Myself and a friend are trying to get ready for moab in June, we both drive xj's mine being a 01 sport and his a 96 country. We plan to take the kokopelli trail down there and some easy trails while we are there as our wives scare pretty easy. We are trying to stay on a tight budget and want to get the most out of any upgrades we do to our vehicles.
We both have fairly new sets of 235/75r15 AT tires and dont plan to replace them for this trip. We were thinking about doing some small lifts to our vehicles for the added ground clearance without having to get new tires right now.
His '96 sits 17" in the front 17 1/4" in the back so his suspension is in pretty decent shape already, but his shocks are worn out so we were thinking about the Rubicon Express 2" add a leaf kit http://www.rubiconexpress.com/SuspensionSystems/Product.aspx?part=RE6160 it comes with shocks and he isn't too concerned with the ride quality.
My '01 sits 18" in the front and a sad 15" in the back, this is where I am going to need a little help. I know I am going to need a new leaf pack in the rear. In the front I would like to go as cheap as a 3/4" spacer (~$30) on the coils since I am already sitting 1" over stock.
Rear leaf packs with 2" lift seem to run $100-$200 a piece from what I have found. Not a lot of choices but I was thinking of getting the OME medium or heavy packs.
For shocks I would love to be able to stay with the stock ones on there as they are not that old but i have read that I am better off replacing them with some longer ones. I have read some budget build articles and they recommend ZJ up country's monroes in the front ($25 a piece) and Comanche monroes in the rear ($40 a piece). The Comanche shocks would require bpe (~$25).
Can I get away with just these upgrades? No extended brake lines? No transfer drop? No new ubolts? No new rear spring bushings, just swapping the old ones in there? Any suggestions that might work out better?
We have been browsing craigslist for a few other possible upgrades racks/full size spares/skid/tow hooks. We would love to get a winch but the cost of a winch+bumper kind of puts us off to that. Hoping that a comealong and some straps will be enough should we get stuck. Anything you would put as must have for your Moab trip?
We are both in the military and leave for some pre deployment training in April so we plan to do our installs in May before we go. I would like to post pics of the build up then.
I was going to take my '86 samurai on this trip but after a 300 mile ski trip this weekend, my back is telling me no way!
We both have fairly new sets of 235/75r15 AT tires and dont plan to replace them for this trip. We were thinking about doing some small lifts to our vehicles for the added ground clearance without having to get new tires right now.
His '96 sits 17" in the front 17 1/4" in the back so his suspension is in pretty decent shape already, but his shocks are worn out so we were thinking about the Rubicon Express 2" add a leaf kit http://www.rubiconexpress.com/SuspensionSystems/Product.aspx?part=RE6160 it comes with shocks and he isn't too concerned with the ride quality.
My '01 sits 18" in the front and a sad 15" in the back, this is where I am going to need a little help. I know I am going to need a new leaf pack in the rear. In the front I would like to go as cheap as a 3/4" spacer (~$30) on the coils since I am already sitting 1" over stock.
Rear leaf packs with 2" lift seem to run $100-$200 a piece from what I have found. Not a lot of choices but I was thinking of getting the OME medium or heavy packs.
For shocks I would love to be able to stay with the stock ones on there as they are not that old but i have read that I am better off replacing them with some longer ones. I have read some budget build articles and they recommend ZJ up country's monroes in the front ($25 a piece) and Comanche monroes in the rear ($40 a piece). The Comanche shocks would require bpe (~$25).
Can I get away with just these upgrades? No extended brake lines? No transfer drop? No new ubolts? No new rear spring bushings, just swapping the old ones in there? Any suggestions that might work out better?
We have been browsing craigslist for a few other possible upgrades racks/full size spares/skid/tow hooks. We would love to get a winch but the cost of a winch+bumper kind of puts us off to that. Hoping that a comealong and some straps will be enough should we get stuck. Anything you would put as must have for your Moab trip?
We are both in the military and leave for some pre deployment training in April so we plan to do our installs in May before we go. I would like to post pics of the build up then.
I was going to take my '86 samurai on this trip but after a 300 mile ski trip this weekend, my back is telling me no way!