Shackle question?

[Sloan]

First off, sorry for the crappy phone pics, left is rear shackle and the right is the front. My FJ60 rides pretty rough once you get into any sort of bumpy sections on road or off. A friend of mine at work pointed out that the bumpiness is probably a result of my shackles being almost vertical. Now just for reference I have a set of Dobinson springs and the SOR Extreme shackles with a 1"lift. I went up TO Spectre today and was going to get a set of stock shackles my thinking being that a shorter shackle would allow the spring to move toward the frame and give the shorter shackle a better angle towards the back of the truck. I talked to Curt their tech guy and he said that a shorter shackle would actually invert towards the front of the truck once I pulled the leaf spring on it's arc closer to the frame. Does this mean that my springs aren't long enough? Aside form moving the spring mounts on the frame is there any way to get more angle form the shackles? Is the tech guy wrong? Should I get an OME kit (sorta just kidding)? Thanks for the help, I apologize if my description is confusing I am typing and trying to entertain a 3 year old.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

First of all, while that shackle angle isn't the most ideal, its also not that bad and I wouldn't attribute that solely to your ride concerns. More likely its a combination of things, stiff springs? tight bushings? leaf clamps? hard to say without seeing it.

What is your center to center measurement on those shackles? You could possible run some slightly shorter anti-inversion shackles such as the GS1/GS2 Old Man Emu shackles built for 60's. They are just slightly longer than stock and with the anti inversion feature there is no risk to your springs.

Springs can & do invert but I can't say with certainty on your springs as they are pretty rare around these parts. Ultimately you would have to bolt a shorter set on and see what its going to do as you flex it.

 

[Sloan]

Thanks Kurt, the pin to pin is 4 15/16".

 

[cruiseroutfit]

OME GS1 (rear application) shackles are 3.5" pin-to-pin. So not only would they releive your shackle angle but they will also prevent inversion issues. However as they are roughtly 1.5" shorter you will lose ~5/8-3/4" of total lift height.