You should be fine with yours the way it is now.
Have you watched this? (now granted he has a 4.0, tho should give you an idea)

 

Bigger tires will net you more clearance, a lift will not. Lifting your jeep will also make it ride worse, no matter what brand you buy.

Chose what size tires you want to run and that will determine what size lift you should buy.

 

this isn't true. Lift will net clearance just not axle clearance. There a lift kits that are very well put together with good springs that ride very well. Also each jeep is different so he could have some ridiculously bad shocks and or springs right now.

 

The lift giving more clearance is true, but to me it's pointless clearance. There's few places a stock jeep can't go that a jeep with a small lift and stock tires can.

About ride quality. It WILL be worse. As soon as your control arms go from being flat to angled more energy is transferred into the body and less into the suspension. Thus, worse ride.

 

long arms, mid arms, control arm drop brackets they all help the control arm angles. Break over angle approach and departure angles are increased.

 

I have now! Really I've been happy with my XJ in it's stock form. I have gotten stuck in the mud once so far (when I wasn't trying to) but I think that was mostly due to operator error instead of lack of ability of the Jeep.

Everything I have read - on this forum and others - is that OME lifts improve ride quality over stock. I have never ridden in a Jeep with an OME lift so I do not know for sure. I didn't mean to start a debate over ride quality lol!

The idea behind the OME lift was to give the Jeep a better-than-stock suspension that might help me get over a few small rocks. But maybe I am wrong on that.

 

Hey man nice to see another South Dakotan! Im heading west river this summer

 

Dakotans unite! Where are you heading? Are there many good trails east river?

 

good trails in sioux city iowa, i want to get out and do alot of the more advanced trails out there this summer, maybe we can meet? haha if i come down im bringing the Sufu jeep crew with me or at least a few members.

 

Absolutely! If you guys can put up with a stock 4 banger lol.

To get the thread back on track, I think I'm going to work on what the Jeep needs first. Like any old XJ, there's some odds and ends that need some attention. After that I think I'll slowly start working adding a OME lift, locker, etc. I just bought my 235 tires in September so that's part of the reason I've been hesitant to buy new ones, so those might be last. Then once all that is done I'll just drive the little 2.5L until it dies and then drop something else in. Although with the reliability of these AMC engines, that probably won't be for a while...