adriangtz

wtf?

ToyComa

slammed 2wd duallies are awesome.

XJs-R-us

Yeah, and because people use those purposefully to pull things.

Lowering an XJ is F'ing retarded....in 4WD or 2WD.

funkle95xj

There's an awful lot of closed mindedness going on in this thread. Pretty typical of a "Lowering the XJ" thread though, everyone has theri opinions I guess. I happen to believe a slightly lowered, hot rodded XJ would be awesome. Especially if it was done up like a Classic model with the painted trim and sitting on some nice mag or chrome wheels with some slightly fatter meats in the rear. You could build a stroker to keep it all Jeep and kick some ***, or drop a V8 in there and you'd have yourself a pretty unique and cool little hot rod truck. If you're gonna just putt around town in your 2WD Jeep, and have no intent of off roading it or converting to 4x4, why not make it look street clean and give it some nuts so it can be effective at a stoplight drag race, or through some nice winding roads? Every single other manufacturer out there people seem to support lowering and cleaning up theri 2WD, I don't see how Jeeps are somehow barred from this. A 2WD is a great platform for decent on road performance, much better than a built offroader could deliver. For someone who wanted that classic cherokee styling, in a street machine, I say go for it!

OverlandZJ

Yep, closed mindedness indeed. While i'm not a fan of the big wheels and such i can appreciate the work and design that goes into a build such as that. Be pretty boring if Vanilla was the only flavor...

Even the AMC engineers thought of a good use of a lowered suspension on a Jeep.

96xj4x4

wow i really want to see that race ^

halmotors

How would you even go about lowering the suspension on a Cherokee? Is there even a commercial supplier of a kit for it?

ToyComa

think they went ifs? to race it?

ChadXJ

LMAO

funkle95xj

Not that I've ever heard of, and believe me I have looked! There are other options though, TJ front springs in the front can give you a 1" drop. I can't remember which but either a TJ or a ZJ set of rear springs can get you more like 3" of drop. Then you could use some 2" lift springs and do a SUA (spring under axle) setup in the rear. Apparently doing the SUA with stock springs is something like a 5" drop, so the lift springs would even it out with the front 3" drop. Some folks have their front beam (2WD) customized so it has a big dip in the middle to clear the oil pan. Then shocks of course would probably need to be changed for some good quality racing shocks. A set of Addco swaybars would probably wrap up the handling package. Also stiffening the body as much as possible and figuring out what to do with stuff like your steering, control arms and trackbar at that ride height. Lowering a Cherokee for track performance is very doable I'd say, although since it is the road much much less traveled, be prepared to do alot of the figuring it out the hard way kind of stuff on your own...

funkle95xj

No it's solid axle up front. 2WD of course. And IIRC they weren't lowered actually, they were given some vastly improved shocks and their suspension was tuned but I believe the class regulations required stock height suspension and stock powertrain. Those MJs were 4cyl trucks too, not 4.0s. They just added that giant front air dam to get the front aerodynamic surface closer to the ground, and snag a little extra downforce. They also ran much smaller than stock wheels/tires which also helps get the truck down closer to the pavement.

ToyComa

I wonder how they did against other trucks.

DagBMX

there you go! of course i would have the 4.0L stroked and get a little more juice out of it. and probably stick a slightly lower gear into it.

ok, for a 4-door with 4X4, yeah, i would obviously lift and off road it (current idea with current jeep)

if i had a 2-door 2X4, you bet your butt i would put full width axles underneath, wheels with a little bit of backspacing, lower it slightly (not to be confused with slammed, because it never looks good unless it is a 1964 Impala), strip out all the carpeting and interior junk, cage the inside, and i'd take it to the track and chuck turns in it.

even though jeep does have a purist following (as we can see by this thread :tongue: ), let's not forget the other intentions of many vehicles of the past. did Chevy ever intend for their big old panel wagons to get showed off? no, but look what people did in the 1970's with those crazy ******* wagons. did old Mercury sedans of the 1930's and 40's ever been seen as having the tops chopped and painted with flames? no, but guess what post WWII hot rod ingenuity did for us. did those cheap japanese econo-boxes start out being intended to be modified and turned into show cars? who'd have thought plastic grocery grabbers would have become iconic vehicles and inspire movies like The Fast And The Furious (yet i still do not like those cars, i hate that movie series, and you'll probably catch me driving one only if it is a loaner in the far and distant future).

ToyComa

funny thing is how people bag on someone wanting to lower a 2wd cherokee yet they either forget or don't even know about the Jeepster.

ToyComa

Here is a rendering of a grand cherokee.

I think a cherokee could be lowered and look really good but it would take some skill to do it right. And the proper wheel and tire set up to get good fitment. Not some stupid 20+ rims. something like an 18x10 with 5" backspacing all around on 255/40/18s with flush fitment. Ditch the fender flares and weld up all the holes and roll the fender lips if need be to just barely clear the tires. IFS and a 4 linked rear all on coil overs.