The op wanted cheap. He said nothing about trail .

However my own jeep is drivable on the free way. And on the trail. I have 35 15.5 sx swampers stock gearing. It sucks on the road and am glad it's retired from its DD duties. But you leave it in 3rd (auto) and it will go. Off road it seems ok. The 18th I will test it with video (should be interesting! ) lol. Of course it's getting gears, just have no time at the moment.

Again this is on the cheap. Never did I say best or better. It's getting by. And for some you just have to roll with it and make it work.

 

I do understand cheap and have for many years.

I do think the single best upgrade done on my XJ was the gears and lockers no doubt (after the tire change to 33"'s) installed 4.56's and wish I had went with 4.88's instead. No doubt you will be pleased when you find the time to do it also. Then when I went to a better set of shocks made a lot of difference both on/off road wish I had done it earlier. Mine is also a far cry from being done as are most of the posters here and may never be, in fact have been eyeballing my 04 GC for a few upgrades but for the most part it has everything lol.

I'll look forward to seeing your video when you post it.

 

Yep
Yep
And Yep.

 

Thanks. I was thinking 4:88 like you said. I have bilsteins and they seem to do pretty well. Really wanting the 5160's.

 

Old saying from drag racing.

Fast, cheap, reliable. You can only pick two.

 

Fwiw, if your handy and can weld, ruffstuff sells 3 or 4-link kits for much cheaper than an already assembled long arm to your door. These kits also come with a track bar and it's beefy.

 

ehhh. the reason it's most often better to go with an aftermarket long arm is because they come with a cross member. that alone in time savings is huge and makes it very worth it to just buy a kit. those 3 link kits may look cheaper but unless you're going with custom axles and whatnot I'd pass on the hassle of DIY

 

I honestly say go with a 4.5 inch lift with 33s. That setup can be had fairly cheap and I have yet to bottom out

 

That is true, but then you have that awesome opportunity to put your own touch into your jeep.

But the op did want cheapness so I figured tell em about other options.

 

The first, and in my opinion, most important lesson for anyone to learn about lifting their XJ...

A vehicle is not just a collection of random parts. It is a SYSTEM. A system of carefully chosen parts that are designed to work correctly and safely together. It is almost always impossible to make any significant changes to suspension, drive-line, or wheel/tires without those changes requiring changes elsewhere. If you've ever gotten online and "built" a vehicle by choosing options on a website, you'll see that chnages to wheel size, or if you want the towing package, or if you opt for the manual vs, auto trans will require you to either add, remove, or change other things on the vehicle. Go to Jeep's website and "build" a Wrangler and you'll see what I mean.

When you do a lift, you have suspension geometry involved which affects components like shocks, springs, sway bars and links, track bar, driveshaft angles, additional strain on U-joints, etc. The higher you go, the more those things come in to play, and the more it costs to make the necessary (proper) changes.

In general, going up 2" in tire size over stock puts you in the "recommended" column for re-gearing. IMHO, a 3" increase or more and it becomes required. And that ain't cheap. About $1200-$1600. When you change tire size, you effectively change final gear ratio. This can cause significant performance issues off the line, while towing, or climbing long grades if you don't re-gear. It will also affect fuel economy.

Larger tires also put additional strain on steering components, axle shafts, steering box, etc. and can require brake upgrades to effectively stop all that rotational mass within safe distances.

There will always be those with a "go for it dude! It's your ride, do what you want!", and that's fine. But in my experience those people telling you that generally don't do a very good job of informing you of specifics, or preparing you for the time and costs involved.

In short, unless you want to do some crazy rock crawling or King of Hammers kind of wheeling, 5-8 inches of lift (and all the thousands of dollars that will need to go with it) is overkill. In addition, that much lift can make the vehicle far less stable when traveling at highway speeds, especially if there's a sudden need for evasive maneuvering or sudden braking. At those heights, you really need a good long arm kit and carefully chosen springs and shocks for a daily driver. You can be a lot more lax or "experimental" if it's primarily a trail rig.

Even things like your engine and transmission cooling systems will need to be beefed up once you get past a certain point, and an 8" lift is definitely that point.

The XJ is classified as a compact SUV. It has a comparatively short wheelbase. It has short overhangs and pretty decent approach, departure, and break-over angles right out of the box. These Jeeps are capable of taking you to amazing places through incredible muck with a comparatively mild 3" to 4.5" lift and 30" to 32" tires. I have a 2" lift with what equates to 29" inch tires right now, and I have gone through plenty of things that had full size trucks stuck. A few months ago I had to hook up the tow strap and pull my father-in-law's F-250 $X$ out of the mud.

Lastly, the vehicle's overall size, wheel well opening size, and other proportions lend it to having a muscular stance and "built" appearance and great real-world capability without having to go all "JK Wrangler" on it, and suffering from the associated hemorrhaging of cash that goes with that approach.

You seem to indicate that you'll need to have all the work done by someone else, so your costs will actually be higher than most of here, who tend to do our own work.

Just food for thought.

 

At 4.5 you'll still want long arms and need to regear. Op wants it cheap so 3.5" is as tall as he can afford. Hell I have 1200 into my 3.5" and I pieced it together

 

Great post and even with crazy rock crawling 3" and 33-35" tires works well and is very stable this is a pic of mine last year with 3.5" and 33's

 

You have an auto? And a tranny cooler? Lol.

 

I ran 35's on stock gears with an auto and tranny cooler. My reps got hot and tranny would start to slip so I went back to 33's. This spring when I regear to 4.88 it'll get 35's again

 

Holycaveman does things a little differently than everyone else until he breaks stuff. :P