I just spoke to my buddy who actually works for a Jeep body shop and he said he could get me a decent price on "remote reservoir coil overs"? He said it's 100x better than simply adding inches to my current suspension. I'm not really sure what this entails.... but he told me that I would not regret it.
I want to see what everyone else thinks before I do this. It's a huge price difference, going from $80-$120 (from what another user told me on this forum) to closer to $800-$900. What does everyone think?
A second topic that I wanted to bring up was the sway bar disconnects. I have seen these for a range of prices, but I'm not sure whether it is important to buy expensive ones or inexpensive ones. Are they good to have, or should I just not worry about them.
Thanks for everyone's help, I'm getting a ton of feedback and this is really going to help me make the best decision possible for my Jeep. For all of you who helped me, you're welcome to come for a ride sometime haha.
the theory to lifting your jeep is to clear bigger tires. Each lift has its pros and cons.
The budget boost (coil spacers) lift your jeep by adding height to your coils, the trade off is that your factory suspension arms (the ones that hold your axles, upper and lower) change in angle, going from 5 or so degrees parallel to the ride surface to 20 degrees or so. this allows some of the kinetic energy from road bumps to be transfered to the frame before the springs, shocks and movements of the control arms take up the energy.
This lift doesn't require you to add longer brake lines,drive shaft, track bar, and drop pitman arm. Some on road drive quality and off-roading quality will be lost due to the steeper angle of the upper and lower control arms.
The maximum lift you can go is around 3.5 inches of lift before the angle are too much for the factory arms. At this much lift you could experience drive line vibrations due to the extreme angle of the rear drive line.
At 4 inches of lift a short arm lift is employed to correct the caster angles with the replacement control arms. A adjustable track bar is needed to move the axles back to center of the frame rails, longer brake lines and a drop pitman arm is needed to correct the idler arm from the steering box or you will get bump steer problems( where your jeep will not drive straight every bump will turn your jeep ever so slightly, due to the extreme angle of the idler arm angle/ flex). Also the cheaper kits employ a transfer case lower kit that allows you to lower the transfer case some to help correct the steep angle of your drive lines. (or) Some recommend that you buy a SYE (slip yoke eliminator) kit and buy a slip type of drive line. This adds a second yoke and u-joint to the drive line helping /preventing drive line wobbles from the extreme angle.
The last kit is called a long arm kit (4+ inches of lift) , in this kit you remove the factory lower and upper control arms and there mounting location on the jeeps frame rails and the kit moves them closer to center of the jeep. thus lowering the angle of the lower and upper control arms allowing less of the road bumps and off-road jarring to be transfered to the frame and tub but into the springs and shocks.
Most of the short arm and long arm kits come with sway bar disconnects. These allow you to disconnect the front sway bar (for off road purposes)thus freeing the amount of articulation of the front axle. (the reason here is to keep the tires on the ground by allowing the axle greater flexibility). When your driving on road the sway bar is attached to the front frame and axle near the spring perches making both springs work to dampen road vibrations.
This cheap change allows most stock and near stock jeeps greater flexibility off road, and is one of the first things most newer jeepers do. All of the better lift packages come with them.
Now some of the more extreme long arm kits come with coil overs, these shock/coil springs combination are centered around a rebuild-able shock tower with places on the outside for different spring rated coil springs. Coil overs are the race ready dampening systems made for off road buggies and competition rock crawlers. They built with adjustable spring rates and shock rates by buying different rated springs and internal valving option for the shock portion. You will need to add a external coil over tower to your frame and depending on the length of the coil overs you will have to cut out a large opening in the rear tire wells to fit them on the rear end of your jeep.
Still at this point with factory control arms the maximum height you can get from the coil overs is still 3-3.5 inches of lift before you will have to spend a lot more money i.e. brake line extensions, drop pitman arm and SYE kit and new rear drive line. Any more lift and you will have to buy adjustable control arms and track bar to correct the problems associated with lift your jeep any higher.
Hopefully this explains some. Since you stated that this jeep is your daily driver and don't plan on taking it off road on some difficult trails I would go with a budget boost with new shocks to clear those 31's with room to spare.
Buy sway bar disconnects for the amount of your lift your planning. Buy front and rear tow hooks because you will get stuck...not today but some day down the road your going to...trust me on this. then buy a good off road recovery strap, not a cheap one with metal hooks, but a pro-comp recovery strap or one like it, one of the most important things you will ever need off road. If any thing is left think about protecting the little things like your rear tail lights with metal baskets, nerf rails for the sides of your jeep.
