800 springs, one approach, lessons learned (painfully)

[Terry Rust <trust@domain.elided>]

OK Matt, I'll tell you how I did it with my daughter's 70 800 A, I would
like to get rid of these and start over but I don't have the time or $$. I
started with a used Trailmaster kit for an early (55-75) CJ5 or 6. The good
folks at GUS had told me that these would work directly in the rear and
with some (1.5")relocation of the spring brackets in the front, they were
dead on correct. I did it slightly differently (Of course) I started out by
getting the stock springs rearched , new bushings, extra leaf added, that
got us up a couple inches over stock and about 4" over where we were, total
cost was about $300. Well, I wasn't reall happy with it, the stock bushings
didn't last well, it was stiff, and the idea of rearching the 26 year old
springs and adding one new one (that was reall thick) didn't appeal to me.
So I came across the Used CJ kit, installed the rears with no problem,
using new rancho poly spring bushings for an early CJ, went up about
another 1-2", and seemed just about right, height wise. Hers where I went
astray, I took the front springs down to the local spring shop (100 miles
each way) and, thinking the cj must have been level with these springs, had
a new main leaf made the correct length, I also had them add a second leaf
so that there would not be to much unsupported mainleaf between the eye and
the rest of the spring pack. Installed them with the rancho jeep poly
bushings. Hmm, I now had about 3-5" more lift up front! D'oh! So I drove
the scout down to the spring shop and had them "just level the (*&) thing!
More problems, they rearched the rear to level it vehicle and the rear main
leaves were now to short eye to eye so the shackles were ready to invert,
so new mains in the rear and all is well, that was about $400 total for the
used kit, the new front mains and seconds and rearching the rears with new
mains and seconds too. Is it stiff? MY 250# will barely deflect the springs
if I sit on the tailgate. They are to stiff as they are IMO. I may pull the
second leaf out of each pack, or the bottom two from each pack to see if
they'll soften up, each leaf is about 1/4" thick, I have no idea the rate.
Unfortunately I need to do this asap since it is supposed to go away to
live with it's owner soon. I'm concerned that if I remove the second leaf I
may bend the main since there will be 4-6" unsupported, if I remove the
lower one or two in the pack it may sag and I'll be back to square one.

The good news is that it will clear 33's without any trouble at all, in
fact the 31s on it now look funny.

How would I do it today, knowing what I know now? A couple possible
solutions come to mind, either i would do a spring over with some late
model springs and a reverse shackle that would allow me to select slightly
longer front springs, or I would order some customs from National/Alcan/??
that were softer, that fit right the first time and were new. I'ld probably
install the reverse shackle with the customs too. Oh, someone said that an
outfit, whose name escapes me, is now offering a 3" kit for 800s. Maybe
someone else can remember it or it might be in some archive somewhere.

Good luck