Can you get 20" of travel out of leaf springs?? I the reason I ask i cause this summer I'm going to a 5-6" inch front long arm kit. I'm pretty sure I can get 20" of travel easily. Not only do I want the front and rear to be equal for wheeling I want to be able to do desert baja racing. I figure you need atleast of 20" of travel for jumps, etc. So if I can't 20" out of the stock XJ configuration with leafs I was considering a 1/4 elliptic setup. Yeah I now I could go coilovers but that is $$$$. Thoughts?

20" of travel in the front and rear from 5-6" lift springs - good luck! I doubt it. That would be 40" of total articulation! :eek: I don't see this happening with 5-6" springs in stock configuration.

You don't add front and back together. Ever that I'm aware of. That much travel is easy to get, baja racers have 18 min and all the way up to 30-35. But that's with coilovers.

20" with 1/4 eliptical would be no sweat, 20" with standard leafs and a REALLY long shackle would be easy if the springs were fairly long. Call up national or alcan springs and they will set you up.

hey Weasel
what are you putting together - a Baja racer or a trail rig?( :confused:
those two do'nt go together. the shock & spring setups are different, and if you do the one you cant do the other.

take for example the shocks - on a racer it is 2/3 out and 1/3 in, in order to absorbe the bumps and not fly half the time;

on a trail rig it's the opposite - 1/3 out and 2/3 in, for long
out travel.

i think you cant get a RELIABLE 20" travel with leaf unless
you go for very LONG ones, which has it's problems.

besides, it's better to wait and save some $$$$ and then get coilovers then spend a little less and not be happy with it.:(

Well I was trying to do both. Trail rig first, baja racer second. I'm not going full out desert racing so I think I should be able to find a good compermise. I'm actualy gonna design the entire setup in a CAD program before building. That's a good point for the shocks. Thanks for the help guys, thats what I was thinking that springs would be pushing it.

just wondering, are these custom springs of something off a Chevy/Ford???

Originally posted by Weasel
I'm actualy gonna design the entire setup in a CAD program before building. That's a good point for the shocks. Thanks for the help guys
Im just wondering what cad program you and otheres use for suspension design?

Well I am planning on using SolidWorks sinc ethat is our schools 3D software choice. I figure I can get really good doing this. Also we have a program called AlGore. It's pretty sweet as we can set up a tack for a computer model of our baja car and run it to see bumpsteer, etc. I would like to put the model of my suspension in AlGore and maximize the design.