3" Lift to 4.5" Questions....

Ok so I have a 1998 Jeep Cherokee, d30 front , 8.25 rear, and from what I can figure out/what I was told I have a 3" Rough Country lift, this lift is 2-3 years old if that helps reference the kit. My question regards upgrading to 4.5" of lift considering my rear leaf packs are almost completely flat.

My questions is can I just add 4.5" coils and 4.5" Leaf's + a shackle and get my desired result of a 4.5" lift? or Do I need to order a full 4.5" kit in order to safely lift my Jeep?

I was thinking of getting RE coils and leafs if I can just upgrade those to get the the lift I want. I also really like the Rusty's Offroad stuff since I am already ordering some things from them how are their leaf packs, coils and shackles compared to others?

Opinions and suggestions welcome, I am fairly new to modifying jeeps and appreciate the input.

So I figured out how to measure the lift on my jeep and it measured out to about 4.5" of lift front and 3.75-4.0" rear. My rear leafs just don't have a nice U shape to them anymore. There are also shackles on the rear already, so I am beginning to think this is an older Rough Country 4.5" lift kit and it has settled some. The rear does sit about .5-1" lower and I would like to see it leveled out.

So the question remains. Should I just change out the rear leafs(I think the coils in the front are fine and I can always just add an 1" spacer to them if needed to level it out after new leafs) or should I just go with a completely new kit? Another option is to go with the rough country long arm upgrade and a set of new leaf springs?

Opinions and suggestions welcome. I am coming from a drag racing background and this is my first jeep. Sorry if these questions sound kind of newbish but I have searched for the past week and these questions just can't be answered to my satisfaction based on other lift threads.

i dont see why you couldnt just replace the rear leaf packs if you are just returning to original lift hieght. shocks, brake lines, ect, should all be fine. id suggest getting some good quality springs though. maybe deavers or something that are proven to perform, plus they have a warrenty system. well sort of. they will re-arc them for a fee. i for one am a cheap bum and plan to make junk yard spring packs work. if they begin to fail, i just replace them with more cheap junk yard springs. the one thing ive learned in my years of off road is that no matter what you spend or fabricate, you will break, bend, and tweak stuff. just part of the sport. so now i try and make cheap stuff work.

Rusty's leaf packs are built better than Rough Country, I know some folks don't care for Rusty's but I'll take it over Rough Country any day. I've had the misfortune of installing a few Rough Country's lifts on xj's and I have yet to see a matching set of leaf packs from them, and half the time there coils aren't even cut right. Rusty's have been much better, and they have the no questions ask lifetime warranty on all there springs.
oh and the Rusty's ride a lot better too

i started with rustys 3" lift(rear leaf packs, shocks, coils) on my 89 with 5spd. when still at 3" i added new RE adjustable superflex arms and an adjustable trackbar with TRE. when i went to 4.5", i used a 1" jks boomerange shackle for the rear, coils spacer up front, new RE upper control arms, bilstein shocks, bent brakelines for more length, and made longer swaybar end links. No sye, just axle shims.

at 4.5", control arm angle becomes an issue. best is to get control arm drop brackets or long arms. im still running short arms but the bilstein 5100 greatly improved the ride. im still looking into making shackle relocation brackets to get a better shackle angle.

if your leaves are flat, i recmmend a 3.5" leaf pack with a longer shackle over a 4.5" leaf pack, unless you plan to go higher. my feeling is that a higher arched lift spring also needs a longer shackle.

if i were to do it again, i would have got a long arm upgrade to take care of the control arm angle along with a HD trackbar and bracket to mount in double shear. as for lift height, i have no problems with the rustys 3" leaves and jks shackle setup although the shackle angle could be a little better. my set up is not perfect, but it handles very well on road and does fine for the offroading i do, which is nothing extreme.

since i do more onroad then offroad, i still have 31" inch tires with 4.10 gearing. i would consider going to 33's if i did more offroading, but would never consider 33's with stock gearing.

your 98 is probably in better shape then my 89 was, but once i begain to upgrade the suspension, i upgraded just about everything else, brakes, engine, electrical, starting...... the list never ends. but hey, its a hobby and you can save alot of money by doing your own work.