replacing my suspension

I have a 99, I-6, 4.0, sport with 160,000 miles on it. I am going to replace my suspension and I was wanting a little input from you all- you people really know your stuff. I am looking to spend around $800 for everything- not including labor to install it. I would like a little more aggressive stance - a little taller, maybe 2 inches tops. I do not do any serious wheeling but I do like to go camping and might want to stomp down a few trails and across a creek. I would like this in a kit so I can buy it all at once. I have only ever replaced the shocks but this time, leafs and coils also. Is there anything else I might want to replace while I'm at it? Could I just replace it with factory parts and get shackles and spacers for the 2 inches. I was looking at the Old Man Emu, But I'm not sure what spring/leaf load I should get. When the time for tires rolls around I will also go bigger but not much- I get great mpg and I don't want to mess that up too much. Thanks for the input.

Moving to Mod Tech forum.

Well, lets not all speak at once.

Sounds like you want the OME (Old Man Emu) 2" kit.
You *might* be able to match the ride quality of OME if you are super attentive to detail & mix / match parts.
In general though, nobody argues when you say OME is the king of 2-3" lifts.
Talk to DPGoffroad, guy named Dirk, never heard anything but good about the man & his customer service.

Other 2" lifts can be much cheaper than OME but won't be anything but a shackle (which performs poorly with the stock pack & mounting) and spacers for the front. If you have 800 to spend and want to put a guaranteed smile on your face, OME is the way to go. If you aren't too worried about it, go with 1.5" shackles & 2" spacers, add shocks of your choice & call it a day.

with 170.00 I would replace the upper and lower control arm bushing track bar bushing go poly on it .Spring insloator pads front sway bar bushing go up upcontry springs and put the top leaf from your old spring pack on it cut the ends off just past the eye bushings thats what i did give me right at 2 in and verry nice ride you can make two spacers for the front an in each .on the rear spring you put the old leaf under the new top leaf you will need two spring bolts about 3.00 for them. if you are doing this your self it may be better to cut the eye off the new spraings the spring bolts are a bitch to get out and if they dont come right out you maybe better off in ther long run to do this.

if you are going with a kit and not build form factory parts I would still replace the control arm bushing and track bar. for one thing you will be loading them diff from what they have been for the last 160.00 miles and they are plobley worn out any way so are the spring inslator pads thats a good way to make sure you dont get a case of DW

so you can replace just the bushings on the control arms? my dealer said you can't. very interesting.

dealerships = fail. this explains why. YES, control arm bushings are replaceable... did they sell you whole replacement arms?

i would go with a real 3" kit, the 2" stuff is hardly noticeable imho. 3", 31"s, win =)

They want to sell me the replacement arms but i have not purchased them. One thing that I was looking for was a kit that also contained arms.
since I am mechanicly de-clined and will not be doing the work myself. ( I would like to do it myself but I am afrraid that once I get it all torn down I am going to screw something up and I have no help to bail me out. Then I would have to have it towed to a stealer and I can only imagine the added cost.) So that is the purpose of this post is to get input on the best over all kit. Not really wanting to go 3 inches becuase i am not that serious of a wheeler. Would still like to remain as close to a factory ride as I can get.

At anything below 4" you don't really need new control arms. Unless your control arm bushings are really and truly toast, don't bother.
Since you aren't mechanically inclined and want to hand somebody a kit and have them install it, I say again - Old Man Emu 2" is your best bet. Add 30" tires and you are all set - looks good on an XJ, performs well, no added parts are really necessary.
For the record, YES, bushings are replaceable. One reason they might be trying to sell you control arms, though, is that it is cheaper for you to buy new control arms than to pay the dealership to press out the old bushings & put the new ones in. At my shop, this is what we run into with Volvo control arms: we can't replace the bushings fast enough to make it worthwhile for the customer, so we sell them a new arm and give the old junk to our scrap collector.
http://www.dpgoff-road.com/site/OMEXJkits.htm