That's what I'm thinking as well. The extra bumpstops won't really limit my articulation on the opposite side. It's more the tire stuffing and COG.

I'm planning on running the stock moabs with 1.5" or 2.0" wheel spacers. I have the 1.5" now, but after I get the tires mounted, I'll know which to go with.

My Jeep came with a budget boost of some sort and 285/70 on 17x9 steelies/5.25" bs. I measured this morning, and currently have 4.75" from top of tire to bottom of flare front clearance, 6.5" rear. Never any rubbing problems.

I found this picture online and like this trim job. This is about as much as I'd be willing to trim.


If I end up going to flatties, I'll probably end up selling front and rear bumpers and go with something that will look better. That's something I want to avoid though.

 

I've seen this before, and LOVE the look!! Do you take it off-road, and what's been your experience.

Thanks everyone for their replies!

 

I took that Jeep off road all the time, but not with the stock flares on it. The tires rubbed pretty bad, even on the street, with stock flares. I've done the low COG approach, as you can see in the picture, and I've done a more conventional lift. The low COG approach looks good, but it doesn't work very good. Up travel is very limited, and off road ride quality suffers because of that. You have to go a lot slower, and still spend a lot of time on the bump stops. That Jeep had a 2 1/2" lift and 37s; my current Jeep has a 3" lift and 35s, and it works a whole lot better. You really need that little bit of extra up travel.

 

Not sure how you define articulation? A stock JK has something like 8" of travel. Let's say you go to 37s and 10" travel shocks. When you add 4" of bump stop, you now have 6" of travel. Sure, your tire will droop another couple inches, but it can't stuff nearly as much. And that makes for poor offroad manners, especially in rocks or off camber.

 

Well, yes, that's correct. The side where the tire is stuffed is limited in uptravel. The other side isn't limited on the down travel. It's still going to pivot and droop. Just not be as stable off camber. I do understand what you mean.

 

Yeah that makes sense. So, I'm wondering if the extra .75" lift and maybe the 1" I take off the flares will work. My wheels would be .25" pulled in more than yours, but who knows if that will make a difference. How wide were your tires? 12.50 or 13.50?

 

My tires were 12.50s. For 37s and stock flares I wouldn't do less than 4" lift. But if you're trimming the fenders like in that picture, 3.25" of lift is probably going to be fine, and allow you to run a little shorter bumpstop. Those trimmed fenders look nice by the way; thats the best trimming job I've seen on stock fenders. They usually look like something farm built.

 

Down travel is limited by your shock. Coils can only extend so far, so you can't just get an even longer shock. Point is, you'll have less "articulation" than a bone stock JK.

 

Low COG works great if you build it right. I run 14" of travel on 2.5" of lift and 37s. No rubbing anywhere. Dirtman runs something like 14" front and 16" rear with 40s and I believe 4" of lift with no rubbing issues.

Lift height does not make a difference in terms of articulation/travel/flex. A coil has an extended and compressed length, the difference is the max amount of travel (assuming a shock is perfectly matched to it). I can take a 2.5" coil and add a little spring rate and make a Jeep sit at 3.5". What changes? Nothing. Still the same max and min points. Still the same amount of bump stop needed.

 

So the consensus is my jeep won't automatically taco with my plan, so I'll throw the lift on there 1st and compare clearance numbers. If I'll be riding the bump stops, then I'll look into trimming.

Thanks for the replies guys.