But I am not American, I am Canadian and live about 2 hours from Montreal

XJs just are not made for "bombing" around in and lifting one only enforces that If you get the suspension working right you will see that quick enough. Were the XJ shines is down low in the speed range. If I had your stable of cars I would build the XJ as a serious trail rig, tow it to the trail with the F350, and bomb around in the BMW. I still would like to get a mid to late 90s M3, almost bought one just before I found my Stealth, but I don't have the room to store yet another summer only car

 

I don't agree with the people that are chiming in saying "that's what happens when you lift an xj, deal with it" I just put a lift on mine. IRO 6.5" long arm setup. And it rides AMAZING! I opted to get my own shocks, 0 rebound. Only thing I'm not loving is the growl from the tires but that will happen. I'd say going from my 1.75" BB and 30's to 6.5"+ and 33's. Rides the same or better. Just my .02

 

Great, looking forward to hearing back.

Your XJ should get half decent mileage. Have you changed the speedo gear for the new tires? If not then your mileage will be reading under actual.

As for the rear sway bar, I don't think you'll feel like you're losing anything if you get rid of it. I took mine off when I lifted it and the instructions didn't say to put it back so I didnt. I'm perfectlu stable. Even drove the jeep for a little without rear shocks when I messed up on my 8.8 install. That was squirly.

 

Cause you went LA. Those are meant to ride nice lol

 

Yeah I have the same kit. Long arms drastically improve right comfort on top of suspension articulation.

 

So I dropped the tire pressure to 23 lbs, and the thing rides much smoother. Kinda like it's riding on marshmellows. It feels gumby. Noticeably more rolling resistance and more steering effort. Which is generally detrimental to just about everything but my personal comfort. I put it back to 28 psi.

Speedo gear is still stock, but checked with GPS shows only 3-4 mph slow at 60-ish. Fuel economy suffered with the lift & larger tars, and probably the winch mounted on the bumper as well. I'm sure any driveline vibes that may still exist and any roughness in the rear carrier bearings do not help this.

Have no use for a dedicated trail rig; the nearest "Jeep runs" are 50 miles away and the DNR ***** in my local state forest informed me just last week that they would **** me if they caught me driving my Jeep anywhere a logging truck can't go. Such is life in the "land of the free".

So this vehicle's mission, for me at least, is that of an all-terrain vehicle that I can bomb around in, drive on fire roads, haul my dogs, load with tools for a project then work out of the back with the door up and the stereo blaring, and get between the trees out in my back woods. It works good for those things...I just need to get it properly sorted out.

FWIW my BMW rides like **** as well. Too stiff for my liking, but man what a go-kart. 98-99 are the best years of the E36 M3's...if you can find one that hasn't been punished.

 

There's your answer to the tire pressure question then. At least you know that can make a noticeable difference.

FYI this threat over at NAXJA says your speedo should be off (reading low) by about 7-8% (coulda looked it up myself but it's Sunday). Haha Therefore, you should be correcting for that wen calculating MPG. It's basically just that the size difference in the tires over stock.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=64770

Assuming your odometer reads 200 miles on and you got 15 gallons, should be 214 - 216 instead. Not a huge difference but it's something.

In this case it'd be 13.3 mpg vs 14.4.

 

I had an 3'' AAL RC lift with N2O shocks. RIDE WAS HORRIBLE! I upgraded to 4'' IRO front coils (for winch bumper), IRO adjustable UCA/LCA and Bilstein 5100 from IRO. People have said it and now I am, I believe the Bilstein shocks helped night and day. But I will also say the UCA/LCA's help dramatically too. Just from what I noticed with my rig. Take what you wish. When the girlfriend says, "this rides better" the results equals 100% !!!

 

Well, seems that dropping the tire pressure AND the extended shackles w/ relocator brackets have actually made some improvement. It ain't much...but at least its something. I gained about an inch in the stern, so now I need a spacer to level it back out. Which will solve a couple other problems too. I may upgrade the shocks at some point but for now I'll stick with the RC 2.2's.

No more money to toss down this hole at the moment.