I have been shopping around for lifts and looking at the Teraflex body lift and maybe a rough country or an AEV suspension lift kit. What are the perks of running a body lift with a suspension lift? I use my jeep for daily driving(full-time college student/part-time bank teller) and light weekend off-roading(no rock crawling). I'd like to run 33" or 35", I have aftermarket fenders but I do quite a bit of highway driving more then I do offroad, and the stock JK handles great off-road. I am just looking for a little bit of height about 2.5 to 3.5 inches without breaking the bank.

 

Body lift kits are junk, I would stay away from them.

Here's what I would do, giving the way you use your JK

The AEV 2.5 DualSport kit with the GC brackets is an awesome kit!

You definitely do not want to go cheap budget kits for your JK suspension.

What works really good on a daily driver, moderate off-roader is that 2.5 kit, with the Geometry Correction brackets.
Rough Country 1134 rear sway bar links, and move the OEM rear links to the front, eliminating the brackets.
Pro Comp Suspension front brake line extension/lowering brackets,
90-7203, and 90-7204, these allow just unbolting, and rebolting the front brake line brackets instead of removing the factory brackets.

This kit handles awesome on a JK. My little 2 door handles like a little sports car. They do not wander, they do not nose dive, and are really fun to drive on the road, and off. In my opinion, they handle and drive better than stock. These suspension systems were designed by one of the engineers that developed the JK suspension.

Good luck, and be safe

 

A 2 door X is likely going to have 3.21 gears. You are not going to like it with 35's. The Metal Cloak 2.5" Overland Touring kit with their rock sport shocks is way better than the AEV and costs about the same. Just add a raised rear track bar bracket and a front adjustable track bar.
https://metalcloak.com/jk-wrangler-2...-lift-kit.html
https://metalcloak.com/durotrak-trac...-wrangler.html

 

I’ve taken a look a metalcloak and see they have 3 different 2.5 lifts. The game changer looks like the most complete kit but what’s the main difference between all three kits other than the components in them?

 

I wouldn't go with a body lift, unless you find out later after getting a lift that you absolutely need one. As an example, you find your tires are rubbing the fenders after installing a 2.5in lift.

With a 2.5in lift, depending on brand (read not a Teraflex lift) you will typically get 3-3.5in of actual lift. You only need about 2inches of actual lift to fit 35s. If you find at some point that your tires are rubbing your fenders, then a body lift can be an viable option to fix the problem and will not alter the geometry. I would not recommend a BL bigger than 1.5inches. Any BL higher than that, then you really start noticing some odd looking aspects...such as large gaps between your bumpers and the body. 1-1.5in body lift, you still notice extra space between the bumpers and the body but it doesn't stick out at you like a sore thumb and you're able to get the additional fender clearance if needed. Another option instead of a BL is to chop your fenders, or get flat fenders which also won't alter the geometry. I have Sahara painted fenders and particularly like my painted fenders, where I would consider a BL if I needed the additional tire clearance....but so far I don't running with the Mopar 2in lift and 35s on my JKU.

 

The quantity of components......

Anytime you add a suspension lift, it will alter the suspension geometry, which impacts your ride quality and steering quality from its factory optimization geometry. If you stay below 3.5inches of actual lift there are some items which won't be optimal but you can get away with not making corrections for them. The Game changer is MCs top of the line lift package which adds all the necessary components to get the geometry back as close as possible to the stock geometry. Thus, the overall result ends up being better ride and steering quality. The packages under that, eliminate including items such as 8 replacement control arms which tend to be expensive components. The kits below the GC will still perform well and have good ride and steering quality at a lift height below 3.5inches where you may be paying extra for splitting hairs....which many enthusiasts will do. You could also add those additional components at a later time, thus upgrading one of their lower cost lifts to a GC.

Raising your JK to fit larger tires is the inexpensive part of a lift kit. Getting it back to stock ride and steering quality after adding a lift and larger tires is where the costs and additional desired components start coming into play.

Better questions to start asking yourself and researching is what each component of the lift does and why it is needed.

 

The overland uses drop brackets to correct caster and control arm orientation that gives you a better ride vs an adjustable control arm. It would be a better lift for mild off road use and mainly a daily driver that wants to run bigger tires. Generally at 2-2.5" of lift you don't need a full suspension upgrade. At 3.5"+ you should be looking at just about everything under the jeep and lots of cost. If you don't have a budget then the 2.5" game changer would be a good route to go.