More lift after OME 2.5"?

I have a 1996 XJ with an Old Man Emu 2.5ish" lift and like any good Jeeper I would like to go a bit higher. I was thinking of going with the OME add a leafs and perhaps getting coil spacers for the front. How much extra lift would that give me? Would I experience any of that death wobble or vibration stuff? That stuff gives me nightmares right now never mind if my Jeep got it. Also, would I need to replace anything? LCAs?

Thanks,

Jamie

PM bgcntry72 if he doesnt respond to this psot. He has some decent knowledge on what you are doing.

Fergie

I lifted mine about another 1 1/2" using longer shackles in the rear and coil spring spacers in the front. I did have to change the shocks and later, after I pulled one most of the way apart, discovered that I needed longer brake lines as well. At about 4" I'm getting no vibrations, death wobble or anything else that you could think of.

Hope that helps a little,
Robert

I was thinking of going with coil spacers in the front and an Add A Leaf in the rear because I tow a 26 foot boat and often times you can add four or five people in the Jeep and that really weighs down the back end. Also I have a dual exhaust set up coming out the rear and I am not sure if there is enough room for a shackle in the rear.

How tough is it to extend brake lines anyway?

Thanks,
Jamie

Do you have the dual exhaust on the 4.0L?

Extending brake lines requires you to go buy some YJ lines, remove your lines, install the YJ, bleed, and drive.

Fergie

Dual exhaust?!?!?!?!

I don't even have a joke here...seriously...
I had the OME med. duty leafs and 930 coils, then added 1.75" daystar pucks and the OME JCXL add a leaf.
I also use a RE 1.25" shackle, which is only really .75" lift, and helps a lot with the leaf movement.
The AAL will make the rear 20% stiffer and will increase the load carrying a good amount.
I tow a 4700 lbs. boat myself from time to time.
You will end up at 3.5-4" lift.
I have since changed to the HD leafs and coils and now sit just a bit under 5".
I love the ride, and would only go taller if OME made taller stuff.
In short, I wouldn't change a thing.
Hasta.

Re: Dual exhaust?!?!?!?!

bgcntry72 said:

I don't even have a joke here...seriously...
I had the OME med. duty leafs and 930 coils, then added 1.75" daystar pucks and the OME JCXL add a leaf.
I also use a RE 1.25" shackle, which is only really .75" lift, and helps a lot with the leaf movement.
The AAL will make the rear 20% stiffer and will increase the load carrying a good amount.
I tow a 4700 lbs. boat myself from time to time.
You will end up at 3.5-4" lift.
I have since changed to the HD leafs and coils and now sit just a bit under 5".
I love the ride, and would only go taller if OME made taller stuff.
In short, I wouldn't change a thing.
Hasta.

Click to expand...

I added 1.5" to my OME kit several years ago, and it worked just about the exact same as with the lower lift. The gig with OME is the shocks mated to the springs for your specific vehicle, and so staying with OME you should have good results.

Having said this, IMO, and I have run OME as well as a ton of other stuff, I think OME is overpriced for a taller lift. What makes OME good in many ways is the gas charged shocks. If you simply run Bilsteins with a good set of rear leafs and front coils, and then you choose your control arms well, you can easily equal the performance of OME for quite a bit less money. It is amazing the difference good monotube gas shocks make onroad for an XJ.

So I would prefer a 4" coil to a 2" OME coil plus spacer, and I'd get the heavy duty OME springs for towing if you need a heavy duty leaf spring at a lower lift height (most heavier duty springs also come with a ton of lift unless you get a custom spring and pay out the nose for it). An MJ shackle should be all you need to let those babies flex properly.

At 4" the stock control arms are acceptable if you do very moderate and occasional fourwheeling, but I think you'll want at least adjustable lowers if you wheel it more, for durability, alignment, and unrestricted flex. You will also want longer shocks. Don't just add a budget boost to OME and change nothing else, because you will simply have extended the shocks 2", and they will compress to the same point as the lower lift. With 31" tires, this will cause fender clearance problems offroad.

Good luck!

Nay

I should have added that I've got adjustable LCAs, but I got those at the same time that I put the OME stuff on for no better reason than they provided just enough additional clearance to keep my tires from rubbing on the stock LCAs and making a really embarrasing noise when I was parking.

What I'd really like to do now is replace the OME stuff with an RE 4.5" kit and I'll likely do that at the same time that I replace the rear dif with a Dana 44 that I've got in my rec room (I know...you might be a redneck if you've got a Dana 44 torn apart in your rec room!). I'll probably go with the 4.5" springs instead of the 3.5" that come with the kit and put revolver shackles on instead of using extended shackles.

As for brake lines, it's really not hard; like someone said previously, install, bleed, drive. I went with braided steel, but YJs will do the same thing and they're cheaper too.

Has anyone ever noticed that this hobby is kind of like the house in "The Money Pit"!!!!!!! At least it works out that way for me.

Yes the dual exhaust is on a 4.0 litre Cherokee, it was a little something that I picked up while I was down in Florida during High School. EVeryone was doing it man! Ha ha, but it still looks pretty sweet and sounds nice with the Flowmaster. Thanks for your advice with the lifting, I am going to have to do some hunting around for the best deal now.

Thanks,
Jamie