There you go being all "practical" again... what's wrong with you? lol

Glad to see I am not the only one who leans towards practicality in here.

 

Here's something folks forget, The one inch difference you share here is not all on the top where the vehicle is, 50% of that goes to the down side once it is centered on the axle. So the true additional height on top is only 1/2".

 

you cant fit 31s on 2 inches....i know, i tried lol. They rub on the inner fender and at full lock...you need a 3 inch lift to clear 31s without problems

 

Perfect, that's the reassurance I needed. I'm assuming because the sheer width of the tire on 31x10.5 vs 30x9.5 is what gets me in trouble. I'll stick to the 30"s and a 2" lift and just cruise the hell out of this XJ.

My next question is, do I mess with add-a-leaf or rear shackles? I can already guess I'm going to fight adding an additional leaf 10x than just throwing on some shackles.

 

neither...get completely new leafs. Dorman, crown. and general spring all make hd leafs that give very nearly 2 inches of lift....i have the dormans with adjustable shackles at the lowest setting and sit right at 2 inches.....in the front i have the rustys 2 inch lift coils....love the setup

 

I think I'm just gonna go for the 4.5 so I don't regret going too small later. I don't want to go through this all again at some point and who knows, maybe I'll get brave enough later to break out the cutting wheel in favor of bigger tires...

I have a set of AT 235/75r15 on it now that I'm planning to keep for the time being. They are brand new cheap Treadwrights that I threw on there while I was trying to get it back up and running from a 4 year hiatus. I'm in no hurry to run out and buy tires/rims. I found this on the forums, which is a look I can live with for now: https://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f59/...-tires-888228/

 

Even going 4.5 you might change your mind haha
I've had lift shackles and 235s (stock leafs were wore out so I just added shackles to level it back out), 3" and 235s, 3" and 31s, 4.5" and 31s, 4.5" and 33s, 4.5" and 35s, and 5.5" with 35s is the current set up.

 

It may have been in the Low COG thread but there is someone who made 31s work with stock rims and maybe 1" lift and only had to adjust the steering stops a little to keep from rubbing on the sway bar ends. He said it wouldn't work on anything other than stock backspacing because that keeps the tires up under the fenders, pushing them farther out causes them to hit the fender flairs with so little lift.


I think my next set of tires I am going to look for metrics that are equivalent to about a 31x9.5, the only tire I have ever found in that size without going metric was a TSL Swamper I believe.

 

The amount you have to limit your steering in order to do that is prohibitive for most people. Have fun doing 3- and 5-point turns everywhere with 31s on stock BS

 

exactly

 

 

You need longer control arms to re-position the caster angle and coil spring perch. Are you still running stock arms?

 

 

Try adjusting your arms then. Either the LCAs are too short or the UCAs are too long. Caster should be at about 5* IIRC. Once the caster is set right, it should rotate those spring perches to the correct parallel and straighten out that coil.... assuming the center of the coil perch is centered with the bump stop tower.

 

I see you have spacers on there too, did you take a long arm lift kit (like 3.5") and then add a spacer too? That's why he is saying you either have too short of a control arm or you need to adjust it.