Skyjacker economy lift


I bought that kit. I caught it on sale from 4WD Hardware for $480 with free shipping. Anyway, I ended up reading some negative reviews about parts of the kit and ended up replacing everything but the springs and shocks (and drop pitman arm and some misc. hardware).

First of all, do you do much wheeling? If you're just going for looks and/or tire clearance and don't care much about performance you might be OK leaving the kit as is. If you want a suspension that is going to perform well offroad you might want to save up for a better kit.

If you want to know the shortcomings of this kit, they are as follows:

1) No swaybar disconnects for the front, just extended links. You really need to be able to disconnect the front swaybar when you are wheeling, especially in a TJ. You get a HUGE increase in front suspension travel and it dramatically affects your off-road performance.

2) Non-adjustable lower control arms with no flex joints. Reviews I've read say these control arms are junk and looking at them I would tend to agree. I installed a full set of upper and lower adjustable X-Flex arms from Rough Country on my Jeep. The reviews I read said these Skyjacker non-adjustable arms tend to be really hard on the control arm mounts and again, without the upper arms you can't run an SYE or really dial in your suspension.

3) No provisions for the front track bar. It does have a drop bracket for the rear track bar, I believe, but to get your axles properly centered and your alignment dialed in you have to have either an adjustable track bar or a properly modified track bar mount and this kit falls short in this regard.

4) Hydro shocks. Yes, I'm running them and they're OK. But that's it. I read several reviews that said these shocks are garbage and don't last at all. Some reviewers said that they were already blown when they received the kit. I plan on upgrading them but am running them in the short term.

I can tell you that the springs/shocks do seem to flex very well with the swaybar disconnected and the X-flex control arms - I have heard some people comment that Skyjacker springs don't flex well. However I do have a LOT of squeaking and creaking already in this suspension. There doesn't seem to be any slop like loose or damaged bushings. I'm hoping it's just because I really need to grease the bushings and it's not the springs or something. I'll get her greased this weekend and let you know if that takes care of it.

Anyway, to summarize: If you're just wanting the lifted "look" and/or you drive mostly on the street and only do occasional light wheeling this kit might be OK, but trust me - if you do any amount of serious wheeling you're going to need to upgrade a lot of what comes in this kit (and add things that don't come in the kit) and you'd probably be better off buying a better kit to start with.
 
i just bought this kit for 540 about 2weeks ago and im so excited to get it installed. honestly if your jeep is your daily driver i wouldnt be doing anything to to crazy of road anyway..i plan on putting the lift on before summer and hopefully some nice 33" tires before the summers over
 
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