With a 1310 shaft, you can run around 26"-27" (extended length of shock, using stock mounts). The easiest and best solution after that is to push the exhaust back to the crossmember. Exhaust spacers are junk. There are two good locations on each side of the exhaust to cut and extend without pushing the exhaust crossover below the crossmember. After doing that, there should be zero clearance issues (unless the suspension installed would also contact the crossmember, which I believe is the same location as pre 2012?).

 

Bingo, I think for the average jeeper Limiting straps are just another cool looking part. But if your running 8- 10 rated trails all the time , then maybe a good investment.

 

You can't measure it just by saying the shaft is X amount smaller so that's what you can droop. For every 1" the shaft moves at the exhaust (transfer case) end of it, it moves several inches at the axle end, so a smaller diameter shaft gives you a lot more droop.

The other factor is that the drivetrain in the 2013+ is angled up several degrees, I think 3-6 or something like that, from the previous models, so you also are putting a lot of angle on the joints just driving down the road. I don't think that is that big if a deal unless you are going over a solid 4+ Inches of lift.

I did a driveshaft on my '13 without touching the exhaust and I had a 4" lift and it didn't hit drooped with 10"+ travel shocks.

On my '14 I have a AFE Y pipe and a 2.5" lift and there is no possible way it could hit with the Y pipe.

 

Thanks,
So in reality you can run about a 10" travel shock with an aftermarket shaft. I guess it is better then nothing.

 

Correct. The 11" ARBs that come with the MetalCloak lift will still contact the exhaust with a 1310 shaft. That said, it is fairly unlikely someone would fully droop the whole axle offroad, though not impossible. For a few dollars and 30 minutes of time, it's sort of a no brainier to just shift the crossover back (and despite how many times I have said it, I don't think anyone has listened....).

 

I never said that the gain in a smaller diameter shaft = amount of axle droop.

The factory driveshaft at the boot is right around 3" in diameter. Most after market shafts use 2" dom tubing so the diameter is 1" smaller and the gain in clearance is .5"
The front driveshaft is 36"+- and the exhaust contact point is around 12" forward of the transfer case so a .5" gain in clearance in the driveshaft gives you 1.5" more droop at the axle.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2CQD68LHSg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2CQD68LHSg According to this video, just 2.25" longer shocks than stock will make contact. But pushing the exhaust back a little changed that to over 5".

 

I don't really like any of the other options. Not a fan of the exhaust spacer. Was going to do the limiting strap in the center on the differential but that limits your articulation a little and by the time you get everything welded up and whatnot, it's close to $150. New driveshaft is great but $400+ and from what we discussed yesterday, might still have the issue depending on your setup. So, I would like to try this.

This is hard to picture without my lift installed yet (and without crawling under my Jeep right now to look). Did you do this to your Jeep? If so, do you have any pics of what you did? I am very interested to get a better understanding of this.

 

Back AND down. Lose ground clearance and put the crossover below the crossmember. Great idea if you have a shop (or yourself) cut and weld a couple pieces in and push it back and not down. If you are going to be flexing enough to need the fix, then you don't want to push the exhaust down.

 

Is this video, for the most part, what you are talking about? So you want to locate the crossover as close to the crossbar as you can?