I have been reading that several people have moved from under the frame shackles to through the frame shackles? Is there a problem running under the frame shackle hangers? What does the through the frame shackle hangers do for you that the under can't. The only drawback that I can see with the under the frame shackle hanger is less clearance. I have built a 2.5" drop front spring hanger and was planning on a under the frame shackle hanger. Any comments. I don't want to do it over later as several others have done.

All in theory from what I researched <img border="0" alt="[Nerd]" title="" src="graemlins/nerd.gif" /> , but... It mainly affects the caster angle. You're 2.5" drop may have compensated for it, maybe not quite. The through the frame thing just give more flexibility and from what I read allows longer shackles, thus more droop with less overall lift. You can try it and change it later, not a permanent thing...

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by Kendall:
<strong>The only drawback that I can see with the under the frame shackle hanger is less clearance.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Optical illusion, you actually gain clearance underneath the frame. The spring/axle combo and distance from ground to spring eyes doesn't change at all.

Good point, I hadn't thought about it that way. Makes sense.

I can't think of any reason that it would be bad as long as you make the equivalent drop in the front hanger so that the castor is correct.

Get the fire wrench out! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" />

I went under the frame because with the dropped front hanger, it set the steering eometry of the front axle back to where stock would be.

If you have a dropped front hanger - it makes sense. If not - it does not make sense, and you should just go through the frame...

If the drop front hanger is long enough, it can work fine. And yes, in theory no closer to the ground. However, with 2.5" drop hangers, on a IFS frame with strock springs, youve already got 3.5" of lift, provided you are using stock shackles! If you want a very flat spring, or a very tall rig, this works. However, if you only want 4" or lift, and want something other than a 17 year old spring, less drop in the hangers, and an arched spring will better suit. Plus with the arched spring, the front hangers would go up 2" higher, thus better approach angle.

I went under the frame with my 44 since the springs had to be outboarded. The front hanger is a 2" drop, and I'm using the stock rear shackles (3" eye to eye?), and the old rear main leaves with some old alcan leaves making up the rest of the pack (the springs are basically flat at ride height).

Right now it's too tall for my tastes, and the rear mazda spring are dragging tail. Ideally I'd like to go back to a through the frame shackle get rid of some lift and improve my pinion angle by a degree or two. Caster is not a major issue in my case, I currently have 8* and think I'll be fine with 6 or 7.

I'm also just wary of my under the frame mount, since I built it myself and don't entirely truck my welding <img border="0" alt="[Ignore]" title="" src="graemlins/ignore.gif" /> on what should be a fairly high-stress part.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by Shane Krause:
<strong> </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by Kendall:
<strong>The only drawback that I can see with the under the frame shackle hanger is less clearance.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Optical illusion, you actually gain clearance underneath the frame. The spring/axle combo and distance from ground to spring eyes doesn't change at all.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">BS. I think you've read too many of DRM's posts in the past. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="images/icons/tongue.gif" />

For the same amount of lift on the rig, through the frame will give a lot better clearace at the rear end of the spring. As Brian said, you end up using springs with more arch to maintain the same lift.

I started w/ shackles "under" and moved them to "through" after a year. I've got a 2" drop front hanger. Under gave me too much castor (for my taste) so I had to use shims to correct it and the rear of the spring hung way down and frankly looked dorky to me. And I didn't like my flat home-built spring packs.

When I moved them to through, I gained 3-4" of clearance at the rear of the spring and was able to put in some nice (used) 4" AP springs and remove the axle shims. I also ended up with better drag link/pitman arm clearance to the springs too because of how springs now run under it w/ the arch and no shims.

FWIW, I had 4" shackles for under-frame, 4.5" for through.

So really it depends on your over all setup, but for the most part I'd definitely recommend mounting them through the frame. You can always run longer shackles if you need/want more lift at the rear of the spring...