home made "Add a Leaf"

[RavoHimself]

So everyone and their grandma knows that add a leafs lift up the back or your vehicle approximately 1.5"-2.5" and stiffens up the ride. My question is would it be possible to get the desired lift without stiffening the ride so much.

The theory:
what if you took the same type of material as leafs are made out of and just cut a piece about 3" or 4" long (or shorter than the bottom one). would this not give you a little lift and still keep approximately the same feel

 

[ThatGuy]

The lift you get will be the thickness of the material.
AALs are usually a thicker spring with more of an arch than your stock springs. The greater arch forces your stock springs to arch more giving you the extra lift. This is bad for your worn out springs in that it creates pressure points where the AAL contacts the springs. I've seen a few broken and many bent springs as a result of this.
The best way to do it would be to make a bastard spring pack. Or of course buy lift springs.

 

[Tony Raine]

google "zero rate add a leaf"

add a longer shackle to the mix as well

 

[JohnnyO]

http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/spring2009/belltech_6400.htm

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/ExplorerLeafs.htm

Or a combination of both.

 

[Quartermile]

You could just put in bigger spacer blocks

 

[shane96ranger]

I've been looking into this a bit myself. There is a local place here called Triple A Spring that says they can re-curve my stock springs to achieve more height; I asked for 2 inches. This was because I wanted to maintain factory ride and get the lift I wanted. He also mentioned putting a "Timbren" on there to add additional capacity.

I haven't done any of this, I'm still making a game plan. I just thought I would throw that out there.

Here is a link to the Timbren installation instructions if anyone is interested (for 83-97):

http://www.timbren.com/timbren-application-guides/application-pdfs/FRR0504A.pdf