Lifting and tires idea, and I'd appreciate your opinions

2001 XJ, auto, stock except for RIGID front bumper.

I'm about to hand the XJ over to my 16 year old son, and he wants a lift and tires. He is on a budget, and while he wants to go "higher and bigger", he is constrained by finances as he will have to pay for all mods himself 100%.

He wants a 6" lift and 35s. I told him that the Dana 35c rear axle will not handle those tires very well, and even if he can find a 44 or 8.8 for cheap, he is still looking at $$$ for a quality lift, longarm kit, wheels with the proper backspacing, regearing, SYE, new driveshafts, etc. I'd guessitmate that he is looking at a cash outlay of around $3k or so (at minimum) for what he needs, but he thinks that he can do it for a little over $1k.

I suggested to him that he place a 3" lift on it, and run some almost brand new 235/85R16 tires that I just pulled off of my mud truck. I believe that those will fit on the stock 16" XJ rims. With this combo he may still need the SYE and driveshaft, but will have (in my opinion) a very capable offroad vehicle for not a lot of $. If/when he decides to upgrade or gets "inch-itis", he can reasses his budget and needs at that time.

The majority of his driving will be to and from town for school and work. When he does play offroad, it is almost exclusively mudpits in the back pasture.

This old man would appreciate your opinions here. I'm not going to make his decision for him, but want him to gather enough information before making a decision. He has about $850 to spend right now.

Thanks,

Bud

For $850 you should be able to get a quality 3-4" lift kit (My XJ had a rough country 3" lift when I bought it - I had no problems but it is now sagging with custom bumpers front and rear) such as the RE 3.5" kit and a SYE. That, combined with your tires (about 32x9, I believe) will make a very capable wheeler without a lot of money; it also won't stress the stock axles very much, you won't need to regear, and you maintain a lot of the "road manners" that you would lose with 6" and 35s.

I had 31s and 3" of lift, and I wheeled my Jeep quite a bit after I got it - when I was 16.

I now use the same lift kit (with shackles in the rear, to make up for the tire carrier & bumper) and have 32s and trimmed quite a bit. IMO, it's not possible to go to 6" and 35s for $1,000 unless you're REALLY stretching it, to the point where the vehicle is no longer safe nor reliable.

IMHO, i agree strongly with the 3" lift and 235s i guess if you have them, if not new 31s. not only does a smaller lift help you to LEARN how to wheel better it is CONSIDERABLY cheaper, and you said he has about an $850 budget. i believe with $850 i would invest in a RE 3.5. it is around that price and comes complete with everything he would need, minus a driveshaft and sye *if needed*, seems to greatly depend on each cherokee.

im currently 19 years old and did the exact same thing that i just mentioned....

i got my 93 xj when i was almost 16 and shortly after put on a 3" lift and 31s, and for the past 3 and a half years have been wheeling all that i can, and also continuing investing my money into my rig (just not only on suspension). while at the beginning i wanted a 6" lift, budget did not allow. however, overall i am very happy with my choice to go with the 3" as i believe it really taught me how to wheel and what my rig was really capable of. now that i have been wheeling for a while, i recently locked the front, and have found out how capable an xj with 3" and 31s can be! while now i am looking into a larger lift (probably in the next year or so) the 3" worked perfect and satisfied my "inch-itis" for years.

not only do i belive the three inch would be better for those reasons, IMHO i believe you will be spending near 4K to do the 6" and 35s RIGHT. If he does the 3" and later has extra money he could invest into some other very important modifications like tow points front and rear, skid plates, rock rails, bumpers, and maybe a winch down the line....rather then spending all that money on suspension, which probably isnt needed in this case.

thats my opinion, take it for what its worth.....Good luck

Hmmm, as far as the lift is concerned $850 can buy you a good 3-4 inch kit however, it will be short arm. You'd be hard pressed to get 6"'s and 35's out of $1000 as well unless you buy it all used and such, even then I don't know how far $1000 will get you. A good 6" LA kit IMHO should not be a used one and will cost you about $1300-2300. Now that is a brand new full suspension and I belive that is the best way to go. Anything over 4" should probably be a LA kit for the fact that the ride will be better, the control arm angles wont be nearly as steep and it will keep the axle in a better position as you extend and compress.

Now tires and rims in the isle of 35's are going to run you right around $1300 brand new. I would suggest a 15x8 inch rim with somewhere in the ball park of 3.75" or better back spacing. That will place your wheel out far enough not to cause major turning radius problems, will keep the tire decently under the fender and will widen the width of his jeep which he will need seeing as his center of gravity will be much higher.

You will aslo have to take into consideration that you will need a longer rear drive shaft as well as a SYE, IMHO. Transfer case drops and such are just not the way to go. You will also want to take into consideration the cost of the drive shaft, SYE, and shim's for the rear axle.

While you are at it, new U-Joints all around are a good decision to throw in when you do the lift considering your choice of 35's.

I cannot stress this enough, gears, gears, gears. You will want to purchase yourself some gears to throw into your axles as you will soon find that your motor (hopefully it is a 4.0L) will be under a bunch of stress to turn those wheels. Also, your transmission and torque converter will soon fry themselves if you do not soon regear it after you install the 35's. The 4.0L has enough power to turn those wheels as fast as you are willing to go, but it's not such a great idea.

That's just some things to get you started thinking about. But as the other guys have said, if this is his first jeep and he's on a tight budget, I would suggest a 3" kit and 31's. There is tons of fun to be had mudding in 31's. Armor isn't such a big deal if all you do is mud. A good gas tank skid, rocker pannel guards and a good set of tires will get you through a bunch.
My advice is if he's hell bent on 35's to have him save up his money and not fool around with the jeep now. Get a good set of mud tires and have a blast and save the money. I am just like everyone else here with a tight budget (military guy) and have managed to save up for mine. It can be done, you just have to be patient. I now have a FT 6" with 35x12.50 BFG muds on a 99xj with 4.0L, D30 and 8.25 geared to 4.56 and do well in the mud. For us mudding types, major flex isn't needed as all these kits are designed around. I have trimmed very little on my kit and have bumpstopped the hell out of my jeep and I can take nearly any mud hole around. Just my .50C though. :laugh3:

Everyone has definitely made some great points! I've been into trucks for as long as I can remember and at 16, I would've LOVED to have a jeep/truck/whatever with 35's and 6" of lift. But, a couple other points: the handling of a Jeep with 6" and 35's would be a LOT different than the 3-4" lift people have been suggesting. And you mentioned yourself that it's got a Dana 35, no? I've heard 33's is max and that would be if it was trussed. But yeah, tires alone would blow the budget! It's tuff to hold back, but if you can get him to do so, it'd be better for all (safety and pocketbook) in the long run.

Unfortunatley one you break about the 4" mark your cost shoots through the roof. At this point You have to add in so many extra parts you never wanted just for it to work ie brake lines, shocks, trac bar, SYE, Drive shaft.
Bigger then 31-32" tires will need new gears, which will eat up more funds.

Keeping the jeep under 4.5" and 32" or smaller tires would be great for the pocket and driveability.

I agree with everyone on this thread, try to convince him that he can't afford/doesn't need 6" of lift and 35's. I'm 19 and I ran my XJ stock with 31's all last year before I lifted it 3". I still have 31's, but i'm beginning to feel "inchitis". I also was hell bent on getting a big lift, but financially I couldn't afford it. Where I live most of all wheeling is done in mud, which i'm not too interested in. For that reason, most of the big 4x4's here are big heavy ill-lifted chevys, fords, and dodges with 35+ tires. Seeing tires that big makes you want to go bigger and bigger. Sometimes I have to remind myself that my XJ is half the size of those vehicles. So i'm doing okay for now...We have a problem with "show" 4x4's....all show, no go. That's the thing that bugs me the most about my area of Texas.

Thanks for the input guys!

Bud

just a little after thought, here is what 6inches and 35's look like with no fender trimming. not so great for rocks, but leave the sway bars on and its good enough for mud. trimming the fenders about an 1 inch would be perfect for the mud though.




hope that helps a bit more than words.

I have read a lot on forums, that the best thing to do is to wheel it stock on maybe 235's so you learn the limits of the jeep, then go up from there. Nothing can replaced experience in anything in life.

look into a rustys kit. they have some sets of wheels/tires/lift for a pretty good price. i think it's about 1300 for a 4.5 with 31's on steelies.

my expierence -

if you have a project that starts out with a budget of 500

and you only have 500 available at the time

the project will cost at least 1000...

XJ_ranger said:

my expierence -

if you have a project that starts out with a budget of 500

and you only have 500 available at the time

the project will cost at least 1000...

Click to expand...

true story

53guy said:

just a little after thought, here is what 6inches and 35's look like with no fender trimming. not so great for rocks, but leave the sway bars on and its good enough for mud. trimming the fenders about an 1 inch would be perfect for the mud though.

hope that helps a bit more than words.

Click to expand...

I am not showing him these photos, or I'll lose the argument!

That is a nice looking rig.

It does look nice. However the SS emblem is debauchery!!! Burn him at the stake!

Tell your son that 35's will fit just fine on 4" of lift. If he wants to go cheap with it, but not be driving a death trap, find some slightly used shocks of someone that was running 3" or 4" who is going bigger (maybe 40 bucks), along with some used 2" or 3" springs (maybe 100, max) and a spacer (30 for the pair). In the rear, go for a single add a leaf (100 bucks) , RE shackle (80 bucks, and a small 1" tapered block (about 25 bucks). Bring the brake line brackets down a bit and remount them lower to compensate. From that point, Its only a sawsall and some (used from someone going long arm, 150-200 bucks for all four) adjustable control arms away.

Youre at about 500 right there, and thats not shopping around much. Pitch in a 150 bucks for him as an early x-mas present and that gives him another round 500 to make a winch bumper in metal shop and find himself a good used M8000 or the like. Or he can put it towards 35's, or some gears (500 for two ring and pinions and install kits, given you do the labor), or a rear locker, or whichever.