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Good am from Atlanta. Im a new XJ owner. I have a stock WJ and JK, and now a 95 XJ. This XJ was a buddies that passed on and his wife wanted me to continue on with it.
The suspension is flat worn out. It will be a irregular daily in town driver and 2-3X/ yr gentle camping / off roader. I want a 2" lift - the 3" seems a bit too much for my liking.
The lifting of these seems so convoluted and confusing. I know I need new leaf springs, coils and shocks. If I want to do a 2", do I just go OEM on the parts and then the lift? I guess I need some guidance. I want a factory ride, just 2" higher.....
Any guidance would be appreciated. Im looking for a kit I guess, but I need more than just add a leaf...
chris
I am far from an expert and didn't ask enough questions when I lifted my 93. All I wanted was a simple 3" lift. When I had the cash in 2020, no one had anything available below 4" for the XJ. Since I was eager to spend the money, I bought the Rough Country 4.5" kit with full leaf springs. Had I waited and pieced it together, I would have saved money on certain items and bought better items in other areas.
1) Do not get add a leaf springs. Buy a new full 2" leaf spring. Adding a new leaf to an old spring isn't going to improve the ride. I'm
2) My kit came with basic front springs. They suck. I feel every bump and every bump jars the whole rig. A little research would have led me to dual-rate springs. I am now going to spend money on replacing the replacement springs...
3) Shocks. The shocks in the kit aren't bad, they don't seem to be a great improvement. I should have bought Old Man Emu shocks or equivalent..
I suggest you take your time make a plan and buy suggested pieces instead of a kit since it's only 2".
My question is... why can't I add a spacer between the axle and the stock rear springs for the 1 1/2 inch lift I am looking for? Then add a spacer to the front springs as well?
As far as the rear axle spacer, I have access to a laser, water jet, and full machine shop, so I was thinking a solid plate of 1 1/2 inch A36 steel. Or two 3/4 inch pieces edge welded.
Im not looking for an aggressive off road lift, just a bit to make my Jeep stand just a bit more proud. Purely cosmetic.
I have 32.5x10.50x16 mudder tires on my 1979 jeep chief cherokee and want to swap them out for tires to drive around town and on the highway. What size do I need?
I'm new to the XJ game and after performing some much-needed routine maintenance on my new-to-me '99 Cherokee Sport, I moved on to the worn-out suspension components. Long story short, I was looking for all-new wheels, tires, shocks, springs, and leaf pack to get a ~3" lift. I settled on 17" Mopar steelies, Milestar Patagonia 245/17/70 A/TR's (30"-31"), Bilstein 5100's, Rubicon Express 3.5" front springs, and OME 3" leaf springs. The combination proved to be aesthetically exactly what I was looking for but after about 6 weeks and I can't take the harsh ride anymore! I should have realized during the installation when my buddy commented on how difficult it was to compress the springs. The rears are just as bad and thump over normal obstacles unless I have the cargo area fully loaded.
Now once you stop shaking your heads, I did say I was new to this and came to find out the RE springs are rated at 260#/in and I'm guessing these are meant for use with a plow or a gargantuan metal bumper & winch combo.
The few places I called didn't actually know the spring rating on the springs they were selling until I spoke to someone at Rusty's Off-Road who had 2" springs rated at 150# and a 3" set in 150# and 180#. I ordered the 2" set and will be installing them this weekend, but now have to deal with the rears.
So if anyone is looking for a set of HD front springs for a 3-3.5" lift...I'm your man.
I'm about to buy the RE 3.5" super ride kit with Bilstein 5100 series. This scares me. As my daily I sure dont wan't it riding stiff! Am I making the wrong purchase??
Happy almost 4th of July everyone! I'm new to this forum, but I just had some questions about my 96 xj. Im about to buy wheels and tires for it. My plans are to daily it but give it some proper modifications to be capable on the trails. It has a 4-inch lift on it now. My plan is to buy 285/75r16 (11.2 wides), but I'm debating what size wheel I should get. I'm looking at 16x8 but I'm not sure if those are wide enough. Im not a fan of the 16x10 with that size tire. Do you think I would be fine if I ran 16x8s to daily it?
I'm about to buy the RE 3.5" super ride kit with Bilstein 5100 series. This scares me. As my daily I sure dont wan't it riding stiff! Am I making the wrong purchase??
Hey Gus. Im running the same lift and shocks on my Jeep. I will admit it is pretty stiff. I don't drive my Jeep often as I'm still finishing it, and I dont have a ton of road time with this setup. Its not bad on paved roads but youll feel the bumps. I have some friends who run bilstiens on their trucks and at first, they are stiff. So it could just be a matter of time
I just installed the RE 3.5" super flex short arm lift kit on my 88 and while doing that I realized my Dana 35 has a pinion that's about to give up.
I already planned on swapping to an 8.8 so that forced my hand.
Now I have an 8.8 with the IRO 8.8 swap kit ready to go but I know it'll add an inch of lift to the rear which has brand new 3.5" lift springs makes it 3/4" taller in the rear I know they'll settle down with use and I'm not worried about it as it but ones I get another inch I know I'll see the rear taller than the front. So for my question!
How do I level this thing out?
will it solve its self when broken in properly?
I'm also installing the Ruff Stuff Specialties spring perch kit as my passenger spring perch is too rusted for my comfort. It is adjustable!
Hey Gus. Im running the same lift and shocks on my Jeep. I will admit it is pretty stiff. I don't drive my Jeep often as I'm still finishing it, and I dont have a ton of road time with this setup. Its not bad on paved roads but youll feel the bumps. I have some friends who run bilstiens on their trucks and at first, they are stiff. So it could just be a matter of time
Cool thanks. So after say a thousand miles shocks can get less stiff? Or is it the leafs?
I'm New to Cherokees here. I have a 94' XJ I'm planning on putting a narrowed Dana 60 in the rear, and a narrowed 44 in the front. I want to run 35, or 36 inch Patagonia mud terrains on it. Just wondering what kind of lift I should be looking into getting. Planning on doing mild-to serious wheeling on anything from washboard roads to slickrock trails. Thanks
I'm New to Cherokees here. I have a 94' XJ I'm planning on putting a narrowed Dana 60 in the rear, and a narrowed 44 in the front. I want to run 35, or 36 inch Patagonia mud terrains on it. Just wondering what kind of lift I should be looking into getting. Planning on doing mild-to serious wheeling on anything from washboard roads to slickrock trails. Thanks
Definitely go with a long arm kit if you're planning to wheel it hard. Rubicon express makes one that's fair priced. Iron rock off road makes a good one as well.
I would say you'll wanna go a minimum 5.5" of lift and you'll still need to cut and fold the fenders!
Hey so im planning out my xj build right now and i have a 1999 Cherokee country. I'm planning on putting a rough country 4.5 long arm lift and i want to though some 32's under it with little to no cutting needed to be done (I'm keeping stock fenders and bumpers) I also want to get the widest stance i can without rubbing but ive got no clue how much offset i can run or how wide of tires i can get so any help would be appreciated.
I recently purchased my first XJ and am looking to be doing some long roadtrips/ overlanding out of it. Currently it still has the stock suspension with a rear leveling kit to fix the very saggy leaf springs with 27 inch tires. Because I will be doing a lot of road driving with a good bit of weight in the rear I want to replace my suspension to something that will give me a better ride but not decrease the gas mileage too much. I also would prefer to not change the tires for now, as they are fairly new.
I was wondering if it would be possible to use this same setup except use the Bilstein 5100 shocks. These Shocks are technically for a 2-3 inch lift, so I wasn't sure if they would work with a more stock ride height. In the future I would consider doing an add a leaf 1.5-2 inch lift, but wouldn't do that until it was time to get new tires. Would this setup work out temporarily with these size shocks, or should I go with the 4600 ones listed earlier? If anyone has any suggestions of better solutions that aren't too expensive let me know. Thanks! https://www.shocksurplus.com/product...hoC_6wQAvD_BwE
09-21-2015, 02:17 PM
My input
