should be good

 

Nice! I am shooting on putting on mine next weekend as well.

Hey thanks for the suggestion! I am actully trying to figure out what tires I am going to go with at the moment. I am leaning towards BFG since I have a pair of ATs on there now that I like. You said the treads freeze up eh, I haven't noticed that on mine. I was also thinking about going with the M/T Km2's and was wondering how they were compared to the ATs. Your comment just makes me lean more this way. Thanks!

Thanks for the comments on the jeep! That's awesome you have the same lift waiting to be installed as well. Sounds like you have some customizations in mind, let me know how those turn out. I used to live in CT, I actually live in Utah now. I used to spend a lot of time in Mass, VT and NH... great country! Also yep the XJ goes everywhere with me and is my only vehicle. It made the 3000+ mile journey out here.

So far it has handled great and surprised me many times. I have done some rocking here and there on tougher trails and a spotter always helps but all and all it has done very good.

 

Thanks for the PM with all the info and input 07Negative! Alright everyone I am down to my last big decision on the Cherokee for a while. Since I am sitting on stock axles at the moment "going to upgrade in the future I just don't have the cash right now" I think I am going to stick with 33s. I want opinions on what brand of tires you guys would recommend, I am leaning towards BFG KmII's at the moment but I am not 100% sure. I am going to be on mostly Moab type terrain, slick rock, rock and occasional snow. Hardly any mud since there isn't any around here. Also what would you guys recommend for wheels? What size wheel / how much backspacing? I figured it would be good to go with less backspacing and move the tires out a ways to get a more stable wider stance. I was looking at Cragar soft 8s which seem to be VERY popular. I would rather not spend a fortune on wheels. Here is the other factor on the wheels... I can get these Procomp Extremes for basically free.
Pro Comp Tires & Wheels 1089-6885 - Pro Comp Series 1089 Polished Finish Alloy Wheel for Jeep® Vehicles with 5x5.5 Bolt Pattern - Quadratec Except with a 5x4.5 bolt pattern. There is a guy here in Moab who has a set that are almost brand new. He just wants to get them out of his garage and make room, they came off his daughter's jeep and he says I can just take them. I would have to give him a little money because that's just not right but they will be basically free. The only thing is they are 17" wheels with 4.5" backspacing. From what I have read I think I would want to go with a little less backspacing... correct? I guess I could always get spacers. Also I know when you get up into 17" wheels tires for them can get very expensive. My question is should I take him up on this awesome deal for these wheels or am I going to end up paying a fortune for tires with a wheel that size. What do you guys think? Also If I don't go with those and buy another set of wheels what size / backspacing would everyone recommend? Thanks!

 

I would just get them if any thing else you could sell them and put it towards the wheels that would work. and nice build can't wait to see the lift

 

I agree with Dwd!!! Get them any ways and ride those till you buy your new ones and then sell them!

 

Alright guys I will admit I am guilty if disappearing and neglecting this thread as well as this whole forum in general. My life got very hectic last spring and this past summer. It's been a long road of extreme highs and lows but things are getting back to normal and now its time to get this thread going again. Before I post all the pics from installing the Rough Country 6.5" Long Arm Lift Here are a few more shots from wheeling trips we took in the months prior.

 

Thanks Guys! Alright on to the lift install pictures. I am hoping to do a full review on this lift which is a Rough Country 6.5" Long Arm Lift in a separate thread that will come later but here are the pictures from the install. It took me about 4 days to totally install this life but that was interspersed with hanging out and drinking beer so I am not sure of the actual time. I guess some people have had trouble with parts of this lift but it treated me pretty good. The only issue I had during install was I had to elongate the holes in the cross member that the tranny mounts to because I didn't like the fact that the drive line was not straight in the factory holes. First step was to give the jeep a good washing and remove all the caked on dirt and other stuff from the undercarriage.







Now that she was nice and clean I headed up to my buddy Marks house where we where going to do the install. Here are some pics of the jeep up on the lift ready to be torn apart and my buddy's awesome shop! He has the place all set up with a lift, welding area, tool room, parts room and many other awesome things. I can only hope I can manage to own a shop with half the stuff he has someday :drool:



The Tool Room


More pics of the shop and Jeep!








Here are a few pics of the wood stove Mark built for his shop complete with oil feed, a blower that blows air in from the outside via a vacuum cleaner motor, a swiveling heat exchange with double blower fans to blow air from the heat exchange out into the shop and a couple cool little touches added on. The main stove barrel is made out of 1/2 steel and glows red when the stove is burning hot. Mark's shop has basically no insulation in it what so ever with steel walls and roof. A few weeks ago it was just above zero outside and we kept the shop at a balmy 60 degrees inside Yeah I would say the stove works well. The coolest part is he designed and built the whole thing him self!





Anyway back to the jeep build lol Here is a pic of all the parts ready to be installed.


And so the project begins! First to come off are the front shocks.




Then the good old trusty JKS Discos






Next I used a spring compressor and removed the old OME coil springs...

 

Followed by the upper and lower control arms


The front end looking pretty empty


After that it was time to jack up the tranny and pull the old cross member.






The first new part to be reinstalled on the jeep was the cross member.




After a few trial runs and some tweaking the cross member was installed and it was time to bust out the torch and cut off the old lower control arm brackets. This was kind of tricky since they are welded to the frame pretty well. We ended up cutting off most of them but leaving the bottom plate.

Mark cutting away...






After those were removed it was time to install the new long arms!








Next I did some work on the steering


Then everything pretty much went on in the order it came off including the coils, shocks, new discos and extended brake lines.

 

Here are a couple pics of the front end basically done. Stayed tuned for the back!




Ohh and don't worry I know the discos are on the wrong side... we fixed them shortly after this pic was taken lol

 

Wow this is an awsome thread and those are some awsome pictures....Moab just went on my Bucket list haha.

 

Haha thanks!

 

Anytime, thanks for all the awsome photos of moab, and for a cherokee with open diff's it looks like its tackled pretty much all of moab, keep it coming

 

Great pics man. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to the rear pics and progress.

 

That bumper may have expensive but it sure as heck looks awesome! I love your build.

 

Thanks guys... yeah that bumper was a hard purchase but I am glad I bought it everyday its on the jeep! Next I have to get something for the back lol OK here are some pics of the back half of the lift. We didn't take any pics during the actual process due to the fact that the back was kind of a pain in the @ss. I wasn't the lifts fault it was all the New England salt that the Cherokee had to endure before I moved out here. It seemed every bolt was frozen and had to be either heated up or cut out with a torch. The back is pretty simple and once the old parts were removed the new shackles, leafs, Ubolts, shocks and brake line went on fairly easy.

Brake Line


Leafs and Shocks




The Back Complete


The pile of old parts from the lift install


Next on the list was a new slip yoke eliminator, drive shaft and a set of Pro Comp Series 1089 rims which I ended up getting from a friend for free. They look pretty sweet but cost a fortune to buy tires for since they are 17" rims. I am not going to get into detail about putting in a SYE and shaft in this thread since there are already many threads concerning the installation. We also installed the transfer case skid plate which came with the kit. After all that was finished along with welding up a broken exhaust bracket and some other maintenance it was time to throw on the wheels and see what kind of stance we ended up with. The tires on the jeep in these pics are a set of old bald tires that came with the rims... I upgraded to a set of BFGs a little ways down the road. Alright time for the moment of truth! It looks pretty sweet up on the hoist...




And down on the ground "it may look like its still on the hoist in these pics but its actually sitting on the ground"