There is none, Shackle reversal was a fad that pretty much died a few years back that seems to have the resilience of a cock roach. Its been proven its not a good design that offers no benefits offroad, minus saving your leaf springs...sometimes, but also creating negative issues, like breaking u-joints, long slip driveshafts, and falling off obstacles in steep high angle climbs because the axles moves backwards instead of fowards now on compression. Do yourself a favor and put the money into something else. You will see alot of guys come on to defend it, after i say this, but talk to any comp guys or anybody thats got a serious rig and they will tell you, its not worth the time or money. ALL my friends that had it got rid of it, minus one, and to this day he still can't do some steep climbs with his decently built rig with lockers 35s etc etc that ive seen mild stockers do literally 1-min before him.
My buddy and I have VERY similar built" mild wheelin' bolt-on YJs" , you know 33s 4-5" lift ect. The main diff. being he stayed front shackle , I did reversal . Simple fact = I have 3 of HIS bent front leaf spring packs in the corner of my shop . :shaking:
And reverse is a smoother ride on pavement , IF that matters to you at all (this is the non-hardcore forum)
3 or 4 link setups are pretty undisputed champions of suspension design for our Jeeping applications . But leaves are cheaper / easier to run , there are pros and cons to wichever end you shackle them . I'd say ; in a Jeep with VERY large tires 36+ the tire itself protects the shackle-stuff / bent leaf spring alot more than my buddy's YJ on 33s the shackles are very vulnerable .
M.O.R.E. Boomerang shackles for example are thicker so they don't bend, and can be reversed to act as an anti-kickback to stop bent leafs. If you just order the shackles and not the greasable bolts, they are 12 dollars each i believe, or you can always weld a tab to stop the shackle from inverting and of coarse bending or breaking leaf springs. Both of which are a shit ton cheaper then Shackle Reversal, and eliminate all of problems you just stated. Shackle reversal is gimp.
Now that I am setting up a toyota that was designed really poorly and I have to cut off the SAS I dont think shackle reversals are that hard. Shackle reversal is not that hard if your not going full width. If your not going full width run the shackle through the frame in the rear so you dont have to mess with your caster angles. This will keep your springs flat. Make sure you measure the wheelbase before you weld everything permanent. I went up some steep fucking hills sunday and never saw a draw back to this setup. I'm stretched with fullwidths and deep gears so its relative. As far as the axle moving back its good for crawling and if your springs are flat, going uphill will make little difference. Use a flat pitman arm.
As the front spring compresses, whether it's uphill or not, it's natural movement is to the rear. If the shackle is forward it impedes this movement. Therefore, a shackle reversal allows the spring to move the way it was designed.
I run Reverse shackles and if i had to do it again I would just skip it. the extra wheelbase is welcome, as teh road handling characteristics improved, but headaches like dealing witha popped shaft once in a while in the past are not really worth the extra effort. I would invest the money in something else.
BTW, if you are going to use a bolt on kit, make sure you weld the heck out of it, as my SRS broke teh stock mounts right off, on the trail
I'm running M.O.R.E.'s shackle reversal with YJ Deaver springs and I think it made a big difference in the on road feel of my 85 CJ (rolling 35 BFGs). I'm no hard core rock crawler, just light trail runs so I didn't see a big difference off road. Best investment I ever made with the Deaver springs front and back. My two cents.
Standard or automatic, who is right? Shackles in the rear.
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