to lift or not to lift ......Opinions?

I just decided to hang on to my tired old 91 beater and give it a quick overhaul. It is a completely stock xj limited w/4.0 and 190K. At this point it needs new rear leafs and new tires so I'm a little confused on which way to go.

Now i'm sure this topic has been beaten to death but 20 min. of searches didn't get me very far so I figured I'd beat it a little more.

I use the truck mostly as a daily driver and offroad only on the beach. (long island beaches ... low and slow). I don't really need suspension travel or clearance, I'd just like to fit some wider rubber underneath. And there is where I get confused by the possibilities. (I've always owned full sized bronco's ... I even knew the secret bronco handshake. Shoehorning rubber under an xj is way outta my comfort zone.)


I have 225/70r15 on it now. (baldies) I'd like to go slightly taller and wider if possible but ....I need to keep it simple, the truck is only worth a few hundred bucks, I'd like to avoid a dumping 2g's on lifts and tires.

How big can I fit under stock? or with an inch or two of lift blocks? I'm assuming there is a nice chart posted somewhere that explains all this to the ignorant (me) but I haven't even managed to find that yet.

Since it needs springs anyway I was considering a 3" lift all the way around but I was worried about opening up some new cans of worms, you know ... steering, linkages, brake lines, do these things haunt a 3" lift??

Opinions would be helpful .... also links to all those charts I was supposed to find if I wasn't so lazy and incompetant.

Thanks all

t

Here is a start for you.. Just the FAQ's please. lol http://www.naxja.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=165

Oohh.. This is a good one!- http://members.aol.com/Stvns/XJhelp1.html

And a 'Budget Boost/Lift'- http://www.rocky-road.com/xjbudget.html

~Good Luck! lol

235 75 15s will fit with no rub

There's nothing wrong with a 2 incher and some 31's. It's economic and still looks great. Show and go if you will, fashion and function. Throw a front locker in, Man thats all go with a little show. I say LIFT!!!!!!

will a 2" lift and 31's work straight out? or am I getting out the tin snips? This is the way I'd like to go if possible. I don't really need the bells and whistles for the beaches I drive.... they have a 10mph speed limit. Just need to get me and the fishing poles from point A to point B.

t

Most people are gonna tell you to just go to 30 inch tires if you don't want to trim. I have a two inch lift and am mulling over the same question, except my existing 235's are still in good shape.

I say 3" (or 3.5") and 31's, it's not too expensive and isn't tall enough to run into those lifting gremlins and will look 100% better, they way XJ's should have been made.

I running 31's on a 2 inch lift, no rubbing except on LCA. Put 2 washers under the nut on the stops and works fine.

one more question then .... blocks or shackles? Assuming I go with a 2" lift ... am I better off with blocks or shackles? Dealing with full size trucks, both ways were asking for trouble. I don't think I have enough ponies left in this motor to worry about wheel hop, and I don't plan on any heavy offroading ... just low and slow in the sand.
And for the front? new stock springs and spacers or Grand cherokee v8 springs?

I'd do the shackles or a Full AAL . you said the leafs were saggin and the blocks are only gonna make them frown some more. For the front stop buy a junkyard and grab some ZJ v8 coils and pick up some spacers or stack stock isos. There you go 2" or more if you want and no need for lca's brake lines or shocks. After 3" your gonna need a couple more things like brake lines shocks and maybe an xfercase drop. I only have a 2.5" lift so im not so sure.

i would do the zj spring and spacer for the front and for the rear i would get new springs from quadratech. they have 3 versions of stock springs. the 7 1/2arch HD spring is reasonably priced and provides about 1.5"-2 lift height, if thats not enough, than add an mj shackle.

For the front, I went to Home Depot and bought 2 each of a 4" ABS pipe cap and 6" of pipe. Glued the caps on the pipe and cut the pipe and the end of the caps. This doubled the wall thickness of the caps. I then cut a hole in the end of the cap for the bump stop. 2" spacer for under $20.

Did a bastard pack in the rear with second main with eyes cut off. I cleaned each up and added 2.5" wide x .030 thck HDME between each spring, supper slippery and great ride! I would go with the HD spring pack next time. The existing springs are way too old.

My first lift was 2 inches, this is how I did it cheap. Cheap as in less than 50 bucks. Pull-a-part ford f-150 single leaf out of the rear, and for the front 2 hockey pucks. Sounds we-tar-did, but it worked great.

sixditchoffroad said:

My first lift was 2 inches, this is how I did it cheap. Cheap as in less than 50 bucks. Pull-a-part ford f-150 single leaf out of the rear, and for the front 2 hockey pucks. Sounds we-tar-did, but it worked great.

Click to expand...

how did the pucks give you lift?

citizenatlarge said:

And a 'Budget Boost/Lift'- http://www.rocky-road.com/xjbudget.html

Click to expand...

Beefy parts horrible service. Got their boost 3-4 yrs ago. BPEs didn't fit, couldn't be modded to fit. Called he said I was wrong. I could've gotten refunded the difference between the BPE equipped kit and the regular one, if I paid 15% restocking fee and shipping to get his defective part back to him. Still running the shackles and spacers today with my new lift and no complaints on the parts...


P.S. I'd say go for the small lift. You can get a 3-3.5" lift from Rough Country fairly cheap, talk to Grimus99XJ on here. He's a Rough Country rep, he'll take care of you. If you still have stock shocks, you'll want to replace them anyways. Mine still felt good at 150k, but now with new shocks on, its a huge difference...If anything, you may need a t-case drop, but those can be had relatively cheap as well. Besides, when mine was a 3", I thought that was how it should've sat from the factory. Looked right. I did my 3" with 2 pair of those Rocky Road spacers stacked. Not ideal, but it worked and if you're not flexin a lot (which I was and had no problems) that gets rid of the main issue people will say stacked spacers have. Coil falling out, never happened and I had mine pretty flexed out on a regular basis off-road...

sjx40250 said:

For the front, I went to Home Depot and bought 2 each of a 4" ABS pipe cap and 6" of pipe.

Click to expand...

Not sure I'd trust the ABS plastic to support the heaviest end of an XJ...real spacers, designed for the job aren't much more and a whole lot safer...:dunno:

Just get a shackle and a spacer and some 31s, bumpstop and your good buddy.