why no rancho?

I recenetly purchased a 3 inch rancho suspensio lift for my xj. It looks great in all, but why am i the only person i ever see with a rancho lift. I havent seen one other xj on the street or on the internet with a rancho lift. Did i scre up or what. Let me know if u have a rancho lift and how it performs.

I've never seen an XJ with a Rancho lift either. A couple of friends have Rancho on their full-size trucks and either love it or find it rides harsh.

probably because the aftermarket offerings are so rich these days.

also, lift kits from big companies are overly formulaic. They try to fill their catalog with lift kits for every concieveable vehicle, instead of fine-tuning and perfecting an individual, vehicle-specific suspension system. Rancho's kits seem to focus primarily on getting the rig up in the air, and that's pretty much it. how it rides or performs are accidentals. I'm not ripping on your particular lift kit. i have no first hand experience with it. i am speaking in general terms about the companies that produce kits like yours.

The most popular kits you'll see out there are VEHICLE SPECIFIC kits that are fine-tuned and have gone through updates now and again. Also, it is getting more popular to mix and match suspension componants. I don't know too many people that are running a 100-percent pure bred suspension system.

Thats cause everyone thinks they are super stiff. I have Rancho 3" front coils and like they just fine. They are firm, but not super stiff. More sports car firm, not Caddy soft. Leaves or Control Arms I have no idea though. Controls Arms IIRC will wrok but arn't the best. ANd the leaves may be quite a bit on the stiff side.

I have an Rancho lift that is 2.5" coils up front and a 2" AAL in the rear. Not too happy with the rear as it sagging after little over a year. Flexs just fine for me, and the ride is stiffer than stock, but not mushy. I am pretty happy with it, just need to tweek it some.

Fergie

My mother in law's xj has a 3" rancho lift with coils, spring pack, control arms, bushings, and 9000 adj shocks. It is a on road truck and rides very nice around town. It does not flex well for the trails that I do with my xj but it drives much more like a sports car than mine.

I have seen at least 3 other xj's with rancho lifts between 3 and 4.5"

Michael

when I bought my MJ it had a Rancho lift on it about 2 inches (probably sagged from 3). It rode like CRAP. I'm not sure if it was the springs fault as well, but the RS5000s are definitely WAY too stiff for an XJ/MJ. Maybe if you had a V8, heavy bumpers, exo-cage and a winch they would be alright, but a near stock XJ is too light for those.

I had the ranco 2 1/2 spring packs and they flexed well but I had rs5000 shocks that gave me a crappy ride I have a better ride with my 8 inch lift now then I did with my 3 inch lift. As long as you have the rs9000 shocks your good to go.

Damn i got those 5000's, they arent to bad yet, but i know i cant go any higher with them. should have spent a little more and got adjustables.

Adjustables wouldn't let you go higher than 5000's, that depends on shock length. I've got 9000's and I run with them set on 3, which is supposedly the same as the 5000's, then I turn them up to 4 when off-road. I think my shocks were valved for TJ's and not XJ's, but I love them around town on 3. It is firmer than stock but not harsh, just perfect. Stock is too mushy for me. I don't have first-hand experience with the other components, but I've seen the control arms, and at least they have a bend in them to allow for more droop. Not the ideal setup, but pretty good IMO.

My first lift was a rancho 3incher with full leaf packs. It rode like crap and the leafs sagged withing 6months. The only thing I kept were the adjustable shocks.

I have a Rancho 3" lift all the way around. It was one of the only kits available when we built my Jeep in 95. I haven't had too many complaints, but it is a stiff ride. The rear leaf springs are sagging, and I will probably replace those next summer. Not too bad, yet. I run the 9000's, and I don't think they are worth the money. They got pretty ugly and rusty in a very short time. Yeah, it is just a shock, but I was surprised how quickly they got shi@#y looking. I have Energy Suspension poly on almost everything, so the ride is stiff. No frickin' body roll, though.

I have a Rancho leaf pack that was stiff but RS9000 were a big improvment so I blam the shocks for the ride more than the springs. The springs did sag quicker than I thought they should but they have been used hard. I tow with Jeep and twist it up allot off road.

I had Rancho!

I loved the coils! Hated the LCA's (only thing they are good for is holding my calipers) I got more flex with my stock ones on! Hated the leafs! sagged after 6 months of DD and wheeling. I went to RE and will never run a different lift.

I believe Rancho was the first kit ... then the Trailmaster kit came out after that ...

I had a Rancho installed on my '91 back in 1995 ... it was the only kit endorsed by Mopar at the time---they were sold and installed at some dealers.

The Rancho system is not designed for torsional flex ... but then again, I don't think there was such a thing as rock crawling an XJ ten years ago either---I always thought rocks were for Montessa's and Bultaco's ... where's Malcolm Smith now ?? ... probably in an XJ.

The Rancho is sufficient for street driven and light offroading vehicles ... improves handling ... gets it up for 31's ... and removes that back and forth sideways pitch movement XJ's are notorious for when stock---use the 9000 series shocks and set them on "1" and you should be good to go.

I just replaced my 8-year old Rancho with an RE 4.5" ... let's just say it was time for a change of scenery.

Back in 1987 when my Dad bought his first XJ new he had a Rancho 3.5" lift and 31"-32" tires on it....I have no idea how it rode. From the pictures I have seen it flexed well, nothing compared to my RE flex though. He did have the sway bars disconected also.

Well,mine started out as a Rancho 3" lift kit on an older model XJ w/2.8 V-6. It was on the Jeep when I bought it,so I just used what I had (it was "free"). I can tell you,the AAL's were sagged pretty bad when I got it,and it rode like a buck-board. After a while,I built my own leaf pack and that helped a lot. To compensate for the extra lift out back,I added a 1.75" spacer in the front, but the flex just flat-out sucked ass. I soon tired of the limited performance of the 2.8 and stepped up to a 4.0 HO model. I transferred the lift over to it and the ride was much improved because of the added weight up front,with only a minimal loss in height. Flex still sucked,though. After wheelin' it a few times and still scratching my head trying to figure out what the problem was(all the while I was blaming the control arms:anon: ) a buddy of mine said "Man! You need some longer shocks!" All this time I'd figured that the Rancho shocks would be good for 4" of lift if they were good for 3". I soon discovered that the 3" shocks were almost the same exact length as the factory shocks were! :doh: I bought a longer set of Rusty's shocks and the flex is awesome now. It ramps out @ 883 on a 30 degree ramp! I know alone that doesn't make it trailworthy,but it does work very well off road. I'm happy with the setup as-is,and the only reason I'd replace any of it is to go a little higher.

P.S.-adding a winch and bumper helped smooth it out a little more,also

I also started out with the rancho 3" lift. I liked it but it was a little stiff, It worked well in the rocks.