I think I might have blown it. I heard that the RE 4.5" coils gave more than 4.5" lift fo I ordered a set of Bilsteins that state they are for 5-6" lift (model 24-185943). But they seem too long. They sit nearly compressed on my Jeep. They would allow for way more down travel than my jeep is capable of. I even took the bar pin eliminators off but I still think I'd bottom the shock out way before the bumpstops touch.

So I removed the shocks and diconnected the sway bar. Then I put a stand under the fram on one side and a jack under the opposite side of the axle and flexed it as much as I could without dumping the whole thing off of the stand. Measuring from the center of the bar pin eliminator shock hole to the mounting surface for the upper part of the shock I got about 16.25" on the compressed side and about 23.5" on the drooped side. I think it might be possible to get a little more compression out of the compressed side but not much. So according to that I thing the front shock model number 24-188197 is my best bet. They supposedly measure about 15" compressed and 24.6" extended. That puts me a little close to the extended length at full flex. I'll be returning these long ones. I'm very dissapointed that I'm still not driving my Jeep. I just thought I'd share my experience. The moral of the story is measure before buying.

 

Thank you for the advice

 

Bumpstop it so the shocks don't bottom out and run the longer shocks. Down travel is where it's at. Once one side hits the bump stop, it will make a pivot point and continue to force the other side down. My 99 has ~4" and 33's on short arms and I can easily unseat a coil. You have a lot more droop than you think.

 

Yeah, I was surprised how much droop I had when I flexed it out to measure. But the shocks I had would have only allowed me an inch or two of up travel. Luckily they took them back no problem. I should have my new ones today and should get them on by the weekend. I'll finally be able to drive it.

 

I'm using the shocks that you just reordered on my XJ with 4 1/2" of lift they have been on for over a year now and have been well pleased with them.


Its funny I started to order the same length shocks as you did in the beginning in fact called to order them but they were out of stock lol. So I ended up ordering the ones it called for, now seeing your post lets me know how I profited from an out of stock item.

 

That's funny. I ordered the long ones, realized they were too long, sent them back, ordered the next ones down from 4wheelparts so I could pick them up in store. I figured that would be quickest. I called them a few days later (Saturday) and they were like "nope, they're not here. I don't know when they'll be here." They just didn't care. So I told them to cancel the order and I ordered them from Amazon. Now I'm still waiting on the first two orders to be refunded. I have 6 shocks worth of money tied up. What a pain. You got lucky. I'll always measure first now rather than just go by recommended lift. I'll have to order some rears soon but I'll wait until I get my shackles relocated which I'm going to try to build myself.