Basslicks

You can find the 8.25 in the dakotas, but it would be 6 lug and I don't think they came in 4.10s. The reason they put the 4.10 gears in the Jeep with the 4 cylinder was to make up for the lack of power that the 2.5 liter put out.

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Martlor13

do yourself a favor and avoid rough country. Their products are not quality at all. That's why they are cheaply priced. Look into zone, rustys, or Rubicon express and save yourself a headache. As far as height, 4.5 inches is the cutoff before I say to go to long arms, so you'll be fine. But keep in mind, lift "kits" usually don't come with absolutely everything you need. Usually just the bare minimum.

yvngpnw97xjer

So what all is the deference between a suspension lift and long arm lift

Basslicks

This - in addition to this, 4.5" is USUALLY fine on 33's with just minor trimming to the bottom corners of your flares and/or sheet metal. Might have to add bumpstop spacers to keep the tires away during suspension cycling. If you REALLY wanna go all out and clearance everything out and keep the most suspension travel, you can go ahead and eliminate the flares and trim away the sheet metal that they mount to, but you probably won't need to.

Also, check this chart out.



This will give you an idea of what you're going to need for a COMPLETE lift. You can run with the "required" column while you're saving money for the items in the "recommended" column.

Not sure where this guy go that info from. My old Dana 35 axle had a rubber plug just like my ChryCo 8.25 does.

Does the bottom of your diff look like this?



Notice the flat spot along the bottom of the diff? If so, that's an 8.25

If it looks like this...



Well that's a Dana 35.

Some more differences - the snout of the C8.25 is longer than the D35 and the C8.25 has 3" OD axle tubes whereas the D35's axle tube OD is 2.75".

The tale tell sign, however, is the flat bottom diff.

SatiricalHen

A long arm is a form of suspension lift. It's has longer front control arms for better flex and better ride quality.

SatiricalHen

Technically speaking you don't need to trim for 33s and 4.5" those are a couple of pictures of my Cherokee with 33s and a 4.5" lift, but I am properly bumpstopped for the tires to stop before hitting fenders. Also, achieving as much flex and travel as my Cherokee has takes a lot of piecing together, patience, and research. I probably have over $2000 in suspension under mine if I had to give a rough guess, but piled parts and saved for a while, and actually bought a whole other Cherokee to complete my lift since it was a better deal than buying the parts all individually and new. Mine has long arms, and to be specific a 3 link long arm. I wheeled it a couple of trips with 33s set up like that and never scrubbed anywhere. Went to 35s and trimmed a touch off my bumper and it doesn't rub anywhere now those are the best pictures I have of it flexed with 5.5" and 35s. There is still more travel left, but nothing tall enough to flex on with a camera handy. It takes ALOT of research, time, and money to get a well set up suspension. Yes you can slap something together, but it won't ride well and it won't perform well. Anyway, that's my little book about lifts and stuff.
Edit: added some more details and tid bits I realized I left out. It's hard to be thorough in a single post and to fully understand it I had to do hours and hours of research. I purchased the jeep in 2013 and in 2014 threw on a 3" rough country lift (which I don't really recommend), then I learned more and finally at the beginning of 2017 had the knowledge, Time, money, and parts ready to set up the suspension the way it is. Throughout 2017 I made small changes and increased the lift a little in the front, but it is about where I want to leave it I believe. Another thing I tend to notice is the guys in the club that have short arms rub more and have to cut more than the long arm guys since the suspension travel pulls the axle back so much. Most of the guys in my club have cobbled together lifts with short arms, and there is one guy with a rough country long arm kit, and they always ask why mine performs well and how I have it set up and such. picture of the Cherokee guys in the club. That went on much longer than planned, but hopefully helps someone.

Basslicks

Good stuff, Hen.

SatiricalHen

Thanks, but I realized I missed a few key things and thought of a couple things to add. Hard to sum up all of the things someone needs to know in one post. The best thing I can recommend is research on research on research. When you think you know enough read more. I went from not knowing how to change oil in 2013 to having done everything on my Cherokee myself now. I don't know everything and continue to learn, but the internet is a great resource and can be used to learn so much about almost anything. Cherokeeforum is a great place to learn and ask questions. I'm very glad I found it.

yvngpnw97xjer

I'll climb under my jeep tomorrow morning/afternoon and inspect and take some pictures as well. I'll try my best to post the pictures but I can NEVER get pictures to upload in my posts on here

yvngpnw97xjer

While I'm busy asking questions, i might as well keep going. If I were to get the basic 4.5 suspension lift, would I then be able to continue to add on to it and make it up to long arm status

yvngpnw97xjer

also I could see myself in the future going from a 4.5 to a six or 6.5 and I was wondering by doing so if I would need a whole new kit or if I could add new leaves and all the extra parts and just keep adding on to the lift I already would have?

SatiricalHen

Technically speaking you can add bits and pieces, but in my opinion it's a waste of money to get a cheap lift knowing you are going to replace the parts later on. I mean a lift (well a lift that is safe and correct) has leaf springs, cool springs, control arms, track bar, extended brake lines, extended sway bar end links, shocks, possibly extended shackles, and at 4.5" you need to address driveline angles with a sye (slip yoke eliminator) most likely and steering since the stock steering is like a twig. So you could buy a lift then replace the control arms (short arm to long arm) but why not just get long arms to start with if you know you're going there? Patience is the key to saving money in a build. You can also add a little height sometimes. You can add extended shackles (if part of the original lift isn't extended shackles) and you can add coil spring spacers, but typically going from 4.5 to 6.5 requires a decent amount of extra modification and I wouldn't suggest just using shackles or blocks and coil spring spacers, and in my opinion there isn't much reason to go 6.5" since 35s can fit with 4.5" or 5.5" (depending on bumpstops, shock length and how much you're willing to cut) and in my opinion 35s is about what you can run on stock axles without much breakage. Another thing to factor in is regearing the axles with bigger tires and what final tire size you want. It's more than slap this on and try to go for it. It takes a lot of planning and in my opinion (now that I've gone from one lift to another to another) get what you want to end up with because I've wasted a lot of money swapping around and such.

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