[ihc] Slight lift to older Travelall

["John M. Adams" <jma@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am thinking of going through both the front and rear spring assemblies on
my '67 1100 4x4 TA. I want to run some thoughts & questions by you all and
see if I can get some ideas, answers, corrections, etc.

My reason for doing the renewal is twofold: one is for preventive
maintenance, and the other is to achieve a slight lift in order to run
taller wheels/tires. I'm going to get rid of the 15" x 8" spoke wheels that
I installed back "in my youth", and go with a 16" x 7" or 16.5" x 7" wheel
and taller profile tire. I want a higher load range, greater ground
clearance, and better snow/ice traction than what I've got now. So taller,
narrower, truck tires.

My front spring assembly has the shackle in the rear, with the spring eye
connected at the bottom of the shackle. My rear spring assembly has the
shackle in the rear also, but with the spring eye connected at the top of
the shackle. So it seems that the following would be true: If I only use
longer shackles on this rig, both axles will rotate in a direction that
would increase the drive shaft angle, which I want to avoid as much as
possible.

So I have to do more than just shackles. But what? My thoughts are: I don't
want to add a plate/block spacer between the spring packs and the axles.
That seems like "house of cards" construction. I don't mind adding leaves to
the spring pack, to increase the height incrementally, and then the
necessarily longer retaining clips and u-bolts. It seems like this would
result in less rotation as it's at the center verses the (wrong) end of the
leaf assembly only. But will this cause a stiffness that would endanger
frame components? Or is my "heavy duty half ton" stout enough for this type
of modification? I plan on installing cabinets, camping gear, heavier
bumpers, winch, etc... So overall vehicle will be heavier, and ride quality
therefore more or less unchanged, in spite of the stiffer suspension. But am
I missing something?

I only want/need 2" or 3" inches of lift. On this year Travelall, what is
the best way to achieve that without having to modify steering and
differential geometry? I've heard of inverting diffs and changing out
steering components to accommodate height, but I don't want to go there.
What's the maximum drive shaft to differential angle supported by the
u-joints without having to make such modifications?

My apologies if this has been covered. I'm not finding answers to my dumb
questions in my searches of the archives/internet. It's all about Scouts,
and though I've never owned one, I gather their suspension design is
different from my TA. Thanks in advance for any helpful thoughts, or links
to tech or vendor sites & etc.

-John A.
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