Hey guys,

I've got a rough country 3" lift in the front. But in the rear, I have around 5-5.5 inches. I want to level out the front of the truck using coil spacers. 2" to be specific. Is this a good idea? Are the shocks long/big enough to handle that much? Will my control arms be too short?

I run 2" spacers and have never had any issues. If the control arms are stock then it'll be best to change them, if they came with the kit you can still use them. The ride won't be as nice though. Unless you frequently disconnect your sway bar and really flex, the shocks should be fine too.

What about for the rear?

Same thing. Buy extended stops and go from there.

Will the ride improve if I get control arm drop brackets?

Yes.

Having no personal experience with drop brackets I couldn't tell you for sure. I imagine it would help, but at the cost of losing clearance. But adding only 2" there's no real need to change your control arm setup.

If you say so...

I ran drop brackets for about 2 years.

I can tell you two things:

1. At 5.5 inches of lift... drop brackets will SERIOUSLY improve your ride and handling.

2. Unless you're running the Rubicon every day and crawling 3 foot diameter boulders then I BET you'll never hang up on the drop brackets. They're so close to the wheel that it takes some fancy situations to hit them on anything. Average trail riding won't do it.


Make that three things...

There's a big difference in how things need to be done between 3.5" lift and 5.5" lift... There's more to it than "only 2 inches"

That's exactly why I started off by saying I've had no personal experience with drop brackets. I run long arms.

And not necessarily. I started off with 2" spacers in my first XJ then got a pro comp 3" kit. That gave me pretty much the same set up he's looking to get. I ran the shocks and control arms that came with the 3" kit and it worked fine. Flexed well enough, but it rode like a brick lol. Sure you can argue fine points, but I was speaking from a suspension p.o.v. Adding 2" spacers will not mandate other changes. But id you want to take others things into account, then he'll be looking at longer brake lines, some sort of SYE, stuff like that.

I had drop brackets but needed more cool points so I now have long arms.

Right, that's my point. To do it correctly and not have it ride like a brick with square wheels... there are other things that need to be addressed.

More cool points lol. Yeah we're on the same track.

is it better to have wide tires or tires still in fender?

Depends. More narrow tires will give you better mpg, but will dig in soft ground more. Wider tires have the opposite effect.

That's simply a matter of opinion. On something I drive every day... I prefer narrow tires.

On my trail junk I prefer wider tires.