I have a 2000 XJ with 3" of lift on 31's and has stock upper and lower control arms. What benefits will I gain by upgrading these? Would you swap out the upper or lower first? Fixed or Adjustable? Thanks for any replies.

 

It would move your axle back to the center of the wheel well and correct caster angles. I'd go lower first. Either upper or lower can help with caster but lower will get your axle back where it belongs and aftermarket arms aren't made out of thin sheet metal that likes to fold up bend or break. The damage is less likely to happen to the uppers.

 

+1 go with lowers first. If you plan on lifting more you should splurge on adjustables, otherwise there are a lot of cheaper fixed LCA options around. I picked up some used Rubicon Express LCAs for my 3.5" lift for $100 or so. Some WJ and JK arms will also work, but are made out of stamped metal as well, but very cheap. If you are on aftermarket rims with less back spacing or use wheel spacers, the stamped metal won't be much of an issue unless you wheel it hard. Look on here for budget builds tips using JY parts and pits from other vehicles and you'll find it.

Also, you can use "site:cherokeeforum.com" in Google to find pretty much everything you can conceive of on here. The in-site search is useless.

 

Stock WJ arms are pretty beefy and have an S bend in them to clear the tires at full lock. BUT, the front bushing is kind of soft for comfort and the bushing sleeves are 6mm wider than the stock XJ arms. The sleeves can be trimmed, but the arms are the same length as stock arms, so no real gain other than being stronger.

 

Thanks guys. My lowers are all bent and dinged up. I'm not looking to spend to much on these but would like to upgrade sooner than later. I wheel the XJ pretty hard and pretty consistently. I live out in the mountains in Wyoming and sometimes getting home is similar to what I expect some people call "wheeling" on here. I have aftermarket rims. Crager soft 8's with Duratracs on them. Any advice on what to go with?

 

I had stock lowers with a 3 in for a year now. A few months ago I got some nice rebuildable/adjustable lowers.

Eh....truthfully they look cool, but not anything I would recommend without the uppers also.

 

I found some 16.25" tubular DOM LCA's for $50 on craigslist. I need to replace the bushings, but it should help push my axle back where it needs to be (3 inch lift) and make it stronger. They have poly bushings but I'm considering rubber bushings if I can. I'd say look around ebay or similar! Just think of rebuild cost if you got used like I did.

 

Check out Iron Rock Offroad. They have pretty reasonable prices for adjustables. Me personally, I'm ordering up some Clayton Offroad arms soon.

 

Stock arms are thin Junk no matter what model ! Once you feel the weight difference between a stock arm and a aftermarket arm you will be amazed !

I ran fixed after market lowers with stock uppers for a year or so, Then I replaced all of my arms with Teraflex Adjustable Uppers and Lowers my Suspension does not bind anymore or hit the control arm buckets which allows me to fully use my 10" travel shocks

 

Whats junk is the control arm mounts. You will destroy those first.

To get 10" of travel on stock control arms with 33's you have to grind the control arm stop out about an inch. Won't hurt a thing.


So to the OP it really depends on what you are doing. Are you serious about off roading? if so you better buy the control arm mounts as well as at least lowers. If not then it does not mean a thing. No sense wasting your money. You can mall crawl on stock arms as well as aftermarket ones.

getting adjustable lowers really is not going to do much without uppers. By adjusting the lowers out you just throw your caster way in. No point in that.

 

Serious offroading.