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Earlier in the month i built a set of extended shackles for the rear of the bronco. Im extending them 2", so i cut some flat stock 6 1/4" long, by 1 5/8" wide.   Spaced out 2" from the OEM hole, welded it to the flat 'ear', and then hammer the other end over till it touches the body of the shackle. Then just clamp it and weld it up. I tacked the plate to the shackle via the original bolt hole to hold it in place, and then once the sides were fully welded, plug welded the original bolt hole and ground smooth.  Small tabs made to fill in the gaps so the shackle still has the same ID, and its nice and beefy  After all that was welded & ground, i added in a brace in the middle to keep the ears from bending:  ...and the finished product!   With the longer shackle i moved to the rear hole on the hangar, and now weve got a good shackle angle again:  So i did this in conjunction with moving the front spring hangar 3" backwards, installing new non-bent mainleafs, and removing my 2" AAL to get back to stock-ish springs. The end result was a success, as the rear suspension definitely works a lot better now. Decided to go to Rausch Creek over the weekend with a few buddies. It was a day full or carnage! We went to "O" Trail first, where Keith immediately blew both beads:  Ox playing on a rocky hill climb on "O", this is right at the section where i bet Ox to run it from the passenger seat last time   These were some big rocks   The view from the new Green rated trail J1  Ox:  Keith:  Steve:  Jim:  One of the few pics i have of mine  couple turns later, keith is stuck   quick tug from steve and keith is free to continue on   RIP steve's transmission  Ox was in the lead, so he got to pull steve the rest of the way outta the trail.   Oh no!   Fortunately only the outer bead popped so it was relatively easy to re-seat.  After much winching & pulling to get steve off the trail, and then after we loaded steves back on the trailer, we headed back in. Ox playing on a hill right near 'The Gauntlet', one of the comp courses  ...and stop  Probably coulda got free if the dshaft wasnt sitting on that boulder  Keith to the rescue!  Me coming up on the climb to the right, while Ox gets free   ...and back onto the trails    sidehilling, but its lost in the pic, other than the way the tire is rolling under the wheel     Thats pretty much all i got. We got in some decent trail time, just didnt have the usual photographer (my brother) runnin around snappin pics. There is a thread over on FSB that has more pics from of the trip. |