Figured I'd post an update. Been driving the Jeep in the woods on the land and it's working out real real nice. I'm really liking this little thing.

Am taking it Wed evening to get a set of Mastercraft Courser MT's in 31x10.50 put on. I was thinking hard about 30x9.50, but figured I'd have regret about not going 31's, so that's what it's getting. I'm probably going to put some shackles on it anyway at some point, and I am going to get bumpers from L&L and may just go ahead and take the front bumper ends off ahead of time if they rub. I'll post up some pics with the new meats when I get them on.

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Do it. 31's!!! BTW, if you need to see how your leafs sit with a lift shackle check out my picks. I'm using an adj lift shackle with about 1.5" extra. Mine sits about 4" in the back on 32's...in case you ever wanna go up a bit in the future.

 

Well....I wanted to be sure before I posted, but I've got the dreaded death wobble. I hadn't felt it at all (even right after the lift) until the other day when the jeep was really muddy. I'd hoped it was just all the mud caked up in the front wheels (steelies hold it bad I've noticed). I drove to the car wash today with the front sway bar disconnected and the DW was BAD right at 50mph. Happened every time at 50mph. Got to the car wash and washed all the mud off / from under the jeep and then drove through the auto car wash too. Hooked the sway bar up and drove home. The DW still popped up at 50mph but wasn't nearly as bad as before.

I'm getting new tires tomorrow, so I'll see how it does with new, balanced tires (provided the actually do a good job balancing - most places don't now days). Could be that my track bar isn't tight enough, I did break the bolt and had to put a new one in it (yes, it was a proper spec bolt). I'll take a look for evidence on the mount of the bar moving. I know my CA bushings are shot - they can't not be with 172,xxx miles on them. I've set my caster and toe, but I'll recheck to be sure. The steering stabilizer is the stock one looks like, and I'm sure it's toast but I'm not going to replace it and mask the DW until I get it tracked down and resolved.

Hopefully the new tires will cure it, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

Anyway, I'll update with pics of the new tires tomorrow.

Oh yea......so a lady down the street has an XJ lifted and kitted out kinda nice. I noticed she took her roof rack off the other day, so I stopped by there today and just asked what brand it was and why she took it off as I was looking at them and if there was an issue with that brand, I'd not get the same one. She said it was just too noisy running down the road - wind noise. She showed it to me and told me I could take it home for $20. It's not the one I was looking for, but it wasn't $120 either. I gave her $20 and brought it home. Heck, if I don't like it I'll throw it on craigslist I guess, but I couldn't pass it up for that.

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Brown Santa huh thought he usually walked off with your stuff while you arent home lol jk Sorry had to say it

 

Since you've had it lifted almost a week now without DW and it just popped up, I'd say something happened. Either a bolt came lose or you threw a wheel weight. Check all your bolts and re-torque em'. Then see if the new tires & balance take care of it.

BTW, I used airsoft bb's ($15 from wally world) in my tires to balance them. Works great. Keeps weights off my new wheels and the tires will alway be balanced, regardless of how much mud is packed in them.

 

I've had the lift on a week or so, but I don't drive this jeep every day. I've only driven it off road on our land other than the below....

**should note, the jeep has 235/75-15 on it, so I don't know if the speedo is correct - I feel by seat of the pants that it reads a little slow**

- drove from my house to my land (about 5 miles) after the lift no DW (but I don't know if I even hit 50mph)
- drove from land to home to install JKS discos - 1st time I'd got DW, 50 mph, but was covered in mud
- drove back to land, DW at 50mph
- drove to car wash disconnected, DW at 50mph
- drove home clean and connected, DW at 50mph but milder
- drove to work this morning, DW at 50mph, but noticed it starts when I feather out of the throttle

I have to drive about 30 miles down the slab (interstate) to get the tires put on, so I'll have lots of time to play with it and see just when and what gets the DW going and then the ride back home with the new tires and see how it does.


I used the dynabeads in my truck once, didn't seem to help but I just went by their chart. I am going to have the tire shop spin the tires and I am going to document what each tire needs. Then I'll add that amount of beads - think I'll try the airsoft BBs this time - and see how it works out.

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Get the most dense ones you can. The 'super accurate' ones are .25 grams, thats what I used. I put a little extra in each wheel. Chart said 6oz for a 32" tire, I went with 7oz...

 

Me and my youngest boy took the jeep down to get the tires put on today. I drove between 55-65mph on the slab going down and had DW pop up several times. Once BAD when I crossed a bridge about 65. Other times it would happen just as I feathered out of the throttle between those speeds. At times it felt like it was just on the verge of happening at minute.

They were ready for us and got the jeep right in. The tires looked good and we had a time deciding to put the white letters in or out. My boy decided to put them out, so that's what we did.



I told them I will likely put beads in the tires so the wrote down what weights each wheel came out with so I can start with that amount of beads. They also told me that two of my wheels had some bad run out and they put those on the back. I am *thinking* this may have played a part in the DW. I didn't get DW at all on the way home and I ran up to about 80mph, feathered out of the throttle when crossing bridges, etc trying to see if I could get it to start up but it never did. Hopefully it's gone.

The new tires looked so good I couldn't stand to look at the wheels with the paint all chipped off so we stopped at Walmart on the way home and got some Rustoleum satin aluminum metal flake paint (don't remember the exact name on the can) and a couple sanding pads to paint the wheels with. I just taped them off and did a quick and dirty driveway paint job, but they look MUCH better. Hope it holds up.



When the paint dried I drove it over to a park and took some pics - it probably won't be this clean for a long time. I'm kinda bummed because I am REALLY liking this thing and am hating the thought of just using it as a "farm truck" now. I'd like to find one that was a complete cherry and put the same parts on it (minus the exhaust) and keep it as a DD.









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That really came out nice.

 

Oh yea, meant to mention that after getting the old tires out of the back, I measured like it sits now and it's right at 35 1/2" at the front fenders and 34 1/2" at the back fenders. I think the shackles being bound up on the bushings is holding the rear down. When I bounce on the rear it doesn't rebound any higher than it is sitting right now, maybe a tad but it feels like it's got limit straps holding it down when it tries to rebound back up. I think I'll get some on the way in the next few days - and a new transmission mount cause I can tell it's shot. May be the source of my driveline vibes at 30-40mph, but if not I'll make a t-case drop - do it a little at a time so I only drop it the amount needed to solve the vibes.

.....and then I gotta get to work on making the rear bumpstop plates and testing to see how much I need to trim the flares or bumpstop to stay out of them....

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3 floor jacks? lol

 

You know, I hadn't thought about it until you said that but it is mainly a tire shop and every bay had either the floor lift like in the pic or a 4-post lift lol.

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Been driving the jeep around town some more and can report that it drives just fine - no DW at all and tracks straight and true.

I did have the front tire grab some fender flare yesterday while driving back on my land. Not bad, just enough to make some noise. I'm going to have to use a floor jack and flex it out in the garage and see where it's rubbing and do some trimming - and measure to see what I need to do to the bumpstops to keep the tires out of the body.

Gonna have to order a transmission mount - I think this one's shot. Bangs when I shift it into reverse sometimes. I'll prob do the motor mounts at the same time and a t-case drop. Dread taking those crossmember bolts out - read too many posts about them breaking.....

Just send Chris from L&L a money order today for bumpers! Looking forward to getting those bad boys on....after the wait to get them anyways. I got a Flat Top front with Ext sides and add a hitch to it, then the standard rear with a hitch also. I think long term I'll add some 2x4 square tube into the frame rails and tie the rear bumper into. I'll probably do that at the same time I tackle the rot on the rear frame rail. I've already seen it's a little worse than I thought it was, so plan is to cut it out, weld new sections in and then cover with some frame stiffeners.

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L&L FTW!

 

Yea, looking forward to getting the bumpers and being able to pull something with the jeep and not worry about the bumper getting ripped off. It had a aftermarket hitch on, but hung down too far for my tastes and after seeing the rust on the RH frame rail beside the gas tank was a little (so far) worse than I originally thought, I decided against pulling on the hitch anyway until I get that fixed.

The L&L rear bumpers (from what I understand) don't tie-in to the frame in any way, so most likely when I go to put the rear bumper on, that project will turn into a "cut out rust, patch new metal in, install frame stiffeners, tie-in rear bumper, install rear bumper" project.....and I dread all that but it ain't gonna fix it's self

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