Another budget lift question???

I'm looking to lift my "97 no more than 3 inches,and run either 30 or 31 inch tires.I'm considering Rough Country's 1.5 (front spacer/rear shackles) or the 3 inch with AAL's/coils(get rear springs later).This will be a DD/family off roader,not a hardcore wheeler.I'm on a tight budget as of now,so i can't afford $5-700- for a lift right now.I'm open to any other idea's also.

3" coils, or GC V8 coils and 1 1/2" spacers, and a bastard pack; AALs are a waste of money.

Coil spacers or new Rusty's coils for the front. AAL or bastard pack for the rear. Searching the Forum will reveal a large number of Budget Boost lift threads. Extended shackles will fatigue and sag your already marginal stock factory leaf springs. Grand Cherokee coils are hit and miss for lift results due to the various spring rates and coil lengths to handle the different GC option packages. Some GC coils provide no lift. You must have the Grand Cherokee coil spring factory part number to verify its load capacity.

AAL is an option that works well as long as you buy brand name products and get a full length leaf. The Rubicon Express 2.5" Full length AAL worked well in my 2000 for 3+ years. It did not sag, and held up to 4x4 trips and cargo hauling.

Read this - http://www.rocklizardfabrications.com/home_brew_budget_boost.htm

I deff. want to buy a COMPLETE kit.I don't have the time to hunt down seperate parts as of now.Will the RC AAL's hold up for a while???Or will they sag in no time?

Wait to get the lift you want. 30's and 31's dont sound like there is a lot of difference but if you put 30's on you will want 31's get the lift that will give you room for 31's

3 inch lift should be fine with 31s as long as they aren't too wide and you don't push it too much (you said family type stuff and DD, so I think that counts.)

I could probably fit 31s just fine under my "2 inch" OME lift I cobbled together by buying parts individually, my wider 32s rub a bit right now when turning sharply and I can't push the flex very far or they hit the fenders. What OME sells as a 2 inch lift spring is actually a pretty conservative number, I've been smacking them around on fairly bumpy potholed roads + minor offroading with toolboxes and spare transmissions and such bouncing around in the trunk for months now and they haven't sagged down past 2.5 or 3 inches above stock yet.

I've never done an AAL myself, but I've heard a lot of people slagging on them, and with a full set of OME front coils costing $165 and a full set of rear leafs costing $240 (OME934s and CS035RAs) I don't really see a reason to go AAL. Doing the install myself and buying the parts cost less than labor alone would have cost to have it done probably.

PS - you have a 97, anything 96 and up will require an SYE on the rear driveshaft almost guaranteed. They changed the transfer case rear output shaft slip yoke / tail housing design betwee 95 and 96 and it resulted in some XJs requiring a transfer case drop *from the dealer* to cover up vibes, especially if the UpCountry factory 1" lift package was installed.

Well i have a rough country 3 inch lift on my 96 and i love it...rides not to bad..was easy to install, and didnt cost that much...Im currently running 32/14.5/15's on some 15x8 soft 8's.

Dandy,
Did you do an SYE? I am thinking of swapping the ACOS and bastard pack from my Chief project onto my GF's 96. We just want to fit 30s and we don't really care if we have to do a t-case drop. I just don't want to have to spend $$$ on extra parts to use parts that I have laying around.

Sean