Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum!
If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page.
Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.
Just picked it up about a month and a half ago, got a long list of stuff I want to do to it. Already ordered bumpers, winch, lights, electric fans,tune up parts, and a bunch of other odds and ends since I have had it, but Im still waiting on half of it to come it.
It is a 1988 and has the 4.0/auto/4x4/swb and a 4.5 inch rough country lift with a SOA. But after looking up the vin, it looks like it was a 2wd sometime before me...
ya know a couple of other people have told me the same thing but I want to at least clear 32's with out cutting my finders and I am BARELY doing that now in the front...
You're gonna like this then. I am running the Rusty's 4.5" SUA MJ leafs and slightly longer (iirc, 104mm - Crown Automotive part number 5200 2393) bumpstops with 33s and the rears of the flares barely rub under heavy compression, I had to trim maybe an inch (the tire did it for me) and that was when I had no bumpstop at all on one side. The bushings that came with the leafs sucked and I wore them out in like 3-4 months but the leafs are doing great, I would buy them again for sure.
I think you'd be happy with lowering the back about 3 inches and bump stopping correctly. I 'm glad the you don't want to cut the fenders. The look better with them. Especially the trucks.
I should note that that's about 1000lbs of old wet asphalt shingles and other construction/demolition debris in the bed, so it's either on the bumpstop already or just about to be. You can see the amount of "trimming" the tire did on the fender flare here - that's the amount you need to clear 33s with these leafs without running bumpstops at all.
At ride height (empty bed) WinterFest 2012, a month ago (this is after nearly a year of heavy loads and abusive wheeling):
I am *not* easy on it. I've blown a couple shafts, gotten air in it on dirt roads, generally my foot is on the floor or close to it. I've hauled a couple tons of old shingles out of my yard with it (it sits on the bumpstops all the way up the hill to the dumpster) and a few cords of wet hardwood down rough abandoned dirt roads from ~10 miles away with it, besides wheeling, and it hasn't sagged noticeably yet. I think my OME 2.5" leafs in my old XJ had already sagged to approx. stock ride height by the time they were this old.
EDIT: If I could I'd go a little lower, but it's quite stable right how it is. I can climb pretty much anything I want to without worrying about it being too tall and rolling/flopping, unless it's either super dry dirt or really grippy rock I run out of traction before it starts feeling sketchy. I had a set of 2" lowering blocks in it for an actual lift of ~2.5" in the back but they were making the axle wrap a bit under torque and I hit the bumpstops a lot. I decided I'd be better off with 4.5" lift and better handling.
I guess the difference is that you have a different offset on your rims from what I can tell and you have puled you front flare off. I would like to keep my stock flares on for now anyway. I have been thinking about going flat fenders eventually...
yeah, I wouldn't suggest doing what I did on the front if you like the stock look - but the back worked great for me. My rims are 0% offset (4" backspacing, 8" wide) that I originally bought to clear the leafs better on my XJ with the same tires.
I'd really rather have flares up front but I haven't found something that's cheap that I still like the look of, and I haven't put the late-model fenders on to go with the header panel anyways, so I'm just using these as-is until I figure out what I'm doing.
I don't get why people think they have to cut the fenders. You can trim some plastic, and maybe pound down a pinch seam, and maybe trim a touch of sheetmetal at the bottom edge of the wheel well, but the fender doesn't need to get cut. Tires rub at the bottom edges of the wheel wells, not at the top.
I'd also lower the rear and definitely don't raise the front more just to clear 32's. You can trim to clear 32's with 3" of lift and not cut the fenders and run the stock flares.
One reason to cut the whole opening, is that you can remount the stock flares after cutting the opening. I agree that the interference is at the bottom edge.
WinterFest 2012, a month ago (this is after nearly a year of heavy loads and abusive wheeling):
