MichiganCherokee

Wanting some advice on building a 3" kit for my 01. Was going to go long arm and 6" but think I want to go low cog route. With 31s and eventually 33s.
What should I be getting..I know RE coils net more so I'd like to stay at 3".
Stock control arms work for a while until I do long arms?
I've heard some people having to get sye even with 3" on the newer xjs...
Trac bar needed or drop pitman?

Boost Happy

IRO 3in coil, Summit 2in extended shackle, (insert brand) shackle relocation brackets, Source another XJ leaf pack and remove main leaf, cut off eye ends and place under current main leaf for extra pack support. Shocks go DT8000. Buy brake lines for 93 K1500 chevy and YJ for rear. I recommend a double sheer track bar.

Go with 33's first thing. Skip 31 all together. Just wasting money.

And I needed a SYE when I only had 2in BB lift on mine.

blakexcore

boom

cleenrob

sounds good to me. go with H.D. Offraod shackle relocators. ive got them and have zero complaints

MichiganCherokee

Will stock control arms work?

jakecarder

They will for a little while I believe. You deffinatly want to get some longer ones tho. I believe if you want to run 33s with the 3 in you will need longer ones. The tires will be to far back and will rub. Bit if you get the longer ones you will be able to push the axle back foreward where it was. Long arms like you want would be sweet tho. Anything higher then 3 in for a smooth ride I would get drop brackets or long arms

May I suggest Old Man Emu leave springs. They are by far the best ridding leafs so I've heard. I'm going 3 in with ome. 2 light duty leaves(I carry hardly any weight), shackle relocators like suggested, and a 1in-1half lift shackle.
I would deffinatly get bar pin eliminators to fix the problem with the upper rear shock bolts and open the possibilitys for other shocks

EagleXJ

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jon with the jeep

I have old man emu 3 inch leafs and 3 inch rustys coils up front it all seems to ride good

jakecarder

Anything else out back with the leafs. Did you actually find old man emu leafs listed at 3in or did you get ones listed at 2in and get what they call "medium duty" or "heavy duty".

I would get the leafs listed as "med" or "heavy duty" because one of those actually gives a stock cherokee 3 in(I forget, have to look that up), but because I'm going to be running shackle relocation brackets to get a better shackle angle I'm going to go with the "light duty" leafs.

To the O.P., if you don't know what the shackle relocation brackets are you should really consider them. They replace the flimsy sheet metal shackle boxes, some brands can add lift, some have lo profile, and most importantly are adjustable to get the shackle angle to the desired 45°. If the shackle angles is straight up and down or close to it when you hit a bump in the road all that force is applied straight up into the body instead of being absorbed into the leaf spring.

Boost Happy

Don't bother with aftermarket leaf pack. Not needed for 3in. You can achieve 3in lift and articulate well just working with what you got. I am even still running xj leaf pack. Shackle angle is the key to a good ride and good articulation. You want at least a 1.75-2in shackle for the best "swing" when paired with a shackle relocation kit.

jakecarder

Haa, I was just about to post about the length of the shackle. To short and you won't have enough "swing" to get the full potential of the leaf and to long. Well I'm not sure but I believe it will hold the leaf back from what it was designed to do and prematurely wear it out. Not to mention its unsafe and ugly. I've seen full size pickups with crazy long lift shackles twist. Like 10 in lift shackles. You have to find that happy medium for your needs.
While it is very possible to achieve a 3 in lift in the rear just like boost happy stated and many others have with bastard packs and adding on to the stock pack, I don't believe that's what your looking for. You talk about long arms and heavy duty track bars and sye's I believe you want quality aftermarket parts. In my case if I were to add on to my 13 year old 245k miles stock leaf pack I would have to add 5 in to gain 3in over stock. Junkyards around my area are crazy expencive and by the time id have a bastard pack together, brake lines and everything necessary id most likely be spending less money buying new. There's many many ways to do this. Cheap fast and easy, or thought out with quality parts that will last.

Tom95YJ

I am going to disagree with you here. I run a full 3.5" RE pack with stock shackles mine rides and flexes great . Why put a bandaid on worn out springs .


to the op I am running a 3.5" RE/Teraflex Hybrid lift W/ Bilstein 5100's and 33x10.50 BFG KM2's My XJ rides better then my fathers stock 01 XJ on the road and works great offroad.

I used RE Coils/Leafs/Trackbar Teraflex Adjustable Upper and Lower control arms , Crown automotive extended steel brakelines, Bilstein 5100 shocks (10" Travel Front 9" rear ) I used a T Case drop , Extended the front bumpstops , Trimmed the front and rear fenders. After 1 1/2 years of heavy use off road my XJ is sitting at roughly 4.25" in the rear and 4" up front With a Heavy winchbumper/winch. Sliders, and Gastank Skid

Xj88

Still doesnt look like much rear flex...

ive ran 3.5 and 4.5" RE packs both with stock shackles on 2 different rigs within the year...neither one of them had much rear flex, was very disappointed with the RE packs.

Id have to agree that with 3" you can have much better travel with a less arched pack and a better shackle setup.

Xj88

If it were me I would go 1 of 2 routes.

2" OME leafs...with a 1.25" JKS shackle and no lift relocaters...

Or...an OME 3" pack (rustys leafs seem to be pretty decent too) with Liquid Iron Leaf Sliders...these things seem to work wonders.

Boost Happy

Im not really sure you know what rear flex is lol. That thing is about as stiff as an ironing board. Heres a picture of my 230,000 mile leaf pack

Here it sits today, no sagging, low arch(a lot of arch is arch is actually not a great thing), soft riding leaf pack.


This is pretty much what rear flex look like.

So why put a bandaid on worn out springs? Because it works better then you $300 springs at an 1/8th the price.

And off topic, how are those KM2's treating you on rocks?