motoman677

Hey so I just installed a 4.5 inch rough country lift kit with the full leafs in the back. I put 33x12.50 tires on there and take it mudding and love it. I dont have any problem with the lift but I tries to crawl a rock the other day and my ride doesn't like to flex. I realize I put too big of tires for a 4.5 inch lift but I was wondering if I could take a Vehicle like mine to Moab, or some park where there is a lot of rock crawling with a vehicle like mine. I am getting a Control Arm Drop to help ride. What could I do to help my ride be more of a rock crawler? Add spacers in the shocks, new shackles? Long arm kit or new shocks that are longer? I really dont know but I would love to go rock crawling with my friend and beable to flex somewhat decently compared to his. Please give feed back.

SoCalxJ4.0

Unhook the sway bars, trim fenders, shackle relocation brackets. If you're not flexing something is wrong.

JWheeler

You didn't get longer shocks with the kit? If you have stock shocks, that could be the problem. Control arm drop brackets will help but long arms would be better. Disconnect sway bars and trim fenders as said above.

Chex_Mex

x2 on what JWheeler mentioned, and probably new brake lines

holycaveman

Sorry to say it takes work to get your jeep to flex. Most lift kits can't spell flex.

Its taking the time to tune every bit of your suspension.
Making sure you have enough bump stop so the tires won't bind up in your fender wells. Making sure your shocks are not limiting up or down travel.

I run 33's with 3" of lift. So you have plenty of lift. Lift has nothing to do with flex anyways.

Ditch your sway bars first off. They are not needed. Unbolt your shocks and let the suspension hang. If your shocks won't reach the mounts then ditch the shocks for some longer ones.

Brake lines need to be extended also.

The stock track bare also limits travel.

Fender wells need to be relieved so as to not cut the tire.

Get busy! There are rocks to climb. 8)

motoman677

Are the bumpstops the thing that are inside the coil spring? Are there aftermarket stops to weld on of something? I have disconnectable sway bar links and I am gonna got a control arm drop. I have an aftermarket trac bar and shocks that came with my 4.5 inch rough country. Should I just trim my fender?

motoman677

I also have extended brake lines as well

ohio95xj

Take a picture of the flex you have. Also when you tried to crawl the rock, did you have your front and rear sway bars disconnected. Also how old is the lift. If it is really new the leaf springs in the rear won't flex much, it takes a little while for them to break in

SoCalxJ4.0

Your rear leafs aren't going to flex at all if you got full leafs from Rough Country. I can tell you without looking at it that your shackle angle can't get any worse. It's a a 90* degree isn't it? This is why I recommend the relocation brackets. Allows you to get a more proper angle on your shackles.

Explain more of what's not flexing?? Tires hitting, preventing it from flexing? Trim.

Even though the shocks came with the kit, a human bundled the stuff up, maybe said human sent wrong shocks?
New brakelines are on? New trackbar is on?

Bump stops are needed, they are inside the coil, but they are not going to allow you to flex or not.

JWheeler

I second the shackle relocation kit. It made a big difference in my rough country lift. Lets see some pics and see how she does if you can.

KG8893

Third in for the shackle relocation brackets. I will say, if you want to get a gas tank skid, do that now. any time I want to mess with any of that stuff now (skid, hitch, gas tank) I have to drop the whole rear axle. I recommend these, since you can still have a skid and hitch with them and also because they add a little bit of lift, for when your leaf springs sag. http://www.hdoffroadengineering.com/...relocation-kit

Call RC and see what they say about the shocks. One good thing about them (from what I hear) they have some of the best customer service out there.

another thing to note is that it seems like you got the short arm kit? if you are gonna bother putting more money into it, don't get the drop brackets, just get long arms. Short arms will never flex like long arms will. I'm running 5" of lift with 35s and I can stuff the hell outta my tires front and rear.

98cherokee531

I was able to flex this much with all stock equipment except the bare minimum to get near 4.5". My lift is very basic using 3" coils and a 1.5" spacer, stock track bar relocated, fixed arms for a 3" lift, rc 3" shocks, stock non relocated brake lines (rear is raised off the axle), rear lift is a 3" add a leaf and a .5" lift block just to level it, stock shackle as well. All I did here was disconnect my stock sway bar links up front and backed up. You should be able to flex fine with trimmed fenders on 33s, I have 31s here.

SoCalxJ4.0

As long as the arms can go up, it's going to flex, how far depends on clearance and BS's, track bar, shocks, brake lines. I'm not on 35"s, but I stuff 33"s without any issues.

The drop brackets will allow it to ride smoother, almost like a long arm because essentially they are doing the same thing: putting your arms more parallel to the ground.

holycaveman

For the front bump stops. I shoo gooed hockey pucks to the bottom of my spring perch. Works perfectly. Hockey pucks cost about 1.5$ a piece.

Rear I removed the stock bumps, and put a thick flat plate on top of my springs on the u-bolts. Got a couple rubber universal bumps from autozone.

Bumps limit your up travel so as not to hit the fenders or bottom the shock.

I used full size truck front brake lines they are 6in longer. and extended my rear. I tried unbolting the brake lines at first but that was not enough.

I am 3" of lift in the front. 4" in the rear.



I have the track bar drop bracket re-enforced. 10" bilstein shocks. Ground down the lower control arm stops.

Fender wells have been trimmed and seams mashed flat for clearance. Same with rear. Cut and mashed flat.

Tires are 33's

98XJ40K

Don't mean to jack OP's thread here... Did you relocate your flares when you trimmed or did you just cut up to them and open up the bottom?