• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

I'm putting more lift and bigger tires on the xj

jjpeters

NAXJA Forum User
Location
lancaster, ohio
I've had my jeep for 2 years now, running a 3" lift and 31/11.50/15 ltb's. I did alot of research into the tires I chose to run. I'm putting on 2" spacers on the front, and rc 2" shackles on the back. With the spacers I only got 1.5" on the front so I made 1" steel spacers at work and put those on too. I have the front done, I'm still waiting on the shackles to arive. My tire of choice is gonna be 33/10.50/15 bfg km2's. The reason behind the steel spacers is that my winch and bumper weigh the front down, I'm good to go now, distance from tire to fender is 7.25", which is plenty for the 33's. I'm so excited about the upgrade, it will be a couple of days before my tires come in. So what do you guys think?
 
wow thats completly bananas man! pics of the steel spacer?
 
What are you going to do about the front suspension?
 
do you have longer control arms? brake lines? adjustable track bar? hows your steering linkage look? sway bars in good orientation (if they arent removed completely)?

should wait for the shackle install before trying to apply a janky spacer. lets see what you made though, who knows... janky might not be the right word to use (as i really have no clue where you work or what your capable of producing).
 
Allright, dog on me all you want buddy, I have everything in check, and the steel spacers look nice in between the poly spacers and stock isolaters, I work at a glass factory as a head tankman, I made them from solid 1" stock, and if you think it takes rocket science to make these things right and look good, I feel sorry for you pal!
 
if your still on a stock track bar your def going to dog walk like hell down the road, id try to get an adj track bar to center your axle again. also you probly should atleast get some aftermarket lca's or your caster is going to be waaay outta wack. alot of things change between 3 and 5 inches of lift, you can get away with some tricks on 3 but on 5 some parts become simply too short
 
I've had my jeep for 2 years now, running a 3" lift and 31/11.50/15 ltb's. I did alot of research into the tires I chose to run. I'm putting on 2" spacers on the front, and rc 2" shackles on the back. With the spacers I only got 1.5" on the front so I made 1" steel spacers at work and put those on too. I have the front done, I'm still waiting on the shackles to arive. My tire of choice is gonna be 33/10.50/15 bfg km2's. The reason behind the steel spacers is that my winch and bumper weigh the front down, I'm good to go now, distance from tire to fender is 7.25", which is plenty for the 33's. I'm so excited about the upgrade, it will be a couple of days before my tires come in. So what do you guys think?

I'm sorta confused here. Is your jeep stock besides the spacers/shackles or do you have a 3" lift that you're adding on to?
 
at 5", you NEED an aftermarket trackbar and bracket designed for 5" of lift.
at 5", you NEED longer shocks, i went from ~3.5" to 4.5", and moved up from a 10" travel shock, to a 12".
you also NEED gearing for them 33's, especially if it's a MT.

you'd also want aftermarket steering, preferably braced.

so yeah, lots of extra stuff, you should post what your 3" kit consists of, so we can better help.
 
do you have longer control arms? brake lines? adjustable track bar? hows your steering linkage look? sway bars in good orientation (if they arent removed completely)?

should wait for the shackle install before trying to apply a janky spacer. lets see what you made though, who knows... janky might not be the right word to use (as i really have no clue where you work or what your capable of producing).


thats a douche post if i ever saw it. and thats coming from me!
 
My jeep steers perfect and drives perfectly down the road, and does not dogwalk, I'm aware of everything I need, this thread was meant to share my progress with my jeep, XCM read the first post, I was already running a 3" rc lift. XCM calling people a douche is childish as hell, I joined naxja because I love my xj, not to be bombarded by a bunch of asshole no it alls. I'll let you guys know when I have a problem with my jeep, but so far so good.
 
Sounds like a good set up. I would like to see some pics when you get the tires on it. And you don't NEED to change gears on 33's. Yeah it would be nice, but mine does just fine with 33" MUD TERRAINS with the 3.55 gear.
 
this is the exact reason i dont post, im sure ill get beat to hell too. its sad that this forum is going that direction, jjpeters your ride sounds like its gonna be cool. peace :peace:
 
My jeep steers perfect and drives perfectly down the road, and does not dogwalk, I'm aware of everything I need, this thread was meant to share my progress with my jeep, XCM read the first post, I was already running a 3" rc lift. XCM calling people a douche is childish as hell, I joined naxja because I love my xj, not to be bombarded by a bunch of asshole no it alls. I'll let you guys know when I have a problem with my jeep, but so far so good.

Well actually you just said 3 inch lift but now that you say it's a RC then im guessing it's coils, swaybar brackets and a add aleaf, that was my first lift too. I did the same thing and stacked 2 inch spacers and shackles and like the others have told you you will need a aftermarket track bar at the minimum, I blew threw 3 stock ones at that height.

And I wouldn't get all bent out of shape about the others remarks, you asked what we thought and you got it, some people are just more blunt about it.
 
Last edited:
Sorry for the confusion, yes I already had an rc 3" lift and I'm adding on an extra 2", just curious, why did you break so many track bars, did you try to relocate them first.
 
My jeep steers perfect and drives perfectly down the road, and does not dogwalk, I'm aware of everything I need, this thread was meant to share my progress with my jeep, XCM read the first post, I was already running a 3" rc lift.

I would like to know what came with that lift. Typically with a small lift you are not going to have the required stuff, such as what was already explained. Even though you say you have the required stuff you aren't actually saying what you have.

I went from 4.5" lift kit to 5.5" lift on my own with a shackle and spacer. First my adjustable trackbar went, then I folded my upper control arms in half, then I bent my tie rod, then I bent my draglink so these are all things that you should address.
 
thats a douche post if i ever saw it. and thats coming from me!
trying to out do you... you have a legend to live up to.
Well actually you just said 3 inch lift but now that you say it's a RC then im guessing it's coils, swaybar brackets and a add aleaf, that was my first lift too. I did the same thing and stacked 2 inch spacers and shackles and like the others have told you you will need a aftermarket track bar at the minimum, I blew threw 3 stock ones at that height.

And I wouldn't get all bent out of shape about the others remarks, you asked what we thought and you got it, some people are just more blunt about it.
thats my thinking... he never posted what exactly he was running.
Allright, dog on me all you want buddy, I have everything in check, and the steel spacers look nice in between the poly spacers and stock isolaters, I work at a glass factory as a head tankman, I made them from solid 1" stock, and if you think it takes rocket science to make these things right and look good, I feel sorry for you pal!
im not dogging you at all, by all means post up your handy work. i love seeing peoples enginuity.

but at 3" of lift your really at a breaking point. it CAN and has been done with minimal components, but ideally you want more. and if your going bigger, its going to be more than just adding spacers and shackles.

i could turn this into me bashing you. but lets see a list of what you have on the jeep. you do have all the bases covered right? maybe you forgot something and we can critique your build. thats what you want out of this right?

and id like to see your stack of 3 spacers.
 
at 5 inches the bj on the stock track bar is obviously at way more angle then any bj is meant for, it could tear the joint appart by simply flexing the jeep and making the bj max out
 
Back
Top