Spring clamp loosening - anyone with experience?

Re: Spring clamp loosening - anyone with experiance?

I just cut off the tops of mine so they don't restrict droop, and left the vertical parts to help keep the leaves in line with each other. I don't know how necessary the vertical parts of the clamps are, but I left 'em there for now. Ride comfort shouldn't be affected at all.

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'84 K20 driver
'79 K10 mud racer
'48 CJ-2A trail Jeep

Re: Spring clamp loosening - anyone with experiance?

Sorry, didn't measure, but it was noticeable seeing the leaves being able to fan out and separate. It's worth it and it's free! /wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif

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'84 K20 driver
'79 K10 mud racer
'48 CJ-2A trail Jeep

Re: Spring clamp loosening - anyone with experiance?

Point taken DDawg. This is the type of discussion I was looking for./wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif But at least some of the tire is on the ground making some contribution. Not to mention that the pressure from a drooped tire comes from the springs on the other side of the axle pushing down - acting as a fulcrum. Now, I may have this wrong (won't be the first or last), keeping the clamps together would fight against the force trying to push the wheel down.

Re: Spring clamp loosening - anyone with experiance?

DDawg
I agree with you when it come to some of the extreme travle set ups. Thats why ramp scores dont mean squat. But the extra flex gained by allowing the leafs to fan out is generally an improvement. As for the revolver shackles,I ran them with my old 4" set up,(I borrowed a set from a freind for a couple of weeks), they have a bad characteristic in that they tend to transfer weight away from the hill durring a steep incline. Ill try to explain. They were great for going through deep ravines, as long as you were either going down hill or fairly flat they kept the tires on the ground and the Jeep fairly well ballanced. But on steep climbs going from a flat or off camber start, as the front started getting unweighted in the climb and the rear shackles were still comperessed averything was fine, but as the rear wheels started up the incline and even a small amount of power added, the shackles would tend to open up affectively throwing your weight out away from the hill,and if you started to slip and needed to really power up it would start to hop with the shackles opening and closing. Traction was bad and it felt very unstable. I removed them and they were passed around like pack of cigaretts in a jail house. No one kept them on for more than a few weeks. It was mostly rock crawling terrain south of Yosemite.
Jeff
89 Wrangler

Re: Spring clamp loosening - anyone with experiance?

Thats kind of what I was thinking, that torque was causing the problem via axle wrap. And no one that used them was running any type of traction bars. However Ive seen your web site, and with kind of fabrication you are doing, there is a much better way to get your rear suspension to droop. The problem with the Revolvers or any other clam shell type shackle is that you still are limited by your rear shock travel. If you just go to longer rear shocks then you limit your compresion travel. I have been testing my new rear shocks and mounts for about a month and its working great. I removed the rear lower mounts from the axles and installed new mounts facing the front with a bolts(the same as the stock upper mounts) Directly above the axle about an inch from the underside of the body is room for a new 2"x2"x1/4" square tube cross member. 2 new bolt mounts facing forward are mounted on the cross mamber about 1" out from the center in both directions. This allows you to lay the shocks down on about a 45% angle from there lower mount inwards towards the upper mounts. You can then use 33" shocks and use the full 14" of travel combined with the arching swing of the shock body. It allows great travel,and moves the lower shock mounts up to the middle of the axle tubes. I tried it this weekend on an extremely tough rocky river bed and although I sustained a good bit of dammage, it was mostly due to operator error and the rear shock set up worked great.
Jeff
89 Wrangler

Good point - didn't think of that./wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif