Finally Installed my Rough Country 4" Lift

I finally got around to install me RC 4" lift that has been sitting in the garage for a few weeks along the the 31x10.5 Bighorns.

The kit came with Adjustable upper and lower control arms, extended brake lines, adjustable track bar, quick disco's, full leaf pack, I picked up a greasable 1" shackle for a little more lift in the rear due to weight being added. Oh and I forgot those RC shocks(cough).

I installed the rear leafs and shackle on Friday afternoon along with the shocks. I came back Sat morning to tackle the front, and I looked again at the rear and had to pull the shocks back off and swap around the rubber bushings, seemed like the bushings just dried out over night. I knew about the RC shock bushings so I got what I paid for. Anyway I used my old Pro-Comp bushings for the rest of the shocks.

The front end we started about 9AM, and fiddle farted around with the upper control arms dang factory installed nuts, or nut retaining clips. After trying to keep the things from spinning we replaced them with 3" Grade 8 Bolts and nuts.

The lowers went pretty smooth, just using a few jacks to move the axle to the location it needed to be.

We compressed the springs to get them in easier, and mounted the shocks on(again, I swapped out the Pro-Comp rubber bushings), routed the ABS and brake lines around the shocks. (Zip ties are your friend)

After mounting and balancing the new 31 tires drove it around the parking lot(nice and easy), and took the measurements for the adjustable track bar. The drivers side axle needed to go to the passenger side about 1 1/4". Measured the threads on the new track bar and decided it needed to turn out about 9 1/2 turns based upon the tread degree per turn. After mounting the track bar to the frame of course it was longer, so I good turn of the wheel to the right allowed the longer track bar to fall into place.

Another drive around the parking lot and another measurement and we had it to within 3/16 from side to side. Close enough. Mounted the Quick Releases and replaced from Skid Plate and headed home around 7pm. It drove ok, but so far it lives up to it's name (Rough Country). I will be upgrading the Shocks to a better one within a few months so all is good.

I will be dropping it off on Monday for the alignment and for Jason at (Better Off Road) in Oak Harbor to give it a quick once over to see if I
F-anything up. (He is an XJ Master Mind). I have to replace some zert fittings to a 90* bends for greasing on the C-Arms.

I was sitting roughly at 33 1/4 on the front and 31 1/2 on the rear with the old RC 3" lift with 30's. The rear springs sagged out on me, the measurement was from the ground to the middle of the fender flare (bottom edge). The flares are the older ones and mounted right into the factory 97+ holes.

Now I am sitting @ Front 37" and Rear 37 1/2", not bad and I know it will settle a little so hopefully when it does it will loosen up some.

Pics now:










Yes that Tailpipe does make some noise, it will have to be either cut off or re-routed.












Mac

Nice look,that is alot of red..

Thanks, I would prefer Flat Lime Green w/black, but the red will do.

mac

OH man, I absolutely LOVE the paint scheme on your rig; it is very reminiscent of the late 60s and early 70s MOPAR look. Did you do that yourself?

The lift looks great, too! That is a smooth looking rig, great look!

looks good

Looks amazing! I love the red and black!

Looks good, one thing though is ditch the shock boots, they will only do harm.

-Alex

Thanks for the comments. I was wondering how this was going to look as far has the height and stance goes. The 31"s look proportionate to the fender wells.

The paint scheme is just factory body paint, I added the black stripes to the body/hood, painted the older flares and wheels color match spray bomb.

Shock Boots:
I have always ran them, my reasoning is to keep the dirt/mud of the shock rods.

Is there something I am missing as to why they should not be ran? I can only think of something like heat on the inside of the shocks if they are being worked hard, without the boots they will cool better?

mac

that is sweet. the first time you take them bighorns in the dirt you will instantly fall in love with them. im in the market for some in a 33" flavor.

With the boots if they are not totally sealed, which is impossible to do, can just cause dirt/ mud/ water to stay inside the boot and keep the shocks dirtier.

-Alex

Ba-Riedo said:

With the boots if they are not totally sealed, which is impossible to do, can just cause dirt/ mud/ water to stay inside the boot and keep the shocks dirtier.

-Alex

Click to expand...

What Alex is trying to say, mud and whatnot trapped inside the boot can cause the seals on the shaft to be damaged, causing the shock to go bad.



The rig looks good BTW mac!

I have heard the same thing with the shock boots.
I have RC shocks i have to put on, and im taking my Procrap shocks off, should i just use procrap bushings? that sounds like a good idea.

I was told by the GrimusXJ (Rough Country rep) to stay away from shock boots for the same reason.
Looks good Im on RC as well. My springs have already settled and im sitting at between 4 and 4.5 . I trimmed the hell out of my fenders front and rear and am running 34x12.50's(have a 2dr so I was able to trim quite a bit from the rear)

Well I will go remove them today. Thanks for the thoughts and yes that does make a whole lot more sense than the way I was thinking.

If you pull your old shocks off and the bushings are still good, just save some time and replace them prior to installing.

Thanks again for the points on removing the boots. Much appreciated.

Mac

Looks really good Mac, nice work.

-Ed

That looks really nice.

Boots are removed and it is sitting awaiting Front end Alignment.

The tailpipe needs trimming, holy crap what a sick sound. Thought I could live with it for a while, but NOPE (driving down town people were coming out of the stores looking for the sound, only thing that came to mind was Sanford and Son...lol). That 2" exhuast pipe just does not fit in-between the shackle bolt and hitch mount. I will probably cut it and place a simple tip on it angled down away from the spring bushings.

Thanks for the comments. It needs to loosen up some, it's riding very stiff (shocks don't help), a few hours on a trail will do the trick. I plan on running up at walker the weekend of the 18th for a few hours working the suspension. Between now and then I will re-tighten everything down again. Once it is broken in, I will get some better shocks.


Mac