bad experiences with front buggies???

I got a better shackel angle by installing longer springs. Here is a picture of it.
BTW it was on a Blazer.
http://www.rustbucket.rockcrawler.com/images/rustbucket9.jpg

Originally posted by Donovan
I got a better shackel angle by installing longer springs. Here is a picture of it.
BTW it was on a Blazer.
http://www.rustbucket.rockcrawler.com/images/rustbucket9.jpg

That's what my initial thought was - but I might have to deal with the nerf bars. What springs did you use? Specs would be great!

The top leaf is a 1985 Cherokee (XJ) rear spring. It is 51.5" long and the front bolt to the center pin is 23". The next spring down is a Rubicon Express add a leaf for the Cherokee. The next 5 leafs are 77 Waggy Springs. So I have a total of 7 springs and it has a spring rate of around 250lbs/" or so. The shackel is 6.75" long. The correct spring length for the blazer I believe is 50.5" and then you can use a 6" shackle. My next set of springs will be 50.5" long and I will probably get them for Alcan. On the truck these springs will give you about 30 degree shackle angle to the back. I hope this helps.

Cool - thanks!!!

I just talked to the guy I got the guts from - and he said they had great shackle angle when the weight was on them. So - I'll drop the truck on the springs and see. :D Plus he said they had lots of droop - which I will be going for.