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Hey folks, long time lurker, first time poster. Over the years I've gleaned so much information from this forum that has been of tremendous value and now it's time I give something back. Since I recently installed a Rough Country 4.5” X-Series lift with full leaf packs on my 2001 XJ I made a profile and now I'll share my experience and thoughts for anyone considering one of these kits.
So first off, I will admit that I had some hesitations about going with this lift. I've read previous , yet incomplete, reviews of the X-Series lifts and the reviewers often complain about fit-up and ride. One big complaint regarding fit-up was the rear springs. Others have complained about the length of the leaf springs causing difficulty installing them. Initially this really put me off but further digging found claims by a rep that the issue has been corrected, so I decided that would be acceptable if true. The other concern I had were the claims of how rough Rough Country lifts ride. My previous XJ had a 3.5” bastard pack, rubicon shocks, and rolled on 33” BFGs. It rode like a tank so I can live with anything softer, though I did want a softer ride since this is a daily driver. I also know that ride quality has a lot to do with tires and shocks and I recently had Rough County's N2 shocks on my WJ before I sold it and found them to be quite nice for a daily driver. Ultimately I decided to pull the trigger and buy the kit since it's the most complete kit that I could find for the price. I really didn't want to have to piece together separate items like track bar and upper control arms and pay more for the parts. This kit seems perfectly suitable for occasional wheeling on it's face and like the fact that it can be upgraded to a long arm set up later on.
I shopped around and at the time I ordered prices seemed the same just about everywhere so I ordered directly from Rough Country. Shipping was timely and my UPS driver was excited about me installing a lift. The separate parts were packaged well and nothing was damaged. I was a little disappointed to learn that the springs were made in China, but they seemed well enough made. One of the coil springs wasn't wound as nicely as the other but it's only cosmetic. The leaf springs include shims, which turned out to be 2.5°, but I'll get to that later. My kit included shocks and front sway bar disconnects, which I also had on my WJ. I find the single disconnects and mounts to more user friendly than double discos. The mounts makes life easier too by allowing you to tuck them out of the way while wheeling. Overall, I feel like the kit is decent, quality material.
Now lets get down to installation. One of the areas I wasn’t all that pleased with were the instructions. They can be a bit vague and were faded black and white copies. I think for the money and as much as RC sells these, the instructions could definitely be revised. The grammar was poor and the pictures not to great. At one point I had to call RC for clarification since the pictures show the welded non-adjustable end of the lower control arm at both ends as installed in the brackets. The rep on the phone admitted that the pictures were wrong. For the most part it shouldn't be too much trouble for a skilled DIYer, I'm just nitpicking. Each sub kit like front suspension, rear suspension, and track bar have their own instructions and the flow is logical. Fit-up of the front control arms could use some better tips for lining up the bolt holes.
The physical installation of the parts went pretty smoothly. It only took me eight hours, a worn out grinder, and a dozen good sawzall blades to get the rear springs off, but that's not RC's fault. On a side not, if your going to be removing the rear spring for any reason, have a new set of bolts ready before you start. You probably won't find them at you local hardware store and you will need them 9 times out of 10. Now concerning the rear leaf length as previously mentioned, I had no trouble at all and they were actually pretty easy to install. Just put a square profile breaker bar between the rear eye wrap and the shackle and jack up the spring until it lines ups. Nothing too it. I didn't have any issues installing any of the parts and I have no complaints about fitment. The brake lines included appear to be Crown brand. One thing to note is that following RC's instructions for the adjustable upper and lower control arms gave me 7.5° of caster. That's fine but I had to dial mine back some to eliminate vibrations. Two full turns on the upper arms will yield 1° of caster on a High Pinion Dana 30.
Now every jeep is different but most every XJ will need a slip yoke eliminator with a 4.5” lift. With my Iron Rock Offroad Hack n' Tap installed I still had vibrations from the rear. I talked to RC and found that the shim installed on the leaf springs is a 2.5°. For my setup I needed an 8° shim for proper pinion angle. (I used RC's included transfer case drop kit temporarily while working on some front axle issues, and 6° is a better shim angle with the TC dropped.) It's worth noting that the leaf pack centering pin that RC uses is an odd size. I ordered my 8° shims from IRO, which come with stock diameter pins and the stock pins are too small for these springs. I had to make my own pins by grinding down bolt heads.
Everything has been installed for about two months now. Since my springs were totally shot (my rear spring had no arch) I gained a full six inches from the lift. Initially I was riding around on my stock wheels and tires and the ride was very soft, almost too springy. I've upgraded to Stealth Crawlers and 31” General Grabber AT2's and the ride is definitely stiffer with LT tires, but it's not terrible. Some additional weight from front and rear bumpers should help soften the ride. The 31's fit with no issues. I would have gone bigger but my wife was mad enough about 31”. With this kit one could easily fit a 32” tire with no trimming on a 98+. An older Xj should be able to fit a 33” tire with no trimming. For a daily driver I think this kit is completely acceptable at this price point. I haven't had a chance to do any offroading yet. I just got my rebuilt front DS back in today. (For anyone in the Denver Area, Bill's Englewood Driveshaft sells CV centering yokes for $35.) I promise an update once I've had a chance to fully flex it. I can say that after installing the front springs I maxed out my jack at full droop with no issues, so I expect it to be fine for the moderate wheeling I do.
The takeaway here is that the Rough Country 4.5” X-Series lift kit seems to be a well rounded kit for a fair price if you plan on installing it on a daily driver.
Last edited by Doomsayer; 12-10-2014 at 02:45 PM.
Reason: a few words, added pics.
1) Thank you for writing a great review.
2) Thank you for being someone whose spelling, commas, and sentence flow makes sense
Funny that I would stumble across this today, as I spent all day in the garage attempting to install my own RC 4.5" X-Series lift. Things were going well during dis-assembly, until I got to the upper control arm frame-side bolts/nuts. Tried every tool I had, and few I went a bought with no luck. They wouldn't budge, and I'm not even in the rust belt. The exposed threads actually look very clean. All I succeeded in doing was rounding the bolt heads off.
So... I spent the rest of the evening putting everything together back the way it was before I started. What a wasted day.
I guess now I'm stuck with taking it to a shop and paying them hundreds of dollars to install it. They'll have torches, impact wrenches, air hammers/chisels and whatever else may be needed to deal with those bolts. Really peeved me off. I was pumped to get the lift on, get my JCR sliders installed, and run up to Firestone to get my new 31x10.5 Destination AT's installed and get an alignment.
I was going to pay a shop to install my SYE and 4.10 gears, so I'll try and bargain for a good package price to do everything.
I think many of us would be interested in you updating this post once in awhile. Maybe ever 6 months or so to see how your lift is doing. Like you, I was hesitant to buy RC since they get so much crap and I'd heard about the short-length rear leaf issues. But I also read that they got those worked out at the end of 2012. Perhaps once I get mine installed we can both provide occasional updates so others can benefit. You are arguably in one of the hilliest parts of the country, and I'm in one of the flattest. Should be a good range of experience to report!
Thanks... This review gave me some insight on what I can expect. I will be installing my x-series on my 01 in the next week. Fortunately I have a shop and many tools at my disposal.
Definitely a good writeup. I'm about to order a lift this week and was going to go with the ~$680ish lift, thinking its worth it to spend the extra on the X-series with the number of different things it comes with.
1) Funny that I would stumble across this today, as I spent all day in the garage attempting to install my own RC 4.5" X-Series lift. Things were going well during dis-assembly, until I got to the upper control arm frame-side bolts/nuts. Tried every tool I had, and few I went a bought with no luck. They wouldn't budge, and I'm not even in the rust belt. The exposed threads actually look very clean. All I succeeded in doing was rounding the bolt heads off.
Some of the bolts in the control arms have a low profile head and a tab under the head. The tab is welded to the head and grips the sheetmetal edge to keep the bolt from turning. The nut comes off the other end of the bolt and then you have to drive it out with a punch. The first time I removed one of these I went through the same thing, thinking "how the hell is this not turning!"
Last edited by Doomsayer; 12-10-2014 at 02:50 PM.
Reason: Added quote from Macgyver35
One other thing I forgot to mention is that the instructions for preloading the control arm bushings just say to tighten it. They give no indication of how tight they should be so you're flying blind. My fear is that if they aren't tight enough it'll cause premature bushing failure.
Thankyou for writing this great review. I'm still learning about liftkits and I'm wondering..
Why do you need the SYE and why does the kit include a t-case drop kit ?
At 3"of lift, you need a SYE because the lift puts the rear driveshaft at a more severe angle that can cause issues with the the driveshaft u-joints. The SYE lengthens the nominal shaft length, which effectively decrease the angle back toward (but not at) stock.
The reason they include a t-case drop is because that also effectively reduces the driveshaft angle back more toward stock. It's a cheap "fix". It's nothing more than some plastic spacers and longer bolts. There's probably not $4 worth of materials in the whole kit, whereas a SYe is many parts and precision cast and machines steel (much more expensive to produce). You can probably get away with a drop for some time on a 3" lift, but not what I would recommend on a 4.5" lift. No matter your lift height, The t-case drop put the trans and engine at a different angle within the Jeep. For the most part, you can get away with some of this, but it does tend to put additional strain on the motor mounts. For those with aftermarket radiators and fans, it can also cause some clearance issues at the front of the engine compartment.
A SYE remedies your driveshaft angle issue without introducing the kinds of issues that t-case drop might cause.
I received, supposedly, the updated leafs from RC and I still needed the relocation brackets. Without them, it rides terribly stiff and the rubber bushings will be toast in about a year. I built relocation brackets, warrantied out my leaf bushings, and I'm good to go now. BTW, RC sends poly replacements. So, it's worth getting them warrantied out.
I received, supposedly, the updated leafs from RC and I still needed the relocation brackets. Without them, it rides terribly stiff and the rubber bushings will be toast in about a year. I built relocation brackets, warrantied out my leaf bushings, and I'm good to go now. BTW, RC sends poly replacements. So, it's worth getting them warrantied out.
That's good to know about getting poly replacements.
I'll also add, make sure either you, or the alignment shop, adjusts the front pinion angle. I didn't know, the shop didn't, and I destroyed a pinion bearing. It was cheaper to just replace the whole front axle.
At 3"of lift, you need a SYE because the lift puts the rear driveshaft at a more severe angle that can cause issues with the the driveshaft u-joints. The SYE lengthens the nominal shaft length, which effectively decrease the angle back toward (but not at) stock.
The reason they include a t-case drop is because that also effectively reduces the driveshaft angle back more toward stock. It's a cheap "fix". It's nothing more than some plastic spacers and longer bolts. There's probably not $4 worth of materials in the whole kit, whereas a SYe is many parts and precision cast and machines steel (much more expensive to produce). You can probably get away with a drop for some time on a 3" lift, but not what I would recommend on a 4.5" lift. No matter your lift height, The t-case drop put the trans and engine at a different angle within the Jeep. For the most part, you can get away with some of this, but it does tend to put additional strain on the motor mounts. For those with aftermarket radiators and fans, it can also cause some clearance issues at the front of the engine compartment.
A SYE remedies your driveshaft angle issue without introducing the kinds of issues that t-case drop might cause.
12-06-2014, 08:01 PM
Rough Country 4.5" X-Series review
