Leaf spring slider box

[BZOOK]

Just saw these on bleepin jeep comancheep build YouTube channel. Anyone seen these before? Are they a good idea?
https://liquidironindustries.com/Liquid ... x-Kit.html

[greyghost]

do some research on Pirate, lots of issues with these.
most common is the "slider" wears out VERY fast, and there were some "pin" alignment and accelerated wear there as well.

[greyghost]

Echo........

[gwagensteve]

Various versions of these appeared ~20 years ago. There's no new ideas in the world - they're appropriated form circle track cars, and I think you can buy kits from Speedway Engineering (from memory)

I can't see a reason to run them in our application. I can (sort of) see the reason on the back of a SPOA vehicle like an XJ Cherokee or Hilux, where they can allow a long spring with lots of free camber without requiring a very long shackle which will cause pinion angle, height and departure angle issues.

There might also be a case in the front of a SPOA car that's reversed shackled and runs the shackle through the chassis (again, like a Hilux) where due to the sweep of the chassis, even long shackles can cause binding against the chassis rail.

There is another reason (I won't call it an advantage, just a reason) these might have appeal for circle track cars - they don't change antisquat (or "instant centre") as the ride height changes. Cars with very flat shackles have low antisquat, cars with vertical shackles have high antisquat. obviously, shackle position is and effect of ride height and as ride height changes so does AS - these avoid that.

But for us, with our low, SPUA cars with very limited packaging, I can't see a reason to have to deal with the maintenance.

I have also seen them used on desert race cars, but in this application they're primarily concerned with vertical travel (not flex) and low ride height whilst running very long springs with lots of free camber.

[BZOOK]

Interesting read. Thanks for taking the time to comment. Watching a few clips I can see what appears to be a softer ride over road bumps. That's has some appeal . I'm also wondering if the 'groove' could make a dog leg at the front allowing the shackle to drop down like what Bill does with his jacks. Bleepin jeep had tried em before. I'll see how he goes.
Brenton.

[gwagensteve]

A stock shackle “drops down” as the spring droops.

I can sort-of envisage how they soften ride by removing some friction, but they’ll also increase roll stiffness and reduce wheel travel (with like for like springs) so I don’t really see a net gain.

Leaf sierras can be set up to ride plush with the right springs and shocks.