Front Spring Shackle Swap???

[RECKLESS_TRENT]

Has anyone here ever switch your front spring shackles around? So that the springs are solid mounted in the rear and the shackles are on the front of the spring instead of the rear? Looking for ideas and feedback on doing this.

 

[sweetk30]

not best for ride I think .

and ford and jeep there is kits to make them go from front to back .

if you think about it when your driving the spring will have to push back against the object that's making it wana move in the first place .

were rear shackles roll over the object much better as there being push the way the shackle wants to flex/move .

this is just my thinking of how it works best .

 

[RECKLESS_TRENT]

We just want to make traction bars for the front to keep the axle from pushing back and to stiffin up the ride some.

 

[sweetk30]

want stiff ride = rough country lift kit

some guys here over the years have built front traction bars .

there is a thread now in the garage section on traction bars .

 

[diesel4me]

My '56 Chevy 2wd pickup had a solid I-beam axle with the leaf spring shackles up front and the solid eyes to the rear..thing rode like s***!..felt like every bump was trying to drive the springs rearward into the solid bushings..
My friends nick-named the truck "Bam-Bam" because thats how it sounded going over bumps..

I'm not so sure it would have rode better had they been set up the other way either though..it had like 5 leafs up front,they were "flat",hardly any arch,and they didn't flex very easily..I put new Monroe Magnum 60 shocks on it,made hardly any difference..

 

[Deuling]

The only plus I see is that in a long travel leaf spring you would not need to have a long driveshaft slip. I get 11.5" of travel front and rear with my fancy leaf spring setup. The front driveshaft needed a super long slip yoke. I think it uses over 6" of slip yoke through travel. Where the rear only uses about 3/4" of slip.

But I think the cons outway that personally.