I'm currently running a 2008 JKU with 2.5" lift and 35s. It's my daily with mild trail rides and mud holes under her belt. Nothing extreme but I don't baby her either. I happen to have a set of brand new 4" shocks with front and rear end links. As winter has set in so has my boredom. I've been considering just finding 4" springs and making this happen. However I don't wanna dump a lot of cash in track bars, control arms etc. I guess I'm wondering how bad I'll hate life if I only change shocks, springs and links??

 

If you don't care about it riding like shit and having everything out of alignment it should be fine.

 

Why not relocate your mounts and make the travel work? You won't mess up what you've already got and you have the opportunity to maximize the travel on the 4" shocks.

 

Haaaaa! That's exactly what I expect. I was just hoping to hear how easy it would be.

 

Track bar and/or control arm mounts?? I'm interested. Please continue.

 

Just shock mounts, nothing more. Move fronts and rears up until you've got the up and down travel that you're looking for. Get coil retainers as well as bumpstops and put them at the correct maximum and minimum heights.

Where there's a will, there's a way. You're bored, make it happen.

 

I follow you on the suspension travel. But I'm most concerned with ride quality in the short term. I don't want to fight this bitch on the highway like a runaway beer truck on a slippery slope. I just want to know what the absolute minimum I can do and still keep her between the lines. I'll eventually get around to HD components. But I just don't want to drop a couple Gs this time of year. Even if I get it riding right I don't want to break stuff with odd pinion angles etc putting strain on the gears, tranny, and anything else affected. Any advice for that??

 

Geo brackets, a rear track bar axle side bracket, shocks bare min.
I highly recommend a steering kit, EVO, Synergy, AEV $300 or so but well worth it.

 

By moving just the shock mounts you're not going to change the ride outside of the difference in shocks. Your height and current pinion angles will remain the same. The only place you'll see a difference is at maximum extension and maximum compression.

Similar concept while keeping it very basic- I put 1.5-3" shocks on a stock jeep. It had more articulation due to the longer spring length without compromising the ride quality. I had to add a little bumpstop to keep the shocks from over compressing but everything else was stock. You can on a basic level do the same thing but with moving your coil mounts further up. I can't speak to how far to move them because you will need to check where the coils bind, where they unseat, how you plan to retain them, and *hopefully* add some limiting straps to avoid making your driveshaft the limiting factor off-road.

 

Do you think ride quality would be good with front/rear track bar relo brackets, flipped draglink and front control arm brackets? Using stock control arms and track bars...