3-4 inch lift kit opinions

I just picked up a 98 XJ Classic. I am thinking about putting a 3-4 inch lift on it to clear 31x10.50 tires. Ride quality needs to be good because it will be my daily driver and I dont plan on taking it off road alot. What would be the cheapest kit you guys would recommend? These are the kits I had in mind: 3.5" Super-Ride kit from Rubicon Express, Fabtech 4", BDS, Rusty's, all these kits contain add-a-leafs and no front track bar. What's your experience with add-a-leafs and is an adjustable front track bar not needed for only a 3-4" lift?

rustys is great. dont do AAL. i love my rustys 3 inch.

Search, and you will find tons of results, more information than you wanted to know. Personaly, i run a 3"RC AAL,i clear 31's fine. Its my DD, it doesent ride like a caddy, but what do you expect when you put a kit on. Many people (including myself) do not like AAL kits. If you are not going off road alot, and dont seek alot of flex, and aal will do alright. If you search, you will find RE is the highest recomended lift, never heard anything bad about them. Dont make the mistake i made and buy a cheap kit to later realize you should have spent some money on a quality kit.

lancey3 said:

rustys is great. dont do AAL. i love my rustys 3 inch.

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+1 AAL will make your leafs sagggg

Let me tell ya, i dont know much but i know what --not --to do.
Rubicon Express 3.5 inch lift will get you 3.5 in the front, 6.5 in the rear and ride like a 1 ton truck with their shocks,the spendy ones. :bs:
OME 3 inch lift will get you ,3 inches in the front 4.5 in the rear and ride like a 1ton truck with their shocks. the spendy ones again. As an added bonus you will get shocks with 2 inches more down travel in the front than factory and 1.75 inches more in the rear than factory! keep in mind the 3 plus inces of lift you just added and you will top out the shocks-easily-.
This is being corrected in the dealer catalog at this moment,,so i hear ?

I have over 2,600 dollars into these 2 high end ????????lift kits and am not happy one bit. the OME kit is the better of the 2 , if i were to do it again,which i did i would go with OME 3 inch,keep in mind they do not come with rear spring bushings,which they do not tell you!!!!!! 240.00 dollar added cost to me at the local spring shop by the way,go ahead and try to get out youre old stock ones,good luck.
Anyway ,the front coils are from a Grand Cherokee i was told ,now that i know,but they need a 1 inch spacer to get it level to the back,no big deal.
The rear springs are ok i hope,havent driven it yet because you --will --need a sye and d-line,,525.00 from Tom Woods, That is tomorrows project, as far as the shocks call KYB and tell them you went 3 inch over stock and the numbers should be KG 54312 front, 30 to 40 percent firmer than stock ,for a winch and bumper and for the rear 344090 , 10 percent firmer than stock. It should ride very factory like i assume. Price apprx.200.00 bucks. KYB phone number 1-630-620-5555 tech support.

These spring companys as well as a lot of you guys on this site have to get over this crap ride extra firm stuff, it aint gotta be like that !!if youre a racer ,go fast driver ,jumper bouncer,yahoo kinda dude fine,have at it , it does not have to be like that.

They are taking the stuff that isnt right back,well kinda. I know better and called them to the carpet on it. I hope this saves someone from the expense and hell that i have been through. And --no-- new trucks on the car lots do not have a rake built into them that will probably,maybe should,somewhat settle down.

Flame on dudes,this aint my first time with lift kits,but it is my first time since this new mentality of harsh ride is good and it will settle some stuff.
What a load !! I am going to see what the valve rates are on these after market ride ruiners they are selling,should be interesting.
Ok,i am done,Flame on :dunno:

Low Range said:

OME 3 inch lift will get you ,3 inches in the front 4.5 in the rear and ride like a 1ton truck with their shocks.

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Consider yourself an isolated incident. Really.

NEBVER EVER heard of RE riding like a truck.

NEVER EVER heard of an RE 3.5" kit giving you 6.5" in the rear.

If you want on road quality, get a complete kit with both upper and lower control arms, and and an adjustable track bar.

Also, you CAN NOT expect an AAL to ride smooth. After all, all youre doing is a adding a much stiffer leaf to your existing pack, it has no option but to make it more stiff than stock.

And yes, it will make your springs sag.

On road or off, dont go cheap. get new UCAs, LCA's, brake lines, tcase drop, adj track bar, new SS, shocks, and check ur ball joints while u do it!

Better to kick DW's ass before it starts... once she rears her ugly hard, she's a hard broad to shake!

Thanks everyone for all the input. I am thinking about going with the 4.5" Rusty's kit with new leaf spring packs, coil springs, adjustable trac bar, lower control arms, transfer case drop kit, brake line extensions, front sway bar extensions, and shocks. Should i buy a new steering stabilizer also?
Everywhere I have looked I can't find any OME lifts for XJ's bigger than 2". Can someone tell me a website where I can find a 3-5" OME lift?

You might look into these.
http://www.rocky-road.com/xjtrailblazer.html

Don't do an AAL kit, I had too much sag in back and had to add a shackle.

As far as the RE lift with 6.5 in the rear,yup its true , the dealer has the pictures to prove it, something went wrong they say? I dont buy it as there are others on here with the same dilemma ,i choose to call b.s.
And yes ,i did buy the uppers,lowers,track bar and all that stuff.
You can get a 3 inch thru OME,make sure to ask about spring bushings and also at least a 1 inch spacer for the front. Oh ,by the way make sure the shocks if you get theres are the LONG variety.
That would be the N36 L for the rear and N35 L for the front. Call ARB in Seattle and talk to the tech guys,it will be worth it. Do not get the N35 C or N36 C as there daeler catolog will state.

I happen to know more about this subject than i ever wanted to ,at my expense i will say and am just trying to help someone out so it doesnt happen to them as well. What makes you think mistakes dont happen ?
Just trying to help,it can get very expensive very fast.

I know you can't go wrong with RE stuff and I if was going higher I would have went with one of their setups. But don't forget aboud bds. I am more than happy with the 3" I got out of there setup. Rides nice, flexes well and quality of their products in nice, and upgrades are available.

I have the RE 3.5" spring packs (for the 4.5" kit) sitting on my front porch right now, going on tomorrow, there is no way that I'm going to get more than 5" with the shackles. The arc is just not that dramatic. Someone just screwed up and sent you the wrong packs, I doubt that what you got is representative of all of RE's products. I'll post up and we'll see how the install turns out.

Good luck ,hope all goes well . Its --supposed --to ? I knew i was in trouble when they told me to put 6 to 800 pounds in the back and see what happens after a few weeks. :huh:

Bye the way ,take plenty on measurments before as well as pics,stick a piece of tape on the front bumper as well as the rear and leave them there for a while.
I measured everything,drive line angle .driveline length , lower control arm angle, pinion angle , how much beer i had left, bottom of flares to ground , you get the idea. I do this kinda anal stuff all the time when i am changing the geometry of factory setups , think what you want but went something goes south at least you have a reference to go back to.
It helps a lot to use a propane torch on the rear spring bolts and squirt some lube in them when the temperature is right as they do have lock tight on them. 13/16 socket worked ok.

blah-blah-blah :lecture:

Ha, yes, pictures and measurements will abound. I made the mistake of putting the Warm bumper and 9.5ti on yesterday and it dropped my front end more than I thought it would. The rear springs were sagging and the whole heap was going nose up, now its level, if not pointing nose down.