How much benefit is really there from shifting the axles forward or back a few inches? I'm considering this as I plan out my axle swap, and the clearance issues are a challenge. I realize there are small gains to stability and an improvement in the ability to climb taller obstacles, but is the real world impact worth the hassle?

I've been thinking about the same thing. I bet 1" or 2" isn't going to do much of anything noticeable. If you can get to 6" total, there probably will be some noticeable differences. I'm just going to do what is easy and available, move the axle 1" back with the leaf spring perch. And I"ll push the front end forward as far as I can (without huge fab/steering changes), when I'm swapping upper coil spring buckets and I expect to do the 4x4x2 box at the same time.

Its funny, what is the "perfect" wheel base? Short is good because it is manuverable, and hard to get high centered. Long is good because it is stable. You keep stretching a Bronco out and you might as well have bought a short wheel base pick up. I remember reading about Broncos before I bought one, and it was said to be the "perfect" wheel base, longer than a CJ, but shorter than a p/u truck. Now we are all into stretching our "perfect" trucks. LOL. The "sport" has come a long way since the mid-90's.

Justin I think even a few inches can be a major benefit. I plan on moving the rear 6-7" next year when I do either duffs 4 link kit or a diy kit.. I will also do the front when I ditch the steering box and go full hydro.... Im going fir a 103" wb and a really good aproach angle... Go for it 3" will help we all want 3 more inches:-) finally got my 9" done hopefully front in a few week s

It seems when I drag or hit, it is due to approach and departure angles. IIRC, I moved my front forward 2" and that helped the approach angle significantly (54* to 60*). Moving the rear axle back 1" was more of an aesthetic thing for me, but it did help as well. So I am roughly at 95" and I wouldn't mind being right around 100" +/- 2" all said and done. That is to say I stay in the 37" tire size range. The bigger tires you run, the more stretch you can get away with due to increased breakover angle.

Ideally I want to move the rear back 2-3" as that is where I get hung up the most right now. Then stretch the body/frame 6" or so further increasing my wheelbase. That puts me around 103-104". Now that I put the numbers to it, I'm not sure what I want to do. I want to keep the maneuverability, but need more stability for the obstacles I want to tackle.

JD I ended up finally getting a 23 gallon tank, ended up notching it and it just barely clears with that d60 moved back 3 1/2"s so if I had a 9" still it would have tons of room, and after the notch it still holds about 23.3 gallons if I run it till its on fumes. The only thing I don't like about moving the rear axle back, is that since I did it, the rear tires are a little easier to light up, especially in the rain and snow, but that's to be expected with the change in weight placement, I moved my front forward 1" when Hefty and I did the long arms, looking at it now, I think I can still go 2" further forward since I installed the heim'd trac bar that Clint at battlement built

I'll have to check yours out Corey. Still, want to tuck it up higher, which means sacrificing volume. But I'd rather plumb in a small storage tank in the Aux location to get capacity back. I could go with 14ish gal on the main and a small 10gal aux tank and have more than I usually need.

Eventually I'd like to build a whole new tank, cut and raise the floor in the rear area so that I could have a large capacity tank that only hangs a few inches below the frame horns, but I don't have the time, funds, or ability to park the bronco right now since its still my daily driver

I'm reviving this after looking at my rig a little more. How did you guys deal with the front cross member clearance when you pushed the front forward? Looking at it I've got about a 1/2” between the drag long and the front cross member. Pretty sure it would rub if it relocated the axle forward. I could make a new cross member, but I'm not sure I want to deal with that much hassle.

What steering setup do you have? This is 1 ton TRE's with a flat pitman arm:

I'm running the same steering setup you are, but I think I may have less lift. I'm running 3.5" of SL. My drag link looks closer to the crossmember than yours. After looking at it a little more last night I may just clearance the crossmember by cutting out a section and welding in some 2 or 3" tube. I'm thinking that moving the axle forward 2" could be doable that way. I'll post a pic up after I get the kids down for nap. Looking at it more the rear will have to wait until I change out the fuel tank at some point down the road.

I'm on 3.5" SL as well. Interesting to see how yours compares.

Not great pics, as I had a hard time getting ones that weren't backlit, but it gives the general idea. I've got 1-1.5" of vertical clearance between the drag link and the crossmember, but only about 1/2" of horizontal space. I'm figuring on getting significantly more flex since I'm going to the Battlement Fab arms-hopefully at least 4-5" inches of uptravel depending on how I mount the track bar.

One possible saving grace could be that when you flex, one tire goes up and one comes down, so you may have enough clearance. That is, unless you baja this thing and compress all the front suspension at once. But worst case is compressing the passenger side, but where the arm might intersect the cross member, it's only going to move around 25-30% of what the passenger wheel is doing.

Do you have a way to flex it out now just to see? Having a piece of tubing on hand would be smart, but I'm thinking you might not need it. And for cutting reasons, you might consider square tube or angle iron. 1/8" thick is probably thicker than the frame.

I'm planning to get all the links in place and try moving it up and down with a floor jack. I don't know that it'll be 100% accurate, but should give me some idea of what I'm dealing with. The other thing I haven't totally figured out yet is how the track bar will be mounted on the chassis side. I can't use the axle mount because of the configuration of the long arm brackets, so the plan is to use an offset RuffStuff bracket and fabricate a new track bar. I'm hoping to use the stock chassis mount, but may wind up reinforcing the frame and using the matching RuffStuff chassis bracket as well. If I do I can relocate the bar down a little-maybe an inch, which would give me a little more clearance around the crossmember.

Food for thought:
Based off Poly Performance bracket, but added ram mount:


Chassis side. This 2x6x3/16" (ish) cut down to maximize track bar length and general strength. Frame is plated with 1/4" as well. The drop pitman arm is gone now.