Saharaunlmtd

This thread really hits home with me. I stripped down my 07 Sahara before trading it in on a 15 Willys. I'm really enjoying the stock handling and mpg.

I currently have a 3" lift and 35" MTRs sitting in my garage and I'm giving serious consideration to not installing them.

I started my 07 with a bb, then came springs, then trackbar, then axle mount rear trackbar bracket, then front lca's, and then Bilstein 5100s and it just never handled great and was getting 11 mpg (partially my fault, no regear w/4.10s).

Currently the handling is great and I got 100 more miles out of a tank of gas than my 07.

Decisions, decisions!!!

tippedover

When i first read your quest i was going to say check out dirtmans write up! Great read!

rsbmg

My experience has been that what terrain you are driving on dictates what modifications are required to continue forward progress. Personally I have been stopped more times by belly clearance than tire traction over loose terrain. I agree the perfect line will go a long way but even the most ideal line will not always overcome clearance just as the best tires and lockers do 0 good if your sitting on your belly spinning four tires in the air. As for armor I have never understood why someone would strap 100+ lbs. of steel to an under carriage of stock height vehicle with the idea it will protect the under carriage so its needed. How about moving the undercarriage farther away from the things that are causing it damage in the first place? Evap skids are literally the most useless thing ever invented. Why would you put armor on something to protect it when you can just move it to a safer location where it wont get hit in the first place. A BB and flat fenders with bigger tires will do way more for you than lockers front and rear and a bunch of steel strapped to you belly. But thats just my experience in the terrain I find myself in.

TheDirtman

True, but I guarantee you are going to find a bigger rock to get hung up on or a steeper ledge to scrape. Max traction on these obstaicals will allow you slide over/up them. I agree with armor as well, do as little as possible to save the weight and loss of clearance. No build is going to be able to run every terrain, and I would build the jeep for what you do most with it.

bareass

if you have a two door you can always get somebody's stock springs from a four door. that should give you about an inch.

i bought a rough country 2.5" budget boost (the steel spacer). i did not move the the bump stop down, and i replaced the shock spacer with a set of skyjacker 9000 shocks (i think). the shocks added a decent amount of flex over the shock spacers.

i have been running this suspension with 33s and a completely disconnected swaybar since 2008/9 and have been fine. it has got me through some pretty great trails just fine, and is my daily driver

rabbitdave

One piece of armor I did not hear mentioned is lower control arms. Seems welded on skids for them is the way to go, and Evo has a rear relocation bracket that will give you an inch more of ground clearance. Also I would add to the list Diff Covers/skids. I really like the Rough Country Diff Skids Plates. Great protection and allow better sliding over those rocks in the middle of a narrow trail.

I know for me, I don't want to lift until I am out of the warranty period since that will void the warranty. So I'm stuck in what I can do. Lucky for me it is mostly mud and trails with the occasional big rock in the way that you have to navigate. With rock rails and skids and the biggest tires I can put on without a lift I can do a lot of what others are doing with 4 inch lifts. Also the lack of lift lowers the CG so you are able to do more off camber trails without as much to worry about. So there are advantages to turtle over things.

rsbmg

First A lift will not void your warranty this has been hashed and re-hashed for years and still gets brought up. Do you think when you take your jeep in with a leaky radiator they are going to go oh, wait a minute this dude has a 2.5'' lift puck under his springs, no way we can warranty his radiator now. Doesn't work like that.

Second not lifting does not lower your center of gravity it simply remains the same. That said, lift height is only one part of the equation when determining COG. Plenty of lifted vehicles have a better center of gravity than a stock vehicle, just many do not.

sea bass

X2!!!

Jk's are the widest, most stable wrangler jeep has ever produced. I don't get why everyone is on the low cog kick and anti lift. I get that on tj's, and yj's where you'd need a 4-6" lift to clear 35’s - but you only need a 2.5" on a jk.

Like rsbmg stated, it's a balance. Usually you go up, and you end up going wider with bigger tires and less backspaces wheels. I probably netted a total 5.5" on my 3.5" lift and 37’s , but I also bet I'm 5" wider than stock if not more. Plus less body roll and lean with the stiffer spring rates on off camber situations

Maybe my math is flawed and there's more physics taking place than I accounted for (there usually is) but how many people are out there flopping their JK's because they're not stable? I get most of my data from scientific places such as youtube - there's only a handful of Jk's flopping compared to Tj's and yj's. Doesn't get much more scientific than that!

:-)

JKMARINE

The Dirtman seems to be only one in this thread that actually knows what he is talking about. There is so much wrong information floating around this forum and everyone just repeats it as if it was fact. I bet 99.9% of the people on here don't know how to actually set up a suspension and they constantly give their opinions of what is the best product out there to run. Some people get lucky and pick a wheel, tire, and lift combo that perform great without actually understanding the reason why. Most select what is popular and put no more thought into it (bigger is better). It's not just about a low center of gravity for better off road performance. It's the distance between the roll center and the center of gravity. With a bigger lift, you increase the distance and make the Jk more susceptible to rolling over. The best way to counter that is with increasing the track width. Most people think that wider tires, lower backspace, and wheel spacers is the cure. Like the Dirtman said, the stock configuration is the best. I'm not saying the stamped control arms, the shocks, or axles are the best. Just saying that all of the suspension geometry performs better. When you add the wheel spacers, lower backspace, and bigger tires, you are throwing off the steering scrub radius and adding more stress to ball joints, bearings, steering, and axle components. It may take a little while but you can figure every thing out and design a properly working suspension before you even spend one penny. I highly recommend that people educate themselves on chassis engineering before they give "Their" opinions that they read from someone else on the Forum.

rsbmg

Maybe we can just lock the forum altogether. No since in anybody posting since only those who have proclaimed themselves smarter than anyone else should post. Maybe the smartest person on the forum, again self proclaimed, can just tell everyone else how to build a jeep and we can all have the exact same perfect jeep. Or maybe a forum is where people can share their opinions, and experiences as well as potentially their expertise.

It's just jeeps not rocket science lets not make it into more than it is.