Suspension
12-04-2018, 12:24 PM
#5
JK Jedi
I responded on your duplicate thread in different sub-forum last night, but will continue here since you have a reply. IMO, your problem is really two-fold. 1) lift height and 2) brand. There's very little reason to lift 4". Lift should be more about accommodating tires than "looks" which can be subjective. The higher you lift, the steeping your driveline angles, and the higher your center of balance. It's really just not worth it. 3.5" is dang aggressive and costs a crap ton of money to REALLY do it properly. You can do it on the cheap, but you'll end up with a crappy ride. 2.5" is really a nice size IMO. Throw 35s on and you can do just about anything you'll want to do. It will be easier on your driveline and it will be cheaper to do in the long run.
I'd really caution to getting sucked in to how inexpensive some "kits" can appear. They are incomplete, and you're going to realize it costs much more to lift a jeep than you think upfront. People like to ignore all the steering components that will likely need to be addressed along the line as well as your bigger tires add stress throughout the whole system. Ball joints, tie rods, drag links need eventual attention, and you could possibly have to address a drive shaft too at some point (I've seen em go on 2.5" lifts that never left the pavement). You also need to account for caster correction, and I'm not talking about $15 cam bolts.
As jadmt asked, how are you going to use the jeep? What is your budget? I mentioned Dirtman's sticky in my other post. Go read it as it has good information. You can also go at something like a full Metalcloak lift kit on their website. Don't pay attention to price, just look at each component a full kit comes with and try to understand WHY each is necessary. Once you understand why you may need a specific thing, you can determine what you may or may not be able to work a way around without, or find a more cost efficient way to achieving. For example, using drop brackets for brake lines rather than replacing the entire brake line. The one thing that you'll find is you can't touch something on the jeep without it having another effect on something else. That is basically the struggle of a modified vehicle.
I'd really caution to getting sucked in to how inexpensive some "kits" can appear. They are incomplete, and you're going to realize it costs much more to lift a jeep than you think upfront. People like to ignore all the steering components that will likely need to be addressed along the line as well as your bigger tires add stress throughout the whole system. Ball joints, tie rods, drag links need eventual attention, and you could possibly have to address a drive shaft too at some point (I've seen em go on 2.5" lifts that never left the pavement). You also need to account for caster correction, and I'm not talking about $15 cam bolts.
As jadmt asked, how are you going to use the jeep? What is your budget? I mentioned Dirtman's sticky in my other post. Go read it as it has good information. You can also go at something like a full Metalcloak lift kit on their website. Don't pay attention to price, just look at each component a full kit comes with and try to understand WHY each is necessary. Once you understand why you may need a specific thing, you can determine what you may or may not be able to work a way around without, or find a more cost efficient way to achieving. For example, using drop brackets for brake lines rather than replacing the entire brake line. The one thing that you'll find is you can't touch something on the jeep without it having another effect on something else. That is basically the struggle of a modified vehicle.