The ride - 2014 - 4 door Wrangler Sport Unlimited & (We're pretty aggressive trail riders)

While I was attempting the Poughkeepsie WALL in the San Juan Mountains outside Silverton, CO last month I broke the relocator pin on the driver side rear shock. While this was a minor inconvenience, but it caused a number of questions to be asked.

First) I want to replace all my shocks but I do not know what lift the previous owner installed so I get the appropriate shocks. How do I determine the lift size they installed?

Additionally I'm considering install Relocator pin eliminators from 4WD Parts. Any opinions?

Second) The Jeep has a 3.73 axle ratio with Nitto Trail Grappler MT 295/70/R18s, While we were descending some pretty steep (20%+) grades I was in 4WL in 1st gear and still having to constantly apply braking. I know that's not right. With the oversized after market tires what axle ring & pin ratio should I have installed.

Thanks All

 

Welcome to JKF.. Good group and alot of knowledge.. keep posting and updating on your results. I have seen on the web illustrations of the stock measurements and how to measure; do not have them copied. good chance several members have this data Not knowing the height of those tires (i guess in the 33" range) I suggest 4.10 maybe 4.56.. Rubicons usually come with 4.10s; however, there are some that had 3.73 several years ago.
BTW .. check out Jeep Badge of Honor - has many trails identified https://www.jeep.com/badge-of-honor.html

 

I can't speak the to eliminator pins. It looks like you have ~34.5" tires and with that 3.6L you are overgeared and your crawl ratio isn't low enough so you have to ride the brakes down steep grades. You need to consider 4.56 for best all around DD or even 4.88 if you wheel aggressively and want additional offroad slow speed control. You can't have it all so the trade off is higher revving rpms at the high end. I've found the old gear charts on the web to be pretty accurate as far as rpms @ 70mph. For accurate tire measurement just measure from the ground to center of hub and double it.

 

Depending on your feelings about the On-Road performance of your current gear/tire combo, another option might be to watch for a used transfer case out of a rubicon. That would get you a 4:1 ratio in 4-lo instead of the 2.72:1 in your current t-case.