Your gonna have to remove things multiple times if you do it peice by piece and they dont really interchange too well. Im at 4.5" with 31s and get 14/18 city/hwy and I baby it pretty good. Was the same at 3" of lift. Tires are gonna be the biggest factor in MPG. Large tires are heavier and use more gas, mainly accelereating. The more aggressive the tire the more rolling resistance and less MPG you get, which will have a larger effect of highway cruising. Your best bet for MPG would be a mild all-terrain tire, but those arent that great in the mud.

 

what is a good steering gear box for a 5.5 to 6.5 inch lift xj with 35's? Have bad sloppy steering and I believe it's my steering gear box?

 

And gearing in the axles for said tires

 

1998/1999 Dodge Durango V8 Non-Plow Steering Box. Get a C-Rok Spacer. And follow this write-up.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/du...houghts-84046/

 

100 miles a day in an xj...crazyness.

but yah, i would start small if i were you. 2" and 30x9.50...will give you the stance you want

 

I think he only wants 31s. Normally I would say no way he needs new gears, but at 100 miles per day it might be worth it.

If I had to do 100 miles per day for work I would have to be banking a lot. I mean if I did the math right at five days a week that around 400 bucks a month on gas in a good mpg XJ.

 

Which is the reason I suggested he leaves it stock. Then everyone started throwing out the idea of 3" and 31's I have had to drive a lifted Jeep with oversized tires properly regeared. It still sucked if I have to drive more then 30 miles round trip I'd save for a beater.

 

Stock '99. I mean, "stock". Got to do something about it!

I am looking to lift my stock '99. I don't want to do it to put really large tires on, just to give a little more height to keep the larger rocks away from vital parts. My question is this. Most 2 " - 2 1/2" lifts don't suggest the need for additional parts like longer pittman arms and transfer case spacers. When I see 3" - 4" lifts additional parts are suggested, but not included. Other lifts ave these parts included. Any thoughts?

 

If you just want a little ground clearance, go with a 2 inch spacer shackle combo you won't need any other parts

 

X2
Add some 30X9.5's and you'll be set.

 

I've got three questions, and I'm sure they both have super-obvious answers, but I haven't found 'em yet. I bought a Cherokee a few months ago [my fourth], and while it's a pretty great one, it does have some weird quirks. [Like no front driveshaft, for example. That's a weird quirk.] So I'm trying, one by one, to eliminate them:

1. The Cherokee has a Rubicon Express 3.5 inch lift kit, and does have an SYE and double-cardan rear driveshaft, but doesn't have any shims. I'm eating up rear pinion u-joints, and I assume it's because of the pinion angle: I haven't actually measured it yet, but it looks pretty awful. I know how to make the measurements, but does anyone have a good quick primary guide to putting shims in?

2. After removing my anti-sway bars, the Jeep just refuses to articulate: the body tries hard to stay level with the axle. Is this just because the RE springs are stiff, or is there something else I need to pull before I can start getting some droop? I run some very off-camber trails, and I'm wagging a wheel in the air half the time, when there's no reason for it.

3. The bump stops in the rear seem to have been removed, and the bump stops up front are the originals, and I run trails hard. [Broke the seat mounts and seat belt receiver, shot the stereo out of the dash, and flipped over 80 pounds of subwoofer box last weekend, for example.] So I'm constantly bottoming out my shocks: this is a really awful thing to do, yes? What bumpstops should I get for a Jeep with ~3.5 inches of lift?

 

You need degree shims. For the rear axle. Something is binding I have no issues with my lift articulating my body does not follow the axles with a RE 3.5" I am running stock bumpstops in the rear and added 2 hockey pucks to the front spring pad. If your bottoming out really hard you need to slow down ! A longer shackle or relocation kit will help the rear flex. It took a good year for my rear to start flexing it took a week in Moab with spare parts , tools , cooler , 2 adults in the back seat to get them to break in. Now my rear flexes way better.

 

Thanks for all the advise guys! I feel like im on the track to making a more informed decision. Would any one have a suggestion on a particular lift to go with? is budget lifting a bad idea even with only 2-3'' of lift?

Originally Posted by Black1993
http://www.roughcountry.com/jeep_xj_3.html
Forget them and go with this!

does anyone have any experience with this lift? It looks like just what I've been hoping for but with the price way lower than any other kit and comparable to the prices of a make shift auto parts store lift it has me wondering. Any insight would be great as a 2-3'' lift is my next project planned.

Thanks,
Perrin

 

You've got it down. Once you break that magic 3 or 3.5 inch mark, you're into a lot more money if you want to keep the Jeep riding nicely and operating correctly. Yes, 6 inches is better than 2, and 35s are better than 30s, but a 2 inch lift gives you way more awesome-per-dollar than a full lift kit. 3.5+ inch lifts get you into things like a slip yoke eliminator for your transfer case, new driveshafts, longer pitman arms, beefier steering components, and, oh yeah, 35 inch ties are way, way more expensive than 30s!

If you've got the dough to do it right, hell yes, get a big lift, but if you want 90 percent of the fun with 10 percent of the investment, spacer lifts are the way to go.

 

Offhand, can you think of a good way to check for binding? Obviously I need to pick up one wheel while leaving the other on the ground, but I don't have any jacks tall enough to challenge the Cherokee, and we've got a real shortage of very tall stumps around my house.

Yeah, blowing the driver seat through the floor gave me that impression, too. I'm kind of bummed that this huge-*** Cherokee of mine can't do the kind of high-speed wheeling I live to do. I had to sell my YJ Wrangler because it was a rock-crawler and not a trail-runner: I'm hoping I'm not going to end up in the same boat with my XJ.

Yeah, I've wondered if maybe it'll get better as it ages: I don't know how long ago the RE springs were put in, but the whole thing seems pretty new, so...