Do I Need Lower Spring Perch Pads?

[qslim]

Do I need them? The 44 I'm installing now doesn't have them, the 35 I got rid of had dilapidated pads of some sort, looked almost like cardboard. On one hand I don't want to hear my wife complain from noise if they're even noisy with metal on metal, on the other hand I think water should just drain & not rust out the bottom of my springs any more than they already are. Thoughts?

 

[Goatman]

I'd put a pad at least on the top of the spring. Leave the bottom one off for better drainage. If they end up being squeaky you can just add something in later.

 

[IrishWake]

I took the isolator out of the top of the rear to bring the Jeep back down to level. Haven't had an issue (sound/vibration) with not running an isolator on either side, so you should be fine with the lower removed. I'm not sure I've seen a hint of lower isolator being installed on any of the three rear axles I've had in this Jeep (Dana 35, Rubi 44, Sport 44). Didn't know that was really a thing.

 

[pc1p]

I used these on my build simply to avoid noise and metal-to-metal contact:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0031GZ6JA/?tag=wranglerorg-20

They worked great...

 

[rasband]

No you don’t need bottom isolators, the isolators are on top to avoid transferring all the vibrations from the axles to the frame (there’s another set between the frame and body). You can if you’d like to, but ideally you find a sufficiently long spring where even at droop you won’t separate enough to matter.