Haunted by thoughts of dual leaf.

[broncc]

I first saw Brett Epperley's CJ watching the 1998 season of Top Truck Challenge reuploaded on youtube. It has been in the back of my mind for months. He bolted a leaf spring to his frame, then attached another leaf to the axle. The perch has a hinge built in a manner I have only seen once before in a pirate4x4 thread. I'm really impressed by how much travel you get out of such short springs. I went with larger F150 springs in my Bronco to get more travel, but this looks like you might still be able to drive it around town without completely losing control.

I don't really have a point for this thread other than wanting to share the insanity. Enjoy some grainy ripped-from-vhs screenshots.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Interesting...
It would be super soft spring rate until the frame mounted spring was tight to the frame. (The shackle hits the frame)
I wonder if they needed a panhard bar or watts link to prevent side travel on the axle?

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Interesting...
It would be super soft spring rate until the frame mounted spring was tight to the frame. (The shackle hits the frame)
I wonder if they needed a panhard bar or watts link to prevent side travel on the axle?

Looks like he has links going ahead too. They look kind of dainty and I can't see what the forward end looks like though.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

That’s some old-school 3/4 or 1/2 elliptical there. My one buddy did that on his YJ years ago. When I first met him, he was running around with a YJ on 34” LTB Swampers with a beefed up lifted YJ suspension. That thing was scary to ride around in and didn’t flex well. I forget now what we did first, but we fixed his YJ in two stages, one stage was the front and one the rear. We used front leafs from a Dodge Ramcharger for all 4 packs. They are designed to be safely flexed to negative arch.

Want to say the fronts were done with just extended shackles. Rear we did the elliptical, forget what leaf springs we cut for the frame leaf. Even just doing one end at a time was a huge upgrade in how nice it rode. The rears, at ride height, the leaf spring on the frame was almost flat on the frame and the ride with both ends done was nice, no more white knuckle driving bouncing all over the road. Flex was incredible, way better than the normal lift suspension.

 

[bobbywalter]

i have seen that rig before.