I was looking under my '98 Jeep Cherokee to see the condition of the underside, its muddy but there is no rust, aside from the area where the previous owner driller through the floor, which I am happy to say and that will be taken care of shortly. Anyway I got to the bumpstops and saw they were extremely eaten up. What are the stock rear bumpstops made of? Is it rubber or metal?

 

its a rubber compound

 

X2. not really sure but some type of rubber compound.

 

Can I order new ones from RockAuto or should I wait till summer and then if I get a lift get the right ones for my lift kit.

 

a good lift kit will come with the necessary bump stops

 

question about bumpstops, can i just use the stock ones with a 4 1/2 lift? or do i need to get different ones?

 

You could do this...

 

Well, yes, but read the rest.
The bumpstops limit up travel, so you want them to make contact before something else does the bumpstopping, such as a tire into a fender, or a bottoming out shock. The length of the bumpstop will depend on where that threshold is. With a 4.5” lift, if you were running the same size tire (and why would you ever do that?), then the bumpstop would not need to be changed, however the lift would have likely resulted in longer shocks, so in that way, you would need new ones.

On another note, there are a lot of us, including me, that don’t run rear bumpstops. With the leafs in the rear, mine stop flexing right about where they need to anyway, without bottoming out the shock or getting the tire TOO much into the fender. That does not make them a bad idea, by any means.

 

BTW that was rear only. The fronts need bumpstops if you want to save your shock bolts and shocks