The opposite, longer shackles make the ride softer. AAL's make the ride harsher.

Measure the shackles from center of bolt to center of bolt from the hangar to the leaf.

The OEM are 3" long. I want to know how long yours are. 6" would give 1.5" of lift for example.

I see you still have the rear sway bar on. Most of us throw it in the garbage as it doesn't reduce sway, at least no one can tell the difference so far. It also tends to whack the passenger side rear shock, and wreck it over time...a very common problem/reason the chuck the sway bar. (Bad design, its been gone over a gazillion times on the various boards already).

The rear bar does make the X ride more roughly, and it limits wheel travel.


I now also need your shock measurements...as the Rancho lift used AAL, and, now, we're not sure WHAT's under there.

Measure the shock fully extended, and fully compressed. Look at the shiny piston shaft first before removing the lower shock mount (You only need to take off the lower to measure...).

See how much of the shaft looks shiny, and how much is still dirty. (Take a pic)


Check the torque on those rear shackles. If too tight, it can bind, and ride rough (too loose, it falls off, another issue...)





Go to the front, and measure the gap between the UCA and the upper bumpstop.

Passing something through the gap of known size is how we normally do it. Rolling up a piece of paper to get the right size is easy for example.


Go to the front P-Side corner of the rig, and push it up/down a few times, to bounce it...then let go when its DOWN.

If it just rises back up to rise height and stops, that's about perfect.

If it rises up above ride height, then settles right back down to ride height and stops, that's considered OK.

If it rises above, then drops below, and THEN goes back up, etc, that's considered inadequate.

Repeat for the other 3 corners.



(Rules of thumb, but its at least easy to do)


That will see if the shocks are a potential culprit right off the bat.


Measure the distance to the ground off the front, and rear, of the two steps. That gives 4 measurements.

The front two should be ~ 1.5" less than the rear two measurements. (Supposed to have some nose-down rake)


With all of the above, we'll have a VERY good idea of what's going on.


Report back!