Long term effects of lift kits and bigger tires.

Hi everyone. As my title would suggest I want to know how everyone's off road modification experiences have effected vehicle reliability and longevity.

I'm NOT interested in how various lift kits ride/handle/perform, only the long term effects on the drivetrain. (ie wear)

I would prefer to have experienced people post about their observations who have run lift kits for many years. The longer the better. Mechanics are welcome to post too.

The purpose of my post is collect knowledge from these experienced people to allow the less experienced people (like me) a chance to know what we are getting into when upgrading our suspensions/tires. Except for the large amount of money invested. (hopefully that is obvious to people)

Okay, I'm a mechanic, and have had lifted vehicles for many years.

My opinion is that some vehicles handle it better than others. For example, a new chevy with 33's will go through ball joints, steering gears (rack and pinion), and tie rods with a little bit of lift and regular driving. A Cherokee on the otherhand will handle the same tire size and lift as that chevy with little side effects from street driving.

Then of course comes the real culprit...offroad use can and will break anything over time. I must admit my cherokee has held up quite well with only broken parts, not worn out parts.

It really comes down to the kind of use (and abuse) that the vehicle will be put through. With mall duty, a cherokee on 33's will last a very long time.

Angles of operation on many parts increase with the lift, theoretically shortening their life. On an XJ, the only real thing you'll notice going more often with a lift is the hub bearings, IMO. If you've got really big tires, the ball joints too.

Beating on em offroad, parts sometimes break. Luckily there are many spares that can be had for cheap.

The engine tranny and transfer case wont' be affected by the lift. Although, you should keep up with maintenance on them. keep them cool and good oil in them, and they'll last forever. If you run a big lift with no SYE, then you may be asking for trouble with the Tcase eventually...but most people fix that problem before it comes and bites them.

Most people don't just lift vehicles and call it done. It's an ongoing process of improving the vehicle to make it do what you want it to do. Part of that is ensuring that all the essential expensive parts (motor tranny tcase) last forever. So, most people do cooling upgrades and keep up with routine maintenance, and rarely do people have serious problems with these parts. Ofcourse $hit does happen, but it does so on stock vehicles too.

Wounded XJ said:

5 years is not the longest of time our there, but I give you what I got. I have an 89 XJ with 6.5" of lift with 33" tires. I have only had a few issues so far and that is with the trac bar bracket coming loose from the frame. I will get death wobble, I will find a bolt or two loose on the bracket, and it will be fine. This is now a routine thing I do after I get done wheeling it. I have also noticed the tie rod ends seem to wear out a little faster, but I'm sure if I got an over the knuckle system that brought the alignment angles back it would not be as big as an issue. The one thing I have learned is the more you do to your suspension the more stress you put on other parts on the vehicle meaning you will now have to upgrade those parts or they will fail on you.

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That's why it is important to put on a compleat lift, where all the conpnets are designed to work together. Like with larger lifts will come with a drop pitman arrm, and a heavy duty trace bar bracket, brake lines, ect, ect.
I'm guilty of this myself would have been better to save up and buy a better kit from the start.
I have a 92' XJ 5.5" lift on 33's also. If I'd just bought RE's heavyduty long arm kit I think I would have saved money in the long run. Have had my lift on for about fours years now with no issues or worn out parts yet.

Been about 6 years....

90XJ 6" 31's 200,000 miles

Oil changes and routine maintenance. No difference in wear and tear.

long term effects of lifted vehicles:

no cash in my wallet
no longer driving my lifted vehicle, and instead driving a vehicle to tow said lifted vehicle...

I bought my XJ with the lift installed - 4" Pro Comp with an extra leaf and it has been on there between 4 and 5 years, It's still going strong. I burn through driver side hubs pretty fast though. Apart from normal wear and tear from wheeling it's all good. Not a hint of death wobble at any speed which is a major plus. The only draw back is a stupidly rough ride when the shocks wear out. I run ES3000 which Pro Comp recommends I stay with as they are designed for that lift.

cjcargo said:

That's why it is important to put on a compleat lift, where all the conpnets are designed to work together. Like with larger lifts will come with a drop pitman arrm, and a heavy duty trace bar bracket, brake lines, ect, ect.
I'm guilty of this myself would have been better to save up and buy a better kit from the start.
I have a 92' XJ 5.5" lift on 33's also. If I'd just bought RE's heavyduty long arm kit I think I would have saved money in the long run. Have had my lift on for about fours years now with no issues or worn out parts yet.

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I totally agree, though at the time I got into my XJ I did not have a $1,500 to $2,000 + to drop so I just purchased a kit for $800. I'm sure I'm well over the cost of the RE long arm now, but I do have to say it has taught me more about the Jeep when things have gone wrong. I have a long way to go to call myself knowledgeable, but there is only one way to get there and that is getting in there and getting dirty.

With a tall lift (4.5"+) you will tear through stock steering if you keep it.

With big tires (33+) you will tear through unit bearings (timeframe depends on brand, with Timken its not as bad as it sounds) and balljoints (again, brand).

If you don't gear correctly for your tire size you will destroy clutches and transmissions.

If you gear appropriate to your tires, have steering to handle your lift, and buy quality balljoints and unit bearings - you should have no real problems at all. I daily drive my XJ with 6.5" of lift and 35's. Over the last 3 years I have done balljoints once, and unit bearings twice - once due to wear and once I had a trail failure and replaced both. I probably would have had to replace steering a time or two, but I broke it before it wore out, and now run an aftermarket steering setup that is good for my height.

I think the deciding factor would be due to the use of the vehicle. If it is going to be a mall crawler you should have no problems...but then why lift it? If you run rocks, you need to consider further expense such as armor, recovery points, and body damage--not to mention torn motor and tranny mounts.
This leads to the economical issue. Are you going to gear for the tires? Will your stock axles hold the size tires you want to run.

As mentioned earlier, this is a never ending process that will not end once the lift is on. No matter the use, I've never seen a lifted vehicle go very long without something needing to be fixed or replaced.

So several have said that its an ongoing process. (lifting)

What do you all believe is the most common "forgotten" part(s) in lift kits?

In other words, what SHOULD have also come with the basic lift kit.

One thing I've learned over the years is don't underestimate the importance of regearing your axles for larger tires. Larger tires (IE: 32's and up) on stock 3:55 axle gears will tax an automatic transmission, and cause it to prematurely fail. I'm sure that I will get a bunch of naysayers coming out of the woodworks for this reply, but I know. I almost burned up the automatic transmission in my last XJ because of a couple of years on 33's with stock axle gears. The transmission will have to work overtime to pull the XJ with that type of combo, especially in hilly areas such as where I live.

Wounded XJ said:

I totally agree, though at the time I got into my XJ I did not have a $1,500 to $2,000 + to drop so I just purchased a kit for $800. I'm sure I'm well over the cost of the RE long arm now, but I do have to say it has taught me more about the Jeep when things have gone wrong. I have a long way to go to call myself knowledgeable, but there is only one way to get there and that is getting in there and getting dirty.

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X2 couldn't agree more, went through the same things.


Adam

the key to longevity is maintenance and care. lifting and modifying by themselves are not the downfall for vehicles. if you had a person with a brand new stock jeep cherokee that NEVER did the maintenance or took care of it, it would have alot more problems than somebody with a lifted, locked and wheeled cherokee that does his maintenance regularly and takes care of the vehicle.

j99xj said:

So several have said that its an ongoing process. (lifting)

What do you all believe is the most common "forgotten" part(s) in lift kits?

In other words, what SHOULD have also come with the basic lift kit.

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I will say that the most common "forgotten" part to any lift is gearing. As Wounded XJ and Georgia Mike said, larger tires on stock gears will seriously tax the transmission.

Do I think they should be included as part of a lift kit though? No way - too many options out there. Too many D35s that should be tossed out, too.

With any vehicle, lifted or not, maintenance is going to be the key to longevity. When I laid out my long-term goals for lifting my Jeep, I knew that there was a certain sequence I wanted to do some of it. I knew that I needed a stronger rear axle before gearing it, and it didn't make sense to gear it before the lift, etc. Along those lines, I also knew that larger tires produce more stress on the balljoints, so items like that are expected to be replaced on a more frequent basis than on a stocker.

Plan for items to wear or require upgrade and then watch the whole thing over time. If you do that, you'll be fine.

Jim www.yuccaman.com

Yucca-Man said:

I will say that the most common "forgotten" part to any lift is gearing.

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Agreed 100%. This was the one thing I didn't do when I lifted my XJ and fitted larger tyres, and I regretted that decision for over a year. Yeah, it ran OK on 3.55s with 31s - but it wasn't as good as it should've been.

In the roughly day or so that I've had to drive around on the 4.10s, I've noticed a few things: lower engine temperatures, fewer downshifts, less heat radiating off of the transmission into the cabin, and about a 20% improvement in fuel economy.

As Wounded XJ and Georgia Mike said, larger tires on stock gears will seriously tax the transmission.

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And it's even worse if you're not running a tranny cooler.