Smooth riding lift

I am presently running a mostly Rusty's 4.5 " lift on my '92, with 31's and 4.10's, Rancho 9000's. Overall I like the set-up but am tired of the highway ride--over small bumps. Is there a lift that would give me a better ride? Also I am thinking of going to 32's. What is the thinking of 32's with 4.10's?
Thanks,
#67

if you want to stay at that height you will have a hard time fiding a good riding lift. i have no first hand experience, but i have heard old man emu rides better than factory, but only offers a 2 or 2.5 inch lift. also the lift is kinda pricey. 4.10's with 32's is good but i run 33's with factory gears and it works just fine.
jimmy

smooth lift ride

i've had both. old man emu is definitely the most comfortable lifted ride you're gonna find out there. better than stock! but... unless you want to use spacers and shackles, you're going to be limited to 2.5". i'm currently running rusty's 4.5", soon to be running rusty's 6" rear packs with 4.5" springs and jks adj. spacer in the front. if you want the hieght, stay with what you have now (unless its an AAL, then switch to the packs...they flex better) rather than opting for another manufacturer. rusty's gets his springs from the same place RE does, but he opts for the softer spring rates. i've felt the ride on my buddies xj's (one superlift, one RE, and one teraflex), and there is little comparison in ride comfort. rusty's has the others beat in this venue. also, i had rusty's 4.5" on for a year without any sag. his new leaf packs are better too.

I will contradict. I am running 6.5" Alcans with Teraflex BB shackles and Rockrawler 6" Coils. And Rancho 9000's. 33x12.50 MTR's

I have had multiple people ride in it and tell me that it is the smoothest riding vehicle with that much lift that they have ridden in.

just my .02

I am running ORGS Leafs out back and 4.5" ZJ coils from Rubicon express. This totals 5.5" of lift. It is stiffer than stock but it does not ride all that bad.

You could run the HD OME springs and get 3" lift and still have a smooth ride - particularly if you have a heavier truck. Use a coil spacer and a shackle and you're back to 4.5". OR keep Rusty's springs and use OME LT shocks. They are essentially the same shocks with more travel (so I have been told). Just about anything will be better than those Rancho's. Some of the worst riding trucks I've ever been in were running Rancho's. Never run 9000's - but the softest setting on them is still stiffer than I am willing to deal with. That's great for the racetrack, but just doesn't cut it on the road. If you really want to spend a bit more, run Bilsteins. "They" always say Bilsteins are the best. I've never run them... but I intend to sometime. And if you want a comparison - I can take a coke on the trail with me and it won't get shook up - an open drink won't even go flat - much less spill. Every other truck I've ever been in I couldn't even eat chips out of a bag it was so rough. YMMV

i have rusty's 6.5" under my 91 with their new 9 way shocks and i'm pretty sure its riding smoother than it did stock. 6.5" pack in the rear and full springs up front with the damper in the back set a little stiffer. the majority of what i feel when i hit a bump is in my wheel since i haven't done anything to upgrade the steering yet.

Those Rusty coils are the softest 4.5's I know of for XJ's (too soft for me), with the RS9000's, you should be able to adjust in a nice, super plush ride.
The problem is, at this height, you lower control arm angles redirect alot of the force of hitting a bump directly to your 'frame'.
To fix the arm angle, you either have to lower your Jeep , switch to long arms, or get RE/Trailmaster type drop brackets.
The brackets are probably the cheapest/best way out.
They really do soften up the ride.

The other issue could be your rear lift. Add a Leafs ride pretty stiffly, though at 4.5" alot of the full leaf sets are pretty stiff too.
Running a longer shackle can help the springs ride somewhat softer, but don't expect miracles.
The best bet is to run less arched leafs, with the longer shackles, for the same relative lift.

The only other thing I could think of is if your shocks are too long, or too short (bottoming, or topping out). This can make it ride terribly.

32's & 4.10's is a decent combo. It's a good ratio if you plan to stay at 32". If you have an auto, you could go with 4.56's if you were planning on going to 33's someday, but I like 4.10's for 32's better myself.
Airing those 32's down a little should help with the ride quality too.

Edit....BTW (about RS9000's) I run RS9009/RS9010 shocks, and they are very soft on their softest two levels, nothing like the rock hard RS5000's

Thanks to all for the observations. I tend to agree with jpnjim that the fault lies in the angle of the LCA's. I recall a post a few months back about using part of the drop down bracket rather than the whole thing. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I think that I will give the 32's a shot. I am presently using fixed LCA's and stock UCA's which give me about 7.5 degrees of castor. Any thoughts on replacing these w/adj. units? What make?

Replacing fixed control arms with adjustables only makes it easier to fine-tune the caster adjustment, it doesn't do anything to change the overall control arm angle. The only way to smooth out the ride harshness that results from those steep control arms is, as already noted, either drop brackets or a long-arm conversion.

Ed Wulfe+ said:

I am presently running a mostly Rusty's 4.5 " lift on my '92, with 31's and 4.10's, Rancho 9000's. Overall I like the set-up but am tired of the highway ride--over small bumps. Is there a lift that would give me a better ride? Also I am thinking of going to 32's. What is the thinking of 32's with 4.10's?
Thanks,
#67

Click to expand...

I am also using Rusty's 4.5" kit, with the rear springs (not AAL), and was also tired of the harsh ride they gave me. Last Friday, I took the truck to a spring shop and had the lower leaf removed from the springs. In the same time, I replaced the shackles with a set of .75" longer, greasable ones, which Rusty had send me to compensate for the fact that my standard shackles ride almost all the way to the front, binding in their mounts.

The new setup (minus one leaf plus the longer shackles) gave me almost the same exact height, but with a softer ride and a better road feeling.

Mind you, my truck sits at almost 6" of lift with this kit. Front (from center of the wheel to the flare) : 22,8" (58 cm)
Rear : 23.5" (59 cm).

Rgds

Is it possible to do a long arm conversion with 4.5" of lift? If not is it possible to only use part of the drop dowm bracket kit as was suggested in a post a number of months ago?
Ed Wulfe
Member #67

You might be able to do long arms if you built them yourself.They would need to be mounted inboard.As far as drop brackets go ,if you dont drop both brackets the unequal length arms wii create alot of binding when flexed.

Ed Wulfe+ said:

Thanks to all for the observations. I tend to agree with jpnjim that the fault lies in the angle of the LCA's. I recall a post a few months back about using part of the drop down bracket rather than the whole thing. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I think that I will give the 32's a shot. I am presently using fixed LCA's and stock UCA's which give me about 7.5 degrees of castor. Any thoughts on replacing these w/adj. units? What make?

Click to expand...

If you look at the new Teraflex 8" kit it uses drop down brackets similar to the RE, but it is only used for the upper control arms, because the lowers are replaced with long arms. This might be what was discussed earlier in reference to only using part of the brackets.

BTW, I installed RE drop brackets a few weeks ago and the improvement in ride was very significant. At 5" of lift, on an XJ used 99.99% on pavement, this was the best bang for the buck upgrade I've made yet!!

Thanks to all. I will try the RE drop brackets.
Ed Wulfe
#67