THE MOST COMPLETE ONLINE GUIDE TO THE 3/4 ELLIPTIC SUSPENSION SYSTEM. ACTUALLY ITS JUST A BUNCH OF PICS AND A  BIT OF INFO......br>

UPDATE!!!!!! HERE IS A PIC OF MY BUGGYS NOW.  SHOCKS RELOCATED FOR MORE TRAVEL, LINK BAR TO ELIMINATE AXLE WRAP AND OF COARSE THE FULLWIDTH AXLE THAT HANGS FROM IT ALL!

3/4 ELLIPTIC, BUGGY LEAF, GOOFY LEAF, ITS ALL THE SAME THING!!  I call my setup 3/4 elliptic because, well, it sounds cool.  All it is, is a half leaf fastened to the frame and upper shackle mount, once your normal leaf pack droops to its maximum, this leaf comes down from the frame and extends the down travel. Here is a photo of my setup sitting on level ground....

Ok kids, its time to take notes, hahahaha.  I will do my best to describe what is going on here.  The buggy leaf is 23" long, it runs from the frame bumpstop to where the shackle mount used to be.  The spring is held to the frame with U-bolts, the U bolt setup from a rear toyota axel will work fine, however, I built my own in this case.  The piece of metal hanging down from the side of the frame near the shackle is a guide.  This guide is necessary for the lateral movement that the spring gets when twisted hard. Currently I am running no link bars or traction bars, so the rest of my suspension is basically left in "stock" form.  Other than the fact that I have really long shocks, I havent changed anything and get nearly 2 feet of travel!

Now that we all know what we are looking at and have decided if this is something we want to do, lets talk about "how to"... This first thing ya need to do is pick your spring, I chose a Toy 2wd spring, its pretty stiff, I will replace it with an S10 spring one of these days but for now it serves me well.  Then ya need the U bolts, some Ultra low bumpstops so that it does not bang against the frame and a little time... After you have cut your spring to the desired measurement, it gets serious.  Its time to cut off the shackle mount, keep in mind, once this is done, thats it, it'll pretty much be toast once you cut it off so be warned! Once the frame shackle mount is cut, then its time to put it together.  Ya need to put those bumpstops on the frame or the spring so it doesnt bang as you go down the road.  Then isntall the spring.  On the passenger side there are some brake parts that will kinda be in the way but its easy enough put your bolts on one side or the other.  Once all this is in place your almost ready to go.  You do need to do some welding at this point.  I welded the brace on the side of the frame so the spring cant "slide" off sideways.  If you want to "pin" it to the frame when not on the trail, then put a brace on both sides of the spring and drill a hole in them so you can run a bolt or pin through there to hold it in check.  Like the setup below.  And thats about it, I know, its a lame decription but believe me, once you have the parts its very easy to do.

OTHER PEOPLES SETUPS. This is Gabes Toy from the club SNORT.  He has an awesome 4 link system with super long buggy leaf and waaaay pitched shocks for a soft supple suspension ride!

Here is Brett Epperlys set up on his CJ.  Its a bit like Gabes setup above and yeilds some wicked travel.  He beat out the Scorpion on the Ramp at TTC!!

THE GOOD THE BAD, THE PROS THE CONS, IS IT WORTH IT?....... I have been running my setup for close to a year now with pretty good results.  Lets first look at the cons.  Big one, my springs are dead!  The way the buggy works it puts an S kind of twist on the leaf pack, this will fatiuge it quickly.  I dont pin mine down so body roll is sevear on the road.  This is by choice, mine is not a "street truck", I dont really care how it handles on the road, as long as its safe in normal driving conditions.  Another bad point, if you are not running link bars youre gonna have axel hop!  I dont romp on it on hills and stuff and basically just crawl the trails so I havent had to big of a prob with this, but it is there.  And the ass is gonna hop is ya romp on it hard off road!  I would not reccomend this for a daily driver, some people run them without probs everyday, but I just dont think its a real good idea.  Maybe if its pinned in place when not in use its a bit better but there are just lots of factors you find out when you run the setup. Ok, now that I have talked everyone out of this setup, lets look at the good.  KILLER TRAVEL, enough said!I I dont pic a tire near as much as I used to and I can usually get decent traction out of it when the buggy is fully extended.  theres really no weight on the fully drooped tire but my truck keeps pushing forward with not probs.  Again, this is a "trail truck" setup but if you learn to handle the quirks, like lockers or anything else you will be happy with this..