56s and shackle angle w/o moving hangar

[carpeonnel]

Picked up my 56s yesterday and was looking at my rear shackle angle and right now its staright up and down with the 52s in the rear, but do you really need to swap the shackle mount brackets from driver to pass side? I talked to Kert when I ordered my b52s for the front and he said it would be best to swap the shackle brackets, but it just seems that I would have a pretty good shackle angle if I didn't swap them and just installed the 56s. I am running 7.25 shackles. Anybody else running something similar?

Sorry if the pics are crappy all I have is my camera phone

 

[cegusman]

Here is how mine looks with it flipped and 56" springs

 

[carpeonnel]

That's I've seen pretty much of everybody that's done the flip and 56s. But it just seems that if the spring is only 4in longer than my current setup, that when I put the 56s in it'll give me a shackle angle similar to that. Where you running 52s previously and have a shackle angle like mine?

 

[cegusman]

nope went from an echobit flip with 52"s to this. with the echobit flip the angle was almost straight up and down like yours.

 

[MTBLAZER89]

It really depends on the arch of your springs. Yours look like they have a little bit of arch to them (from what I can see) and that in turn makes the spring shorter. My 56's are nearly flat and I have about a 45* angle on my shackle. Its hard to tune this set up as all the springs are in different shape.

 

[carpeonnel]

It really depends on the arch of your springs. Yours look like they have a little bit of arch to them (from what I can see) and that in turn makes the spring shorter. My 56's are nearly flat and I have about a 45* angle on my shackle. Its hard to tune this set up as all the springs are in different shape.

That's true I didn't really think about that. My 52s now have an add-a-leaf in them so they're probably a little shorter in that respect. The 56s I picked up only have 5 leafs in them, like my current 52 pack, so I guess I'll try mounting them up before flipping the shackle (The PITA of dropping the gas tank is what i'm dreading). Y'all are probably right and I need to swap the brackets but I gotta try it first and see if it might give me a decent shackle angle.

 

[carpeonnel]

I measured my springs now and my rears are 51 1/4in from center eye to center eye. Measured my new springs and they are actually 25 1/2in from center pin to eye on one side and 29 3/8in from center pin to the other spring eye (I measured along the curve of the spring). So let's round it up and say is 55in all together. So lets say my new springs will sit completely flat when I install them. That would mean it'll push my shackle back approx 4in, giving me what seems to be close to a 45* shackle angle. Now if I switch shackle brackets and push the mounting points back 2in, that'll put my springs less than 2in back from being straight up and down, and less shackle angle for my springs to droop. Is my math right? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong

 

[WJACKSON11X]

I would definetely put the 56's on there first to see what kind of angle it gives you. I dont blame you for not wanting to switch brackets.

 

[carpeonnel]

yeah when my b52s come in from Kert I'm gonna put the 52s up front and then put the 56s in and see. I gotta clean up the 56s and install new bushings before I install them as these sat underneath a bedless 3/4 ton for while. But I'll post up when I mock them up to see how it looks

 

[carpeonnel]

put the 56s on today after finally getting the correct bushings. Sitting a lot lower than I anticipated it was gonna sit. I was hoping to lower my K5 bout 2-3in and I think it dropped it about 5in. Still have the 2in block and zero rate in, only changed the springs. Checked my shackle angle and it's at 53* right now. Want it to be closer to 45* so hopefully when I add a leaf to the 56 pack right now it'll bring the angle down some along with a little raise to get me back up in the air some. The last pic is for reference of what it looked like before swapping everything. Roughly 10in of lift

 

[WJACKSON11X]

that shackle angle doesnt loook too bad. I wouldn't swap the brackets. I think if you move them back your not going to be happy with your shackle angle, It will be more like what you had before. Just my opinion

 

[thatK30guy]

Try the middle set of holes on the shackles before you do anything else.

 

[cegusman]

x2 it might lift the truck up some by changing the shackle angle

 

[Stomis]

When I did 56's I switched mine from side to side and it gave me a perfect shackle angle IMO. I would flip em.

 

[carpeonnel]

it seems to me if I go to a lesser shackle length and go to the middle holes it'll make my shackle angle more severe and decrease the amount of lift.

This is the way I see shackle angle and spring length. Longer shackles will enable you to run a longer spring. Example: running the 52s (51 3/8in)gave me a shackle angle of roughly 0*. I wanted to run a longer spring that came out to be approx 55in eye to eye. So my new springs were gonna be approx 3.5in longer. SO the way i see it is if I was running the stock 4.5 shackles most of that length would be ate up in relocating the spring rearward. By that I mean, the shackle is going to be 3.5in back on the vertical plane and only 1in down on the horizontal plane, giving me a very severe shackle angle of approx. 78* by my calculations.

So let's go to my situation with a 7.25 shackle with a spring that's 3.5in longer. It'll be pushed back 3.5in and 3.75in of shackle play left until the shackle is completely flat and parallel to the ground. Ya following me?

SO my hypothesis seems to be fairly correct in this as my current shackle angle is roughly 53*. But also under my same hypothesis one should be able to run a 64in long rear spring with a 28in long shackle. Now that is completely ridiculous and totally impractical but it stands to reason that for every inch of spring length you add you need to add twice that to maintain the same shackle angle.

SO, since I wanted a approx 45* shackle angle and not want to relocate my shackle brackets, I would need to run a 8in shackle (4.5 + 3.5 = 8) to get that 45* angle. (If I wanted to maintain the 0* shackle angle, in theory I would have needed to run a shackle that was 7in longer than stock).

So running a 7.25in shackle instead of a 8in will give me a steeper shackle angle. That's also why I'm gonna put in a add-a-leaf to hopefully decrease the spring length under the weight of the truck. So instead of it sitting flat and being 55in eye to eye. It'll be less, let's guessimate and say 54 3/8in from eye to eye, which will result in less shackle angle

Don't know if my reasoning is correct. But it makes sense in my mind and if I had pictures I think I could make it more clear. Please chime in if you think I'm way off or if you have more insight

 

[BGKYK5]

I agree, all else being equal, a longer shackle should result in a more vertical shackle. You could swap the brackets side to side and go with a shorter shackle and see what that does. You weren't doing anything else this weekend anyway right.

 

[thatK30guy]

it seems to me if I go to a lesser shackle length and go to the middle holes it'll make my shackle angle more severe and decrease the amount of lift.

This is the way I see shackle angle and spring length. Longer shackles will enable you to run a longer spring. Example: running the 52s (51 3/8in)gave me a shackle angle of roughly 0*. I wanted to run a longer spring that came out to be approx 55in eye to eye. So my new springs were gonna be approx 3.5in longer. SO the way i see it is if I was running the stock 4.5 shackles most of that length would be ate up in relocating the spring rearward. By that I mean, the shackle is going to be 3.5in back on the vertical plane and only 1in down on the horizontal plane, giving me a very severe shackle angle of approx. 78* by my calculations.

So let's go to my situation with a 7.25 shackle with a spring that's 3.5in longer. It'll be pushed back 3.5in and 3.75in of shackle play left until the shackle is completely flat and parallel to the ground. Ya following me?

SO my hypothesis seems to be fairly correct in this as my current shackle angle is roughly 53*. But also under my same hypothesis one should be able to run a 64in long rear spring with a 28in long shackle. Now that is completely ridiculous and totally impractical but it stands to reason that for every inch of spring length you add you need to add twice that to maintain the same shackle angle.

SO, since I wanted a approx 45* shackle angle and not want to relocate my shackle brackets, I would need to run a 8in shackle (4.5 + 3.5 = 8) to get that 45* angle. (If I wanted to maintain the 0* shackle angle, in theory I would have needed to run a shackle that was 7in longer than stock).

So running a 7.25in shackle instead of a 8in will give me a steeper shackle angle. That's also why I'm gonna put in a add-a-leaf to hopefully decrease the spring length under the weight of the truck. So instead of it sitting flat and being 55in eye to eye. It'll be less, let's guessimate and say 54 3/8in from eye to eye, which will result in less shackle angle

Don't know if my reasoning is correct. But it makes sense in my mind and if I had pictures I think I could make it more clear. Please chime in if you think I'm way off or if you have more insight

You're making this too complicated.

Just do it the simple way of trial and error: play around with the extra holes and see what happens.
If you're not happy with any of the holes, then do something different. I'm only trying to keep you from spending anymore money.

 

[carpeonnel]

You're making this too complicated.

Just do it the simple way of trial and error: play around with the extra holes and see what happens.
If you're not happy with any of the holes, then do something different. I'm only trying to keep you from spending anymore money.

Well that's what I'm doing. But there's no way going to a shorter shackle is going to increase lift height and give a better shackle angle. I'm just trying to get technical and being bored at work doesn't help either

 

[carpeonnel]

I agree, all else being equal, a longer shackle should result in a more vertical shackle. You could swap the brackets side to side and go with a shorter shackle and see what that does. You weren't doing anything else this weekend anyway right.

Just working all this weekend and tomorrow. Been at work since Saturday and won't get off til Tuesday morning. Oh the joys of working EMS pulling the OT

 

[BGKYK5]

Yes, but think of the $$$. When I work OT, I do it for free.

Thankfully I don't have to work a ton of extra hours.