I've had the same idea for bobbing a long bed onto the short for my first gen. My lack of body skills is the only thing keeping me from attempting it.
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Damn, looks awesome! I vote long bed.
I say leave it as it is and add your armor... its beautiful
If you keep it high go long bed if you get it lower bob the bed.
Those shackle angles are terrible!! If you would pull a leaf and fix those you'd lose 2" of lift all around lol..
I vote keep the regular short bed. I don't know why you'd want to put a regular long bed on there. The short bed is the perfect length.
Also, you should be around a 105"-106" wheel base depending on how far you moved your axle forward. I truly believe that it is the perfect length. I've rode in Jeeps that have 93" wheelbases and they are very unstable & I've spend a lot of time offroad in a Ext Cab Pickup with like a 114" wheelbase and we scrubbed and scrapped on everything. 106" is the perfect balance between clearance and stability.
You are right on both counts. The shackle angles were even worse before, but the original owner used it to haul gravel and supplies into the Rubicon. 1000lbs at a time. I have already pulled a leaf out of each leaf pack and it is settling down still, but I'm going to wait until I get the bumpers, sliders, winch, roll bar and tool boxes on to adjust final ride height.
I think I've made my mind up to leave the short bed. The front axle has been moved 4" forward and the rear axle 1" back for a total of 108" wheel base. Also, the relationship between tire diameter, axle width and wheelbase don't add up. I would need to run 39's or 40's and 65" wide axles to make the long wheelbase numbers work out.
4" forward is a lot. Almost enough the warrant an FJ60 steering box! Lol