No, going back to stock shackles will not do much about feeling tippy. Maybe a tiny bit, but not much. What it will do is make the steering less squirrely on the road. Picture the caster wheels at the front of a shopping cart. They always readily go where you point the shopping cart to. Same with caster angle on an automobile. The more caster angle, the more the wheels "want" to return to a straight path. When you put extended shackles on the front, it messes up that tendency and the wheels want to point any old which way.
I don't like feeling tippy either. I have never liked riding in really tall rigs. I learned to wheel in bone stock rigs - first my Dad's 1946 CJ2 flatfender starting in 1972, and then gradually after I got my first FJ40 in 1982. Bone stock suspension, 235s, open diffs. You learn to be a much better driver and pick good lines that won't get you stuck. When I started getting hung up on tougher trails, I put in a rear locker - best darn mod I ever made. I still bumped on rocks underneath. I went up to 31s and that helped. Ran them for a lot of years. Then our club said you had to have at least 33s to be allowed on certain trails, So I did just the bare minimum lift that allowed me to run 33s.
From the pictures of Jeff's (now your) FJ40, it looks like a 4" lift. I run about 2". If you went to a bit less lift, now that would feel less tippy.
a silver star.. to keep Sylvia on Mud? and to help keep Jeff's rig going!
Always glad to help.
I'll see if I can talk her into letting me drive it a few miles. But- really??... you can drive Moab or CO or WY or AK trails with a stock suspension??...??
