So with Moab Jeep Safari going on a few hours south of me right now, It makes me jealous!! I've finally decided to do a 4.5'' lift kit on my 97' XJ sport.
I've been running a 2-2.5'' lift right now, with real rough ride, and terrible death wobble. Ive been doing lots of research and reading up on peoples reviews and opinions.
I think ive got it down to Rough Country's 4.5'' full leak kit ($850ish) or 4.5'' long arm kit ($1300).
So i need some straight up, non-biased feed back.
Is the long arm kit worth the extra money?
Is an SYE "REQUIRED" for a 4.5''?
and a CV drive shaft? or can you use the stock shaft, atleast for a little while.
Ive noticed in a lot of pictures the front sits a little higher than the rear, what are solutions to helping this?
So any other input you guys have on install and additional products recommended to install while installing a 4.5'' lift.
Thanks in advance

Jeep Specs:
1997 Jeep Cherokee XJ Sport
4.0L I6 Engine
150k miles
2'' budget lift installed at the moment

 

search is your friend for future reference. what are you looking to do with your jeep? offroad or daily driver

 

Ohh trust me i've spent hours searching, Its just hard to find good solid info ya know?
But its going to be a daily driver, atleast for awhile. The thing is though, I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, so Moab is only a few hours south of me. I'd really love to be able to go down there several times a year and be able to run most all the trails down there. Im not too worried about rough ride, my jeep is quite rough at the moment, and i get real bad death wobble while going freeway speeds so instead of rebuilding front end suspension and steering im just going to get a lift that'll replace those parts any ways.

 

i run a 5.5" pieced lift. i have RC short arms and they do alright. i get where i need to go. death wobble is a fun thing. read these :
http://www.yuccaman.com/jeep/dw.html
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/di...-wobble-55021/

i would go with a good quality system and do it right the first time. full leafs and long arms.

 

Moab+RC=Broken Parts

 

I do not have experience with the RC kit, but I can say that after riding in a long arm equipped rig recently, the difference was night and day!
I have ~4" on short arms, the rig I recently drove had 4.5" on long arms. It was way smoother and had a lot more flex. Convinced me in about 5 minutes that the cost was well worth it.

I personally will be going with the Serious Offroad long arms (upgrade). I wish I had known this a long time ago. So to answer your original question, yes, it is definitely worth the extra money! Especially if you will be frequenting Moab. I'm jealous....

 

First off I'm in price.. IMO don't do rc if your going to put out money do it right Clayton long arm and a good set of leafs. A good track bar and up grade the steering u joints ball joints DW can be so much but how you have DW with 2in you have a problem grab a jack and shake down the whole front end anything lose replace or upgrade to better set up cross over steering or one ton steer. IMO I wouldn't waste mine on short arms. Also TNT frame stifners are a good idea not a must. Sye good idea but you can get away with out put a wedge in the rear I don't like this idea but can do it if sticking with short arm a t case drop will be ok and no sye needed.

 

Tie rods and ball joints don't come with the lift. You should def think about doing those before you lift. I put the 4.5 rc kit on my 95, I like it but I got the adjustable control arms with the "x-flex" joints or whatever they are called. They make a nocking noise over regular bumps on the street. A customer of mine complained about the same thing. After having the lift for almost a year now, I wish I would have went long arm. I didn't need a sye and have stock driveshafts. All it needed was the supplied transfer case drop kit

 

First, don't get the RC leaf springs! They are to short! When I called RC about the short springs they told me to buy shackle bracket re locators. The flex bushings were crap but have been changed and are suppose to be better now, but I don't know because I replaced mine with Johnny Joints, because RC said there was no problem with their bushings at that time. I also had to replace my track bar and bracket. I've spent about $400.00 above the price of the 4.5 inch kit to get my suspension so it isn't a total POS, and I've still need to replace my rear leaf springs.

 

This. Spend your money better

 

Alright, well it sounds like i'll just do it right and go long arm the first time.
Soo that brings up another question, If there are so many bad opinions about RC then what is a better alternative?

 

You will get a million opinions on this one... I would look at RE and long arms from serious or FST. There are a lot of people who love Clayton/BDS (for good reason). Rock Krawler seems to have good stuff but I do not know anyone personally that has their setup. Rusty's can be a viable option for many as well.

I would recommend you contact a few of the vendors on this site and tell them what you want to do. Most of them are very knowledgable and will be more than happy to help you get set up for success.

 

Alright, I'll get in touch with a few of em an see what they think.
So if you guys had $1500-$1800 to spend of a 4.5 set up what would you buy?

 

I have RK track bar and steering. If their suspension is anything like those two pieces it is "bomb-proof" as they say.

 

I bought a zone 3" lift for my jeep they are an off shoot of BDS !
Just throwing that out there.