Hi,

This is my first post (as I am new to the forum). I want to do a moderate build on my 2007 JK unlimited. I want to do it high end for the best ride comfort I can maintain. I have done some searching but cant find a lot on comfort of ride. I would like to do 4" or less of lift, and a tire that will be in the 32"-35" range, not wide but more tall, and more of a all terrain tire.

I use the Jeep only on the weekends, me my wife and two daughters like to take long trips and do moderate off-roading, nothing extreme. So I will do a lot of highway and small backroad driving.

Well, to make a long post short, I would love any opinions on lifts and tires for the build, and any pictures you may have that are close to what I am looking for would be great.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Matt

 

Congrats on deciding to lift and build. I am doing this too. I will be going with the teraflex 2.5in spring lift and the old emu lt shocks. The teraflex gives about 3 inches of lift which is all I want to go. Any higher than that, it will start to get too expensive. Going with these shocks because Ive done a search here and these are apparently the smoothest ones for our jeep. I have 33 inch tires. It you go any higher than a 2.5-3 inch lift, you may have to go with 35 inch tires or it may look abit funny.

 

that's how it allways starts (moderate)
i just started gitting all my parts togather for my jk build , I went with the OME HD
for the same reasons as you, along with all the othed goodies, track bars, radius arms, brake lines, call Dave at northridge
he was very helpful to me

 

Tall but narrow? 33x10.5x16 (255/85/16) aka Pizza Cutters - BFG KM2, but Maxxis and Cooper also offer tires in this size. The Cooper is a bit narrower than advertised, and definitely narrower than the KM2 and Maxxis. If you've got a rubi, I don't see moving up to a 33x10.5 having enough benefit to justify it over the 32x10.5 BFG KM's.

Suspension? I'm currently running a rough country/teraflex/skyjacker franken lift. If I were to do it all over again, I'd go with one brand and do it all in one shot, and that would probably be OME. I've run OME on my other rigs that were more for highway usage and the Bilsteins that come with their kits are well dampened. Whatever kit you do decide upon, just make sure it's a complete kit. By complete, I mean Upper/Lower control arms, trackbars, etc.. and not just coils and shocks.

BUT, there's aways a but, right?

Pizza cutters with a 3-4" lift make them look a bit small, especially on a 4DR. If you go up to a 35x12.5, which a lot of folks here run, you may get the street manner unpleasantries from a wide tire. I've run both sizes, and currently running 35's. Since my suspension is (finally) dialed in, it's not bad - but I do get some white nuckles when I run over grooved freeway pavement.

So with ALL that said, you have two choices.

1. Stay stock, or at most pick up a simple leveling kit and pick up a set of pizza cutters on a set of (lightweight) alloy wheels, you may have to trim your splash guard under the bumper, but that's not a big deal at all. Use the money saved from the suspension upgrade and get some other 'fun' parts - like bikini top, tube doors, stereo upgrade, whatever.

2. 3-4" complete premium lift, and a set of 35's A/T's. I've got Pro-Comp Xtreme A/T's, and theyve got a pretty aggressive tread pattern for an A/T tire. Oh, and you may want to invest in a set of sliders that function as a step for your wife and daughters.

Welcome to the sickness we call mods.. it'll be a long and expensive journey to utopia.

 

Thanks, so much for all the replies. I am going to the local 4x4 shop today (4 wheel parts) and talk to them, I will definitely mention all your ideas and see what they say. I will post what they suggest before I make my final choice.

I have built a few rigs, but it has been a while, my last one was a Land rover, and that was not like any other build I have ever done. This is my first Jeep so I am a little in the dark.

One more thing dose anyone have an opinion (i know all of us do) on the Rancho lift? I know it is high priced, but back years ago (20) I always considered it the best. But at that time there where only a few names in the game, Like Skyjacker and Superlift. I guess what I am asking is, what is considered the best of the best today.

Thanks again,

Matt

 

Ask 10 people the best lift, and you'll get 10 answers. 5 answers if you're lucky.
All of the sponsors on here have quality products, and have customer service to help you. Call Dave at Northridge and he will give you what you need.
That being said, there is a large price differential on lifts, so you can certainly spend more than you need (or not spend enough and lack parts).
You can fit 35s with no lift at all, and 2.5" of lift would be fine. 4" will give you more than you need for the tire you want.

 

I went with the TeraFlex 2.5" coil lift. It gives you 3" up front, 2" in the rear so the Jeep will sit level. I added OME shocks because I had these on my old TJ and really liked the ride quality.

Most here seem to like TeraFlex and OME for their quality and I can say the ride of my Jeep is great, no complaints. I also installed TeraFlex lower adjustable contol arms to set the caster (no flighty steering) and an adjustable front track bar to recenter the axle.

I'll second the advise to call Dave at Northridge 4x4, great prices and knowledge.

 

You have done your homework!


We're missing a few pieces of information here Matt. Lets start with what model of JK you're running.

If you're running a Rubicon I'd recommend either the 2.5" TeraFlex coil lift with shock extenders (which I run) or the 3" Teraflex lift. I recommend these kits for a number of reasons.

1.) Ease of installation - My clubs put on about 8 of these now and they can be done in a few hours with 2 people working on it. The directions are pretty straight forward. And the vendor support is excellent. I've never had a problem with a Teraflex lift.

2.) Your shocks are fine - The Rubicon shocks are almost as good as the Old Man Emu shocks everyone loves. The major difference is how much travel there is in the shocks, not something you're going to need to worry about with only doing moderate off roading.

3.) They're complete kits - They have longer control arms, sway bar extenders, coils, bump stops, brake line extenders, etc. Everything you'll need to do the change over properlly. The only thing they don't have, and this is nit picky, is bar-pin eliminators. They're unnessicary but would cut about an hour off the install time.


If you're running a X or Sahara I still recommend the Teraflex lift kits but I would probably get the OME shocks in place of the stock ones. The stock ones are not designed to handle the aftermarket suspensions spring rate and would give you a pretty rough ride.


On Tires:

If you lift and go with bigger tires you WILL need spacers. Spidertracks is pretty much THE name in spacers for the JK. Teraflex makes a set as well to my understanding. You need to move the wheels further out from the center of the vehicle to accomidate the height and width increase. These can be had for $100 an axel. Another option is properlly backspaced wheels which can be done for as little as $130 an axel. If you go with different wheels make sure your back spacing is correct and I'd really probably budget $220 an axel for wheels.

Tires themselves are pretty much the one thing on here that no one can agree on. Cooper SST, Goodyear DuraTrac, and BFG AT KO's are among the most popular AT tire choices. ProComp will run a buy 3 get one free special every now and then as well. Personally I'm going with the DuraTracs. Do a search, theres a couple of excellent threads on all terrain tire choices on here.


I hope this helps.


Oh, and welcome to the forum!

 

This statement is NOT true at all! I've got the EVO coilover system in both the front and rear and I can tell you the ride quality blows away any stock Jeep. This is with 37" Toyo MT's too. There are plenty of systems out there which can provide a ride better than stock but you just need to find the right mix for your Jeep.

The main problem with ride quality is the spring rate. Stock springs are much less stiff than aftermarket springs simply because the aftermarket springs are trying to achieve lift and load capability without having to make the spring a lot longer.

I'm sure someone will disagree with me but you can achieve a better than stock ride on a lifted Jeep. I never thought I could have the off-road capability of the EVO system AND the on-road ride I've got. It's flat out amazing!!