need help deciding on a lift kit

[jonmow]

wanting to lift my 06 wrangler unlimited. thinking of going 4". there are so many brands and types to choose from. jeep is stock now. not going to do any hard core crawling, just want some more clearance. and want to keep it streetable. don't want to spend more than $2000.00 for lift, shocks, and all hardware. need to save money for winch, bumpers, tires, wheels, jack, so on. what do you guys think would be the best choice for me? thanks

[TerryMason]

What size tires are you looking to end up with? Are you hoping to go larger than 33s?

[jonmow]

probably 33x10.5

[dandoc]

I put on a 2.5" Rubicon Express lift on my '93 YJ. Keep in mind mine is a leaf spring kit, not a coil spring kit like you're looking for. The ride was a bit rough in the beginning, but the springs eventually were broken in. I haven't had any problems with Rubicon Express. Other Jeepers have used SkyJacker, Black Diamond, Old Emu, as well as all the other brands. Some brands have a bad reputation, others not so much. Some are considered better quality, some better price, some include more parts for the install than others. Do your research on all the parts you'll need to do your lift and go from there. You may find a complete lift kit that has all the parts, or the kit you have your heart set on may not include everything you'll need. It took a few weeks for me to decide on the Rubicon Express kit.

[mrkltj]

Two grand will buy you pretty much any lit on the market. A four inch lift and 33 iis a pretty common set up and performs well in a mix of street and off road conditions.

[mrkltj]

As far as manufacturers, RE is well respected and competively priced. Also Teraflex is in the same boat. Hope this helps.

[jonmow]

thanks guys. i am researching this, in fact, this is why i posted the question on this forum. i like the un-biased opinions you get here. i want a quality lift. dropping this kind of cabbage only needs to happen once. i am trying to find the pros and cons of the different lifts out there. some have heim joints in the linkage which is supposed to help you articulate better but at the expense of a noisy ride on the street. if this is true, i will stay away from that sort of lift. this is just an example of what i am pondering now. haven't been to any jeep shops yet, i am trying to stay away until i decide what i am going to get. don't want to get caught up in the "our brand is better than theirs" discussion. i think i have narrowed it down to either RE or skyjacker. a smooth ride is less of a concern to me. my biggest concern is quality and the amount of engineering that has been put in the lift. my opinion is, if you want the smoothest ride possible, buy a cadillac and drive it on the freeway. the bouncing around on the trails is why i turned off the paved road several miles back.

[Boze]

As far as shops go, be carefule! Sometimes they will quote you a price and not even tell you what kit you're getting. What you're doing is perfect. Do your homework and go in to a reputable place. Tell them EXACTLY what you want, and don't let them jerk you around. (can you tell I had a bad experience?)

As far as what lift...Sorry, I have a YJ so no experience with coils. Although, I have read and heard that for a daily driver that sees mild trails the Old Man Emu lifts are really smooth riding, (for a lifted Jeep), and verry reliable. Good luck and have fun!

[Rubicon Rich]

Here's some advice from an old guy that was a mechanic also. I installed a R.E. 7000 which is 4.5 inches and a R.E, one inch body lift. Added to that some 35 MTR's and lwered my wheels to 15 inch for the extra sidewall benefits. BTW, I own a '04 Rubicon. Went to 12.5's for balence. As you go higher, you need a wider tire. Love the performance, especially with 4:88's. Hate the maintenace! Everytime I mud, I have to inspect and grease the jeep. It seems I added about twenty new zerks to grease! Dusty trails require the same maintenace in a timely fashion. Going thro water, you have to re-grease. Plus I added Currie steering and have more to do. After adding $36K worth of mods, I have an awesome jeep.

One day, while b.s.-ing with my club, a light bulb went off! All I need to do to get roughly the same benefits, in hindsight, would have been a different choice! Rubicon Express has a bushing problem in all the control arms. They compress easily and therefore malfunction. You can still drive it home but you'll need another $60 for new bushings! Alot of my extreme
members got rid of those control arm assemblies by modifying them with a johnny joint instead of a bushing.
The easy solution to all the problems of having a lift is to install a 2 inch spring lift and a one inch body lift. Add to that a set of quick disconnects and you're almost set. I'd choose 33 inch tires with a 12.5 width and a 15 inch rim. All that together would give you alot of articulation and some height. If you go the way I did, you have to modify the steering box, the entire brake system, beef up the axles, steering knucles, change gears so you can move those tires that you added!

[jbxx]

What is a "Johnny Joint".
J.B.

[Rubicon Rich]

A Johnny Joint is a universal. Some lift kits have control arms with them instead of bushings. They are inter- changeable with Rubicon Express short arm lifts as I have.