TJ lift question/help to pick out

John Fuller

John Fuller

XJ Fanatic!!
Banned
Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Location
Boone NC
hey guys. customer has 04 TJ has 1.75" spacer lift and fits 33s ok but wants like 3-4" lift kit...so I'm looking around for him and I just need advise on: most 4" kits around 500-600 range even with IRO kits don't come with front track bar brackets or Control Arms, only rear. so I'm not a TJ lift person so can someone shoot me in right direction of what he can use. Mostly DD with weekend mild wheeling around town/sampson area so nothing crazy in his forecast. Rouch country sells one at 500 and IRO has that one for 569 but confused on their setup. Any advise on what can work for him would be great. His budget for the lift is 650 and under. thank you
 
Don't put a cheap lift on a dd it will be whore out in a year and be a wast of 500 or 600 dollars
 
At $650, he should stick with the 1.75" spacers. I ran a spacer lift for a couple years, then went to 3" coils with shortarms for a couple months, and hated the way it rode and drove and dropped springs, then upgraded to longarms and never looked back. The ride quality and axle control from the longarms is not even comparable to shortarms, and the height difference between 2" vs 3" isn't even worth the trouble. If you must do it, go with Old Man Emu springs and shocks. That will give you the best ride possible for that setup while still being crappy because of the shortarms.
 
2.5" Rough Country coil spring lift. Shocks and progressive rate coils. Done. Anything taller will need long arms.
 
Low is the new high. Get some highline front fenders.
ai38.photobucket.com_albums_e132_surfthedrum13_Jeep_20YJ_2inBDS02.jpg
 
That's on leaves front and back. WTF.
 
You can easily do 3-4" of lift without long arms, but for 33s there is no need for that much lift. Long arms are just going to get you caught up on way to much stuff on a TJ unless you go bigger than 35s, and with good springs and shocks it will ride great.

I am a little scared you have customers though.
 
DSM Turbos said:
I am a little scared you have customers though.
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ha ha ha!! thanks for the replies guys...i guess from what i'm hearing here, I'm just going to tell him to stay with his setup since the 33s clear pretty good and save up for the long arm setup. with his budget, looks he would only need several hundred more to get the conversion kit. thanks for the help/input.
 
John Fuller said:
ha ha ha!! thanks for the replies guys...i guess from what i'm hearing here, I'm just going to tell him to stay with his setup since the 33s clear pretty good and save up for the long arm setup. with his budget, looks he would only need several hundred more to get the conversion kit. thanks for the help/input.
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He will gain nothing from a long arm kit with 33s other than getting stuck on more stuff. A proper long arm kit is also going to cost a lot more than a couple hundred more. A good short arm kit like something from Savvy or Metal Cloak would do him a lot of good though.
 
Stick with what hes got. At 3-4" of lift, your "customer" will possibly run into issues with driveline vibes that will quickly throw him above his budget. I know some people run 3-4" of lift and a stock driveshaft and are fine, others need an SYE or different driveshaft etc. Its hit or miss from the few TJ's I've been around. Some end up needing the driveline mods, some dont. But if it was my name on the work, I wouldn't want to send it out the door without them fully understanding what might be needed to complete the job and it drive as vibration free as a TJ can get.

FWIW...We just installed a 2" BDS Coil Lift on a coworkers husbands 4cyl TJ last Sunday. He went to a local 4wd shop and got the whole sales pitch of needing a 4" lift, SYE and all kinds of other stuff to run 33's. In fairness to him and the shop, he is NOT mechanically inclined so he was the perfect sucker for that pitch. We laughed when we found out what they were told and the cost. With the full coils and new shocks, it netted close to 3" of lift compared to sagged out stock coils and worn out shocks. Paired with 33x10.50 BFG AT's it looks great (most important duh) and drives fine. Its not going to be a wheeler but I was impressed with the way it rides and drives once we were done for about half the cost of what shop X claimed it took in just parts to put a TJ on 33's.
 
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thanks guys. just finished speaking with him and i recommended he just stay with what he's got..especially since it's mostly DD with weekend trail riding and put his money into rear locker/bumpers/winch/etc.. I must say i'm not a TJ/Wrangler savvy person but DAM those rear Driveshafts are short...i totally see why 4" lift would give some bad vibes. Thanks for all the input. and hey i see how some of you are responding to my "customer" thread: guys please don't think for one second that what you see me do to my jeeps is something i do to customers cars...for those that didn't know this is what i do for a living for 7 years now. have my own shop at the house and been blessed to work from home for long time now and mostly work on XJs...and other jeeps and cars!!
 
I disagree with the short arms being a waste on 33s. We put a rough country 4 inch long arm on my cousins rubicon and it performs and rides way better than it did with the short arms and 33s. We saw a very big increase in performance. Do the control arms hit sometimes? Yeah but so do mine on my 6 inch and 35s. I think the increase in ride quality and flex is worth that little bit of clearance. Just my opinion though.
 
have him take it to HCORE4x4 and get it done right :shaking:
 
BigFish said:
Couldn't be happier with my zone 3" lift on my tj. <$500 and clears 33s perfect
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hey thanks BTW...this is the exact lift he bought and we installed it sunday/monday and it did work pretty good. i think his was 3.5" maybe but it went on surprisingly well and rode pretty good too. (getting the front coils in sucks monkey butt when you're having to use longer bump-stops and slide those in with the springs....of course without unbolting any control arms which i never do cause i hate putting those factory length arms back in with lift kits) but otherwise went pretty smooth!!
 
dang it....for some reason in all my years i never thought of that. thanks for the advise. this ought to help with all the xj lifts I do form now on. always learn a few new tricks on here!!!
 
Nope it only worked for me with my tj I have tried this with 2 xj's and you can get the old springs out but the new ones won't go back in had to unhook the track bar and lower arms on every xj I have lifted
 
Bhudgins said:
Nope it only worked for me with my tj I have tried this with 2 xj's and you can get the old springs out but the new ones won't go back in had to unhook the track bar and lower arms on every xj I have lifted
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yeah same here.
 
Spring compressor FTW.
 
Zone lift on 33's as well with metalcloak front and rear tracks & disconnecting sways.

Springs slipped on and off with ease doing it the way Jody said

doorsoff.jpg
 
^^^that's a very nice lookin TJ there sir!!
Hey btw, was it common for those 04 Sport TJs to have the D44 rear cause his does and it's got the Tracklock as well. He didn't even know until i told him....made his day though!!!
 
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