Lift/tire question

I know you guys have probably hurd this a million times, I searched for quite a while but dident find exactly what I need..so help me out. Im going to get a RE 4.5" lift next week and will be running 33x10.50 BFG MT's on a 90' XJ, I will most likely have some rubbing issues at full flex, but how much? I dont care about having to cut, but I dont want to cut a whole lot. What would you recomend? Some 1" spacers or something?

Rubbing depends not only on lift height but on wheel backspacing, bump stop/shock length, and control arm length as well. There is no set way to tell you what to cut. The best way will be through trial and error with your set up and wheeling style.

I run 6.5" of lift with 33's on 4" bs wheels and rub some though not enough to matter. I tried out some BFG 33's in Moab last Oct. They were mounted on different (less) backspaced wheels and I nearly knocked both front flairs off and did some sheet metal rearrangement with them.

You will have to cut the sheet metal below the turn signals up front (if your rig is a pre '97) but take the rest a bit at a time.

Bones
#6

Renegade,

My brother currently runs 33" x 10.5 BFG MTs but is running with
about 6" lift, and trimmed just a little off the fenders... Perfect fit.
His front is 6" rusty's coils, home built long arms with j/joints, and RE 4.5" leaf packs with 1.5" shackles......... You could probably just add 2" bb (spacer & shackle kit) Dont forget about shimming the rearend, and maybe SYE kit for the vibs.

Scott Suyeto
member #631

OK, cool thanks!

I have the RE 4.5 superflex with BFG 33x10.5 ATs. I also added a 3/4" coil spacer to even things up with the back a bit. I have 15x8 4.5" BS wheels so that is all I can speak about.

The Front:
I had to cut the front fenders even with the bottom of the turn signal light and removed a couple brace type things under there as well. I trimmed the flare at the back corner and just a little bit of metal. I did this part while the flare was still on so it was not a big trim. In addition to the 2" spacer that came with the RE kit, I have added one and a half hockey pucks to each coil to further limit uptravel. I have about 4 inches of uptravel and about 6 inches of droop at the shock. That's about 16 inches total travel at the tire when flexing.

The tire now rubs just inside the flare at the top at full stuff. On the drivers side it also rubs the plastic liner where the air filter box mounts and at the back. The passenger side only rubs just inside the flare at the top.

The following link has pics of where the tire rubs underneath. It's the blacker wear areas as I described. You can also see closer pics of my tirmming.

http://www.printroom.com/ViewAlbum.asp?userid=dhmccoy&album_id=144423

The Rear:
When I had 30x9.5 on at stock height, the rear tires rubbed the back of the fenders at full stuff. I removed the flares, trimmed the metal, and replaced the flares. Since I have lifted it, the rears have never rubbed so i don't know if this was needed for this height. I'm not sure what's limiting my compression in the rear. It's not the bump stops or the shock or the fenders.

This link has a couple flex pics from a trip to Hollister.

http://www.printroom.com/ViewAlbum.asp?userid=dhmccoy&album_id=138413

I hope all this rambling helps.

Dan

Thanks, that helped a lot!