All around DD build

Hello all, been lurking for a while. Just purchased a 2001 sport with 118k. Its in decent outside condition. Some dents and dings. nothing too bad. Doesn't have any rust and the interior is in great condition. That being said i plant to hurculine, raptor line or other line the exterior top body line, grill, hood and roof.

The interior will get a component speaker upgrade and subwoofer with a decent headunit as i dd this thing about 30 min one way to work.

I realized this is beating a dead horse, and i can and have found a lot of knowledge just by checking this forum and others. I need real world advise as to the direction to head with my dd family mobile.

Things I need the XJ to do.

-Needs to be a dedicated DD.
-Need the ability to get to work no matter what, in my job i can not just call in.
-Needs decent road manners, wife will ride in it, along with a brand new baby girl.
-Along with road manners, would be nice to get as good of ride quality as possible.
-would like to avoid SYE , but i will not rule it out to stop driveline vibes.


My current thoughts are DPG 2" basic lift, as it comes with springs,shocks and full leafs, all of which i would like to up grade on the XJ to not only lift but bring it back to or better than gem ride.

If i do this lift, what is the maximum tire size i will be able to do with fender cutting? Im thinking about 16" pro comp 7069's in matte black flavor, and some 285/75/16 treadwright guard dogs. thoughts? Eventually i will do bushwhacker flat flares or Napier flat flares.

Thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the Forum! After tooling around with XJs for the last 7 years I believe they are a great offroad platform. Here are my thoughts about your plan.

~Dedicated DD. No problem.
~Ability to get to work in any condition. No problem.
~Decent road manners. Good shocks, WJ steering brake swap, Shackle relocation, Sway Bar Extension.
~Avoid SYE. Hell no. I promise you would be doing yourself a favor by knocking that out as soon as you put on a taller suspension.

Sounds like a complete kit will best suit you. I was cheap and pieced my suspension initially with crap parts and slowly rebuilt it. I have always been a fan of IRO and their products. I recommend this then their SYE and Driveshaft kit.

http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/10796.html
http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/11297.html

If you want to preserve the minimal road noise that you have then I highly advise against trimming any of the plastic liner that is under the fender. I hated the road noise in my XJ after I removed them. Lastly if the paint is still good on the XJ don't bedline it all to hell. I have never seen a good bedline paint job and it will lose all of its future sale value. None of this is cheap but building a XJ cheap will lead to hatred and selling of PITA jeep.

Idgo with a 31in tire. 285 will require a lot of trimming. I run that size on about 4 in of lift. Not to mention if you don't regear the driveability will suffer greatly.

I did ome front/rear springs on 31's. Gave me about 3-4". Bar pin eliminators on the shocks. Grand Cherokee rear discs on a 99 8.25. Wj front brakes and iron Man engine brackets ready to go on until I was t-boned by a semi that ran a red. I had a Kevin's adjustable track bar and bracket that fixed steering shake a new Moog bar couldn't. 96 style brake booster. I did dynamat the roof which seemed to help noise and seemed to also help heat/ac work better. Tinted windows. I put over 150k on my 91 with few issues. Had 1 distributor fail and need a tow(bearing failed). Wore out a transfer case and rear diff plus steering/ball joints. DD for the whole time. Been to Wisconsin from Oregon twice, all over Yellowstone and many other places in summer heat. Handled Oregon winters with ease. So snow and ice.

Thanks guys

Questions, what does the WJ steering do for road manners. What do the shackles do for road manners?

WJ swap will eliminate bump steer and upgrade the front calipers. Makes it drive better as the suspensions cycles up and down. The drag link and tie rod are separate, where on the factory y link there are joined so movement of one is proportional to the other.

Shackles wont do any good if they are at a 90 degree angle to the spring and the upper mount. It will ride awful. you want the shackle to be laid back between 30-45 depending on the setup. Relocation boxes are a good addition. Lift or no lift style. Purchase good, correct length shocks.

If you want to run a 31 with 2" little trimming will be needed. But correct bump stop setup will be key. Do not neglect correctly setup bump stops or the springs wont last long.

Rule of thumb 3" lift will clear 31s with no trimming if the bump stops are good.

EDIT: Tire selection is spot on. Best all round tire I've ever run. Problem is 31x10.50 is only avaliable in 15" wheels. Step up to a metric sizing on 16" wheels. Clear the WJ swap issues and also give you better selection when you decide you want to go larger. Which will happen

A lot of silly info in here. WJ swap would be a terrible idea for what you a looking for. SYE again overkill.

Honestly, what it sounds like you are looking for is a stock XJ that is a little more capable. So this is what I would do.

-Upcountry coils and leafs will net about 1" lift. Add in 3/4 spacers and shackle relocation bracket. Will be about 2" total and still maintain stock geometry. Or get an OME lift http://dpgoffroad.com/products/22-5-inch-ultimate-xj-old-man-emu-hybrid-kit-2/

-Upgrade your tierod, either http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/10194.html or a ZJ

-Replace your TRE's (tie rod ends) and drag link

-Replace control arms (stock is fine) or buy some aftermarket ones

-Replace your track bar http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/10215.html or stock. I would upgrade to a double shear but a stock one is fine too.

-Get some stock rubicon wheel and tires. Has to be TJ as WJ have different bolt pattern. I wouldn't go over 30" on stock gears.

-If you want to line ti go Monsta liner, better product IMHO

Enjoy your XJ

The overall goal is a dd like stated above. It won't be the ultimate xj or anything. Just mall certified and occasional trails. I want it to be a well improved version of stock really.

Its currently on 30s. Ideally i want some 33's. I have no problem cutting the fenders and bump stopping accordingly. Although the jeep looks good from afar, its far from good paint wise. Id give it a 5-6 out of 10 in the paint department. Its got dings and dents. Im trying to decide if i want to just repaint the whole thing or line it. I think i may line specific parts, roof, hood lower doors etc, and diy paint the jeep. Ive always been fond of the steel blue color xj's, and i might just try that.

I believe my rear leafs to be in good condition. They clear 30's without a problem. So would an Add a leaf really be that big of a no no in my situation? Without going to crazy on my budget its hard to find a full leaf setup for a decent price. At one point i was of the thought that i wanted RC 3" series 2, but then i stumbled upon DPG. I am of the thought you get what you pay for, but i have to be honest with myself when it comes to budget and what the jeep will be to me. That being said I'm limiting the lift kit to $500-ish.

Ive got more questions after i pick a lift, i.e. steering stabilizers, the RuffStuff "the cure" and more. First and foremost, i need to settle on a lift.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Going from 30"s to 33"s is a big jump. IMO, the gears need to be changed and bigger brakes installed.
31"s will fit without too much trimming and will get you anywhere 33"s will, with carefull driving.

The biggest advantage I noticed, switching from 31"s to 33"s, was the ability to run a much lower tire pressure, when off roading. The ride is more comfortable and a softer tire grips better in most conditions.
It was expensive change requiring regearing and bigger brakes to regain the lost performance, caused by the taller, much heavier tires.

You also should be considering skid plates and recovery points, both basic requirements for an off road vehicle.

Depends on your budget. If I were you I'd go with an old man emu 2" lift front and rear springs, V8 ZJ steering upgrade and then go from there. It'll ride better than stock, steering is beefed up enough for mild trails.

I second the ome lift. Mine was pieced together by DPG I think. Been on close to 8 years no sag from rear really and I've towed a lot with it. Fronts did sag a bit, they were ome 934 v8 zj. They are a bit too soft IMO, coil number and wire diameter are less than stock v8 zj springs. I really liked the zj rear disc upgrade. Not sure they work much better than well maintained drums but easier to work on and tolerate mud better, if that's your thing. I also did a Kevin's tracbar and bracket.

smokeyyank said:

A lot of silly info in here. WJ swap would be a terrible idea for what you a looking for. SYE again overkill.

Honestly, what it sounds like you are looking for is a stock XJ that is a little more capable. So this is what I would do.

-Upcountry coils and leafs will net about 1" lift. Add in 3/4 spacers and shackle relocation bracket. Will be about 2" total and still maintain stock geometry. Or get an OME lift http://dpgoffroad.com/products/22-5-inch-ultimate-xj-old-man-emu-hybrid-kit-2/

-Upgrade your tierod, either http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/10194.html or a ZJ

-Replace your TRE's (tie rod ends) and drag link

-Replace control arms (stock is fine) or buy some aftermarket ones

-Replace your track bar http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/10215.html or stock. I would upgrade to a double shear but a stock one is fine too.

-Get some stock rubicon wheel and tires. Has to be TJ as WJ have different bolt pattern. I wouldn't go over 30" on stock gears.

-If you want to line ti go Monsta liner, better product IMHO

Enjoy your XJ

Click to expand...

Please be more specific where the silly info is listed at?

I'm building my 160k '99(242/3.55 gearing) for the exact same purpose. This is #13 for me, so taking everything I've learned along the way and applying to a very mild DD build. My specific requirements were a super reliable DD that would fit 31s and didn't require any 'special' driving styles to be safe and fun. In other words I wanted my wife or neighbor to be able to hop in it and be able to drive it to get groceries or on the interstate with no special instructions, ie go slow over speed bumps or don't turn full lock in parking lots... So here is my build based on my PERSONAL tastes. There is some good advice about upgrades above, but for me things such as WJ steering won’t make a difference to the driving I will be doing so I wouldn’t recommend it for me.

My Build:
*Upcountry leafs/coils – This will allow me to fit 31s with trimming and proper bumpstops. This keeps the height doable for wife and kids in carseats, but give me a more aggressive look and tire options. Not to mention it is under $250 with full leafs. Also allows me to step up to 2-3” via shackles/spacers should I decide to down the road. I will say shackle relocation does improve ride quality, but I enjoy the trucky ride and don’t load up the rear enough to take full advantage of the shackle angle improvement(by decreasing the shackle angle you allow the shocks to do their job properly instead of it being transmitted into the body via vertical shackles)

*Stock ecco or rubi wheels – still trying to source these as I am using the steelies for winter tires. Either will allow you to run 31x10.5s, albeit rubi moabs will give you a better profile imho.

*WJ control arms – I needed to do bushings anyways and the bent LCAs of the WJ give me a tad more clearance for full lock situations. Not required, but for the few bux it was worth it and direct bolt on.

*Brake Lines – You can simply unbolt the bracket and you will be fine or do the SS if you find a deal(technically you could leave them and be fine for DD use). I had a set of SSs left over from a prior build so that’s what I’m doing.

*Bumpstops – As mentioned above make sure you correctly size these depending on your trimming and tire size.

*Trimming – Trace the top of the fender, remove flare, trim/cut reinstall flare. Make sure to paint/seal cut areas to prevent rust. The area at 9 and 3-5(by doors) are the 2 crucial areas that catch tires. Fronts are the biggest issue, rears don’t need as much trimming

*v8 ZJ tie rod setup – Again at my mileage I needed to do all the steering/suspension anyways and for the added strength and same price it was a no brainer. I don’t think you will see any noticeable benefit from doing a full WJ steering swap, but just my 2 cents. If you trail it a ton, maybe….

*Upgraded steering brace/spacer/bracket – This is just cheap insurance. Snapping this off is a pita to fix and fairly common even without abuse.

*A good set of front pads/rotors and proper maintenance on the rear shoes – Again for 31s I just didn’t have an issue with pedal firmness. Heavy hill environments maybe I could see the hassle/expense of doing a rear disc conversion. With 33s I’d certainly be looking at doing the conversion.

*Rear axle shims – You don’t need a SYE for a 1-2” lift and most likely will only need a few degree shims once you get around 2”.

*Gearing – I will most likely step up to 4.10s once my axles start making noise. Probably a tad overkill for the flattish driving I do, but it’s the same price as 3.73s and again keeps my options open for down the road. I have a ‘road mannered’ locker for the front as a cya for snow days.

*Shocks – Spend the money and get good quality/valved shocks. IMHO this is the biggest return on investment for ride quality and road manners. DON’T forget a good steering stabilizer as well. 31s+ do a number on the stocker.

*Bushings – Polys are too stiff for what I’m going for so I’m sticking with OEM material where needed. I’m a big mivotech fan, but I’ve had good luck with moog as well. Just did the sway bar bushings, which you could see daylight through, and it was amazing how used I’d gotten to the sloppy handling.

*Mounts – Still not sure here as mine were replaced prior to me getting it and in good shape. Polys are definitely out of the question due to the vibration increase, but brown dog and M.O.R.E both make upgraded mounts that are similar to stock vibration levels(Motor). Trans I’ll be doing an oem style replacement.

*Tow/Recovery – For now stock bumpers with tow hooks upfront and a class III in the rear.

*Lighting – I went with the H4 headlight upgrade(Rampage brand was $70 for the pair) as I thought it was the best bang for the buck. LEDs are brighter but way out of my budget. I’ll be adding some LED cubes for fogs(mine didn’t come with factory fogs). The headlights made a hell of a difference.

*Speakers – DB651s all the way around. Direct fit, cheap, and 100 times better sound. Non-s are too tall on the tweeter.

*Interior lights – I didn’t go led crazy like some of the folks here. I did both domes and the kick panels in LED as to me those were the ones that needed to be brighter/cleaner. 2 festoon style for the main domes,(2) 194s for the front maps, 2 BA15s for the kicks. I’m sure the speedo and hvac led swap is pretty, but I like to dim mine at night and they are bright enough for me as is.

*Console brace – If yours isn’t broken yet it will. If it wobbles with your arm on it its broken. Upgrade to the steel one everyone sells.

*Battery Cables – Highly recommend, there are a few guys on here who make good kits for around $100. Easy job to do and saves you a ton of electrical/ground headaches down the road.

Everything else for me was maintenance. Gaskets, interior trim/headliner, fluid changes(remember to change the FILTER when doing the tranny). One thing you may need to look into is the cylinder head issue that affects 00-01 4.0s. I’ve had every year but those so I’m sure someone else on here could be more informative, not to mention there are a zillion threads on the fix(new casting of the head).

If I were doing the ultimate DD XJ and wanted some light trail capabilities, I would do the following

1. Up Country Springs, stock shackles and spacers
2. Good shocks
3. Upgrade the tie rod and ends if the tie rod ends are worn. Otherwise wait.
4. Upgrade the steering stabilizer if I do #3.
5. The 235/75/15 tires of your choice.
6. Factory tow hooks and class 3 hitch.
7. Source factory skid plates from a junk yard or Craigslist
8. Bushings if needed
9. LCA's if needed, either WJ or aftermarket upgrade, but only if needed.

Definitely optional, but may be worth it if you ride some light/med trails or want to improve stock performance.

10. Truetrac LSD
11. LED Headlights
11. SS Brake Lines
12. JKS Quick Disconnects for Up Country lift
13. M.O.R.E or equivalent steering box brace
14. Heavy duty steering box spacer

I just can't see trimming up a low mileage 2001 (and 118k is low mileage on an XJ ) just to squeeze in giant tires on a car that needs to meet your listed needs, so I'd avoid tired that won't fit the 1" lift you'll get from Up Country springs.

Best of luck

csailors said:

Please be more specific where the silly info is listed at?

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A WJ upgrade for a DD to run 33's, doesn't make a bit of sense. Why dump 2k+ into a WJ setup that doesn't match what OP is looking to do? Regardless it's an 01 so he would need to swap the axle because it doesn't make sense to invest in a LP D30. While the stock suspension/steering system isn't the greatest it's tried and trued. Can't argue with the fact that a stock XJ is very capable and some minor mods are probably all the OP needs to do to satisfy the reqs.

I just got a 98 xj as well. With a aw4 in it. I'm doing a similar dd/ww build my self. It came with a 3in rc series 2 lift on it already. As well with crugr soft US and 31" KO 1. So less money I have to spend on doing upgrades I was already planning on when I get home. Only problem is I can't tell if its a full pack in the rear or a aal. Trying to get my wife to take proper pictures for me has been a little difficult. So I can see what it has. I plan on putting a winch bumper in the front and a steel shackle bumper in the rear. And I want to add lockers or a true tracs. I'm still deciding on what mud tires I want to get. I do want to add another inch or so possibly. Just not sure how I want to do it.

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I'm one of the pictures you can see one lower control arm in the front, it looks like one of there series two control arms. From rough countrys 3in lift. Now the ubolts in the rear look like they are not that old. And it looks like one of the leafs in the rear is not that old either. And the leaf retainers look like the ones rc uses in there kits. But no stickers on the shocks don't help but everything looks far as I can tell the rc series two lift. And the tie bar and track bar in the front looks like they are not that old either but till I get home. I can't fully confirm they are new or not as of now.

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smokeyyank said:

A WJ upgrade for a DD to run 33's, doesn't make a bit of sense. Why dump 2k+ into a WJ setup that doesn't match what OP is looking to do? Regardless it's an 01 so he would need to swap the axle because it doesn't make sense to invest in a LP D30. While the stock suspension/steering system isn't the greatest it's tried and trued. Can't argue with the fact that a stock XJ is very capable and some minor mods are probably all the OP needs to do to satisfy the reqs.

Click to expand...

IDK where you get your information but it is ridiculous.
2k would cover 2 times over what a WJ swap costs to do.
The braking aspect alone makes it worth it to most who do it.
WJ is also tried and true. And a better option if you do anything other than jump speed bumps at the mall.

As far as LP to HP. The LP will be fine for what hes looking to do. That would be a wasteful upgrade going to another 30 either way.

agreed, an XJ is capable. But it makes sense to start with the basics that make the rig more safe to operate currently and also once more mods are done you don't waste money doing the same job again.

Again with 33s like the OP wants, do not slack on the brakes, or steering as that size tires puts considerable more stress on steering and frame components.

most guys always go for appearance over function. 8" lift, 35s, giant bumpers and all kinds of light bars.

Neglecting that the steering, brakes, and frame all need attention to use these items to be what i would consider a reliable safe DD for hauling my family, and keeping fellow motorist safe.

Unpopular viewpoint for a car-guy forum but I'd leave it alone.
If you want better brakes, it's worthwhile to put ZJ rear disc brakes on it. Another step up in performance is the WJ front setup, though it gets expensive.
If your tie rod is worn out, put a ZJ V8 solid tie rod on it.
Don't lift it. A.) A stock cherokee will take you through some pretty gnarly fire roads (I've never been stopped in a stock XJ) B.) Every lifted vehicle I've driven, every type of lift, has compromised road manners to a greater degree than most folks really want in a DD.
Put some good M&S rated tires on it, upgrade brakes (maybe), posi rear (maybe) and keep it in good shape.
People act like you need 33's & long arms to go camping... false.