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There's also not a speck of rust to be found on any of our trail rigs out here either...
Yours does appear to sit a little higher than most XJs I've seen rocking a 3" lift, so maybe you're right about that 4.5" size. You probably do have the bigger of the two lifts, because if you look around most guys look like they're damn near touching the rear fenders with their tires and they're claiming 3" so I believe you have the bigger of the two lifts.
I'm running Rough Country 1.5" mini-lift and for the money I have not been too impressed. I was doing a ton of work on our girl and my wife felt the Rough Country gear and prices were easier to justify than spending nearly twice that by picking out 'choice bits' and doing a little here and there. Now, we see that you really are better waiting until the budget allows buying the 'right' set-up.
If you're not looking to do anything crazy and just want to stick with a small lift, I'd look into Zone, Superlift, OME, or Rubicon Express. All companies noted provide either complete kits or pieces you can buy separately to build your own lift. I don't think IRO has anything that short if you're looking to stay with a smaller lift.
I'm thinking this may be the 4.5 kit,, getting old and have a bad case of CRS ("cant remember shi#") I did buy the IRO locating bar, steering box stiffener, steering stabilizer, adjustable control arms most everything Nick discussed with me. I'm not Mr money bags, and I understand budgets, but learned years ago to do it right the first time if you can, and that was my goal. I envy you west coast guys, lots of 4 wheeling, without drowning in mud. I dont do mud, so it sits in the garage most time, unless trailer-ed to somewhere out of state.
Looks good,, and clean too. Very
hard to find rust free stuff up here in the Iowa area. I bought mine from a Government Veterans Home in south Missouri, near the Arkansas border, all stock and unmodified,and very rust free. Most XJ's in the Midwest are rusted so bad the uni body/frames collapse. Not much choice around here, gotta go south or west to find one decent most of the time.
I don't see a 3.5" or 4.5 lift kit on IRO's website, but I just ordered 4" Premium with full leaf packs from them per Kolak's recommendation as well. waiting on the kit to come in to start my 4x4 conversion, with 31's supplied from my parts Jeep. Possibly 32s or 33s later on.