hi guy and girls im new and i have a question i have a 2000 cherokee classic i want to put a 4.5 inch lift but a friend telling me not to go that high because of the frame of my truck will twist and the rear end are daNA 35 AND IF I PUT 31 INCH TIRES THE REAR END WONT LAST IS THIS TRUE OR IS HE NUTS, AND I DONT GO OFF ROADING WITH IT I JUST GO on dirt road and lite trails

 

all thats horse ****, the D35 is a weaker axle but it will handle 31's go for the lift, obviously people have been lifting their cherokees for years and nobody says it swists their "frame" or nothin, its actually a unibody

 

cool i have a 2 in in now but not enough i need more i went to the gun club today and a friend was telling me all this stuff that my jeep not made for a 4 inch lift is not strong enugh and he has a rubocon so i though he no what he's talking about. well thanks alot for the info im putting it in this week

 

oh he's got a rubi? haha of course he is talkin crap about cherokees, trust me cherokees can handle some tuff stuff! ask anybody on here and they will tell you the same thing

 

im gonna let this picture explain it self.... 3 feet of water.. 31'in tires 4.5 rough country lift pulled out like a champ even over the log in front of the jeep...

 

i putt it in, hey guy it's bad , ill post some pic when i get a chance, it dont even ride bad im very happy i listen to use thankx for the info

 

You friend is either nuts or one of the sheep. He believes every thing he hears.
It is true the D35 is the weakest of the axels available on the XJ. But thaty doesn't mean it's too weak for lifts, lockers and bigger tires, for 99% of the people out there. It means that if you are of the 1% who do HARD CORE wheeling most of the time, you MIGHT want to upgrade. A D35 is strong enough to handle up to a 32" or 33" tire with a locker. I would limit myself to DD and class 7-8 and lower trails. Yes you could handle the occasional class 10 trail, if you are carefull. The the Root cause of most D35 breakage is a heavy right foot applied at the wrong time.

Frame twisting, well this is imposible in an XJ, as the XJ does NOT have a frame. XJ are a unibody chassis, and yes the body will twist and flex. Lifting does NOT cause twisting and flex. It takes some pretty narly wheeling to cause enough flex and twist to be damaging. If you are going to wheel a XJ that hard, you had better be running some major armor and reinforment if you plan to finish a trail anyway.

 

Your friend is full of it. If you have a 2000 XJ. You have a 8.25 in the rear and a D30 up front. Disregard what cats tell you about these 2 axles. Yes they are weaker to others. But a D44 axle has the same design flaw in the front as the D44. You'd have to do some crazy wheeling and horrible driving to brake the inner axle. It's the outer you'll more likely come across issues.
Personally I think 4.5" - 5.5" of lift is ideal. You're still low, but can weezle in some 33's tires. Hell, if you wanted to. You could replace the stock axles with bigger. Such as Dana 44's or Dana 60's. But for the most part your talkin serious dough. Or you can replace the factory inner and outers with cromoly. It's said that cromoly makes it about 30% stronger.
I run a 4.5" Rusty's lift which I got 5.25" of lift after it settled. 5 years into the lift. No issues. 33" BFG M/T KMII's. Minor trimming. Still get good flex.
The unibody is the "weak link" in the XJ. It's not as thick of steel. Which is why they make frame stiffiners. When welding on a XJ frame. You just use lower heat to not comprimise the integrity of the frame.
My one word of advice for ya. Always cross reference information. There's alot of people out there with an opinion and no true experience. I've found this with the guys that have the money for a new Rubicon and never owned an XJ.