Lookin' good! Now, hit those rear shackles with an angle grinder. Get that excess shackle off of there before a rock beats you to it

Those are trenching shackles. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Haha trenching shackles yeah they look goofy, good call on grinding them. So it should have at least 4.5" of lift now, and it still drives as smooth and straight as stock, and did not need any parts other then a $100 3" body kit and $20 rear shackles. Pretty sweet budget lift I think. Will keep me happy for a long time, and we'll see if I build the courage to do a SAS and SOA.

I think axles / gearing is a higher priority, I am eyeing the 95 Montero SR in the lot. Is swapping front and rear differentials much easier than the entire rear axle (the Montero had coils, I have leafs). How worth it is that VS the entire axle?

Just put on some 33x12.5's... thinking about selling it because I bought a Jeep Comanche, but I'm pretty attached to it now lol

So the rear flex is pretty great for what it is... the front I can barely turn.

The horrible part is, do you see the body mount in the third picture? The fender is so close to where the frame bolts to the body... there is barely room to trim. I already used all the thread cranking the torsion bars. I desperately need to figure out how to get another inch up front.





I have Montero UCA's sitting here, but I don't think they will actually DO anything. I've heard of ball joint spacers, and aftermarket torsion bars. I have heard of some crazy expensive Chinese lift kits. Drop kits. Some people say parts from Toyota's or Isuzu kits may work. But I don't know enough to know what for sure. Any thoughts?

I'm still going to trim as much as possible tonight and post the results.



Thanks.

Well we weren't able to get much, but I am very happy with the results from trimming. It's hard to tell from the pic, but it solves a lot of problems. I can now turn sharper than I ever could with my 31's. Probably flex just as good to. We cut the inside and bottom of the fender, so once I put it back on, it pretty much looks stock from the side (I'll post another pic later with the fender on).

I doubt you'd actually want to lift more anyway. Lifting isn't a fix-all solution, and sometimes just creates more problems. Getting creative with a sawzall and angle grinder can work wonders, as you've found ;-)

A nice sized sledge is good too! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />