I just bought a 98 XJ. Previous owner installed the $500 variety of Rough Country's 4.5" lift. Fixed lower front arms, stock pitman, stock track bar, add-a-leaf & shackles, etc.

While I've owned atvs / utvs for 30+ years, this is my first Jeep / first "real" offroader. I've never been one to abuse equipment in terms of deep mud, high speed blasting, etc and I don't see starting to drive aggressively with the XJ. More logging roads and maybe a trip or two per year to Drummond Island, MI for more "extreme for me" wheelin.

The Rough Country X-series 4.5" lift would an upgrade to the RC budget kit in my XJ. The X series include adjustable upper and lower front arms with ball joints on one end vs rubber bushings of the fixed arms now on jeep. X-series also includes drop pitman and track bar and sway bar disconnects.

I don't think I'd mess with swapping out the rear leafs but I have thought about upgrading my lift to the X-series front end parts. Primarily I'd do this to get more flex / articulation.

Since I'm not going to be doing (or at least I don't think) any extreme rock crawling / body twisting stuff I'm trying to determine if I would even notice the difference primarily from the "ball joint" 4 front arms.

Anyone have experience with the x-series kit or general thoughts on how much difference I'd actually see? I'm thinking of getting the sway bar disconnects as a minimum to get whatever flex I can out of the fixed arms with bushings.

Still 24" of snow on the ground so it will likely be several weeks before I can finally "wheel" the XJ to see what it can do with the current set-up.

 

Sorry for not putting this under the lift thread.

 

Do yourself a favor and get rid of the add a leaf and get yourself a proper lift pack

do yourself another favor and avoid rough country. Trust me, they are garbage. Where i work, we are a dealer for them...we sold a guy a tj lift last week. Guy came in today and brought it back. He literally only had it a week and was unhappy lol.....if it were up to me i would get us into a differrent brand but oh well.

 

RC is RC, I like to think it should stand for Real Crap. Ditch it

 

Keep what you have but I would add CADs ( control arm drop brackets ), shackle relocation kit and an IRO double shear track bar. You will have improved everything, handling, ride, flex. If you feel the need later you can pickup parts that you need. Don't waste money on a less than favorable "kit". JMHO

 

Thanks - I did quite a bit of researching last night on all of the parts you mentioned. Looks like a good recipe of parts.