I recommend Rusty's. I have used them for ten years now.

 

I like Rusty's. There are several ways you could lift it 2 to 3 inches. You could go with a full lift kit which would be new spring packs in the rear and new coils in the front. this would probably include a drop pitman arm, new shocks, trac bar relocation bracket, sway bar extensions, and a transfer case lowering kit. You will not need an SYE or longer drive shafts for this lift. Now, keep in mind, this full lift kit has EVERYTHING that you MIGHT need. Now in reality, you probably do not need all of this for a 3" lift. You do not NEED the t-case lowering kit, sway bar extensions, or longer shocks, or even the drop pitman arm. And really you don't need a full leaf spring pack in the rear, you could use shackles or an add-a-leaf, (I don't recommend an add-a-leaf, it puts to much undue stress on the ends of the leaf pack and will sag after a while), and you culd use spacers in the front instead of new coils. Now, all of these things will help with the ride quality, but probably not enough to be noticeable. What I would recommend, since you are not going to do any serious off-roading would be this. Get 2" coil spacers for the front ($35 a pair from Rustys) and 2" greasable shackles for the rear. This will fit 31X10.50's on your stock rims. This is the ABSOLUTE minimum you need. The other stuff you can add later and I would say in this priority, 1. Trac bar relocation bracket 2. Drop Pitman arm 3. Longer shocks (you could just wait until your shocks go bad before doing this) Until you get to a 5" lift or more, you will not need to worry about your sway bar, or your transfer case, or an SYE or new drive shafts. Hope this helps.

 

I got a RC 4.5" lift and need to upgrade my brake lines. What length should i get and where is a good place to buy them from?

 

Anyone know any good sites for ordering used tires? Looking for a set of 30x9.5x15's cheap.

 

you can fit 30s on a stock suspension without issue.

DW has nothing to do with lift height. I've heard of people getting severe DW on stock suspension and tires. DW is caused by either steering components or suspension links wearing out.

They're generally all of similar quality. Rusty's, RC, RE all make good stuff. for 3" most vendors will have very very similar kits. RC will be the cheapest and they make good stuff. I'd only buy from the vendor directly or a surplus kit from car-part.com

 

haha oh it has NOTHING at all to do with lift height? go lift your jeep from stock to 4.5" or 6" and tell me you wont have dw. you belong in a tree, youre a nut if you think thats true. it might not be ONLY the lift, but it definitly contributes to it more so than some other things. he had no problems when it was stock and now that its up 3" hes having dw issues. clearly his swaybar links didnt wear out or fall of just from lifting it. im not trying to be a jerk but you honestly cant think that lift height has nothing to do with dw...

 

just check out craigslist in your area or check around this site to see if anyone local to you has some. idk how many used tire sites are out there but i dont think too many. also check some tire shops in your area. they might have a cheap set for you.

 

he will need 3" lift shocks if hes getting a 3" lift kit. if he gets a 2" he can use stock yj shocks or bar pin extenders. other than that whatever height you lift it you will need the appropriate shocks. if you use shorter shocks than the height of your lift the ride quality will be absolutely terrible at best. ask me how i know. ( i used 3" shocks with 4.5" lift temporarily, needless to say i will never do it again. what a difference the correct shocks make, use the right ones.)

 

Nope, it doesn't. If you lift a Jeep, and put 35s on it along with upgraded steering parts and new LCAs you won't have death wobble.

http://www.yuccaman.com/jeep/dw.html

Show me somewhere in there that death wobble is related to lift height.

Plain and simple: its NOT. If you put 33s on and lift 4.5" you should get an adjustable track bar and a new frame side mount. Going up to 6" won't make a difference.
most of the time death wobble has to do with steering components and overtaxing that already mediocre system with larger than stock tires.

Death wobble is mostly caused by one of three things: bad TREs or something steering related. A bad track bar or mount. OR a bad alignment.

Its not lift related other than that a lift allows larger tires that then cause death wobble.

Please don't call me a nut, i'm not in any sense of the word.

Bad swaybar end links won't cause death wobble. I'm running without a connected front and I have no issues. If someone got death wobble after lifting 3" I'd say that they either have a bad trac-bar, trac-bar mount or a bad link in their steering. The lift doesn't cause death wobble, but when you have bad parts and then go change the angle those parts being worn out becomes much more obvious.

 

Death Wobble explained…
Here's an engineering description of DW. I get tired of seeing people guessing at what's causing their DW, so here goes. Hope it helps someone.

First, you've got to realize that the front suspensions on our vehicles were marginally stable, at best, from the factory. DW is a fundamental dynamic response mode of the entire front end...as a system. Lift and larger tires change (increase) the 'gain' associated with what becomes (or even starts out as) a marginally stable dynamic system. The damping factor (lambda) is also affected by larger tires...it decreases as a function of sidewall height/thickness ratio. Hysteresis in any control path (loose tie rod, steering box, track bar bushing) reduces the ultimate stability margin further. The fundamental frequency of DW is determined by the superposition principle where all springs involved are resolved (frame, tire resilience, hub bending, bushing deflection, etc, etc.) into one global spring constant, and all damping factors associated with friction, elastic elements, viscous damping (steering damper and shocks) are resolved into one damping factor. The natural frequency, damped natural frequency, and damping coefficient are then known. Now, if the system is overdamped and the gain is low...no problems...no oscillation. Increase the gain without increasing the damping and you go toward the critically damped, and beyond, specturm of responses. Critically damped means that DW would only 'hint' at being there, but would die out on its own without going totally unstable. This is also known as a decaying response.

Once the system goes beyond critically damped, any excitation, be it an unbalanced tire, a bent wheel, bumps in the road, etc. can set it off and the response will not decay...it will grow in amplitude, quite quickly in some cases, and may be limited only be physical non-linearities like hard stops...or breakage. That's classic Death Wobble.

A truck suspension is designed to stay in the overdamped to critically damped range. That is generally why a truck rides "rough". A Cadillac, on the other hand, is designed to stay in the undersprung range. It just "floats" down the road. Any change in the basic design parameters that affect the gain (e.g., lift, tire size, wheel backspacing, etc.), damping (tire size, steering damper, steering box condition), and hysteresis (any wear point that creates any slop) can push it over the edge and create DW. ANY ONE OR TWO of the factors discussed can do that...which is why everybody then thinks that whatever problem THEY found and fixed is the cause of all DW; it is not. It is plain and simply a marginally stable system in its original form that is easily made unstable by any of the myriad causes discussed already.

If your front end is loose (bushings, bearings, etc.) then you have a situation where your stiffness is removed and any jarring sensation (potholes, unbalanced tires, misaligned wheels, etc.) will cause the suspension to go crazy. It is no longer functioning where it is designed. On the other hand, your suspension could be very tight but an imbalanced tire would be spinning at just the right speed to throw the suspension into a unstable situation.

So unfortunately there isn't only one root cause to the problem of DW. The underlying problem is instability in the front suspension, the root causes can be a multitude of things ranging from bad/loose bushings, to loose bearings, to caster angles, to imbalanced tires, etc.

OKAY, HERE'S THE REALLY USEFUL INFO:

A steering damper only hides (maybe) the effect; it does nothing to fix the root cause.

There are two types of DW. The first typically is speed related. Whenever you reach a certain speed, bam, you get DW, no matter what. This is a vibration/oscillation issue. Look into tire balance, alignment, steering joints, missing bushings (totally shot), loose steering box (either loose bolts or worn internals), etc.

The second is an impact initiated DW. For example, hitting a pothole above a certain speed will start DW. This is more likely a bushings, loosening mounts, flexing components, etc. issue. Basically, something is tight enough that in general straight driving, it is ok, but give it an impact force, whatever is getting loose starts sliding, rebounds and starts going nuts.

Here is how you can tell if the issue is steering related or trackbar related. You are gonna need some ***** for this, but stick with me. Once you have played around with the DW awhile you find you can control it a bit by feathering the brakes. So go find a straight, deserted, bumpy road. Get the truck up to speed and get the DW going. You had it happen a few times, you have already been frantically avoiding potholes, so now go find one, quit whining. At this point, the truck is somewhat violently shaking, and you can keep enough control using the brakes to keep it on the road. Roll down the window and stick your head out and look at the front tire. What is it doing?

1. The front of the tire and the back of the tire are moving approximately the same amount side to side. In this case, the axle is stationary, and the wheel is pivoting on the ball joint during the oscillation. Therefore the problem is likely in the steering. Something in the steering has enough give to allow the movement.

2. The back of the tire is moving MORE than the front of the tire in the side-to-side movement. In this case, the knuckle is pivoting on the steering links, and allowing the axle to move back and forth under the vehicle. The problem here is most likely in the trackbar system.

This doesn't really answer a question about what's causing YOUR DW, but it should give you something to think about in your search for the root cause(s). I'd check the trac bar bushings, make sure your wheel bearings are in spec, make sure your tires are balanced, make sure your alignment is in spec - especially caster, make sure your ball joints & TREs are tight, see if you have play in your steering box, etc.

 

Hey 93XJRay, this is not a death wobble thread. This thread is to answer lift and tire questions. Take the death wobble tech to a different thread and let's all get back on topic.

 

i'm getting some new 31's and i'm lookin for an aggressive A/t or a well mannered M/t that is cheap and performs. i need on-road handling as well b/c its my daily driver. i know it has probably already been put in this thread but i don't feel like reading 40 pages. any suggestions?

 

I bought my rims and last weekend and Im going to put my kit on tommorow so i will be getting the tires put on tommorow.
My question is this. Everyone says get 4.5 backspacing. I asked the guy at the tire store what the backspacing was on the rim I ordered and he said 4.75. Is this better or worse for me?

 

Stock backspacing is generally 5", so 4.75" is pretty close to stock. Meaning your tires and wheels will tuck up under the flares better.

 

I never got a clear understanding of this. Does that mean that a 3 inch backspacing will stick the wheels out of the fender more or less than a 4.5 inch, for example? How is that measured?