karben276

I am looking at putting on a 4.5 sa lift on my not yet arrived from the factory 4 door sahara. I have been told by several local off-roaders to go with a bds lift. I will spend 95% of my time on the road and want the ride to be as close to factory as possible. Is BDS a top choice? The only lift ive done in the past is a 4 inch pro comp lift and it was ok. Also, is there a huge difference between a 3 and 4.5 inch lift in regards to handling and steering? Let me know what you all think, thanks.

h1ker

OME lift\OME LT shocks is the way to go rides better than factory.

wayoflife

bds is an okay lift but far from what i would consider "top choice". also, the taller you go, the more complete of a kit you need to get in order to get your ON ROAD ride and handling back to where you want it to be. at 4" of lift, you really want to make sure that you get a kit that comes complete with adjustable control arms and adjustable track bars as well as a front track bar relocation bracket and dropped pitman arm or drag link flip. if you skimp here, you will feel it in your ON ROAD ride and handling. other things to consider is that at 3" of lift or more, you need to be thinking about replacing your drive shafts with aftermarket u-joint style ones.

having said all that, the question you need to be asking yourself is what kind of budget do you have to work with. again, the more complete the kit the more it will cost and the taller you go, the more complete you really want it to be.

drew

I have the AEV 3.5 Premium lift on my Rubicon 2 door. Not cheap but with 35s it rides and handles like stock with a lot more off road capability.

wayoflife

couldn't agree with you more here

wayoflife

how do you plan on dealing with your rear drive shaft once it fails?

Serg5000

I drive 120 miles a day to get to and from work.
I have a 3 1/4" RC lift on my X. I am also running 35's. The ride is nice. It is as smooth as it was when it was stock. I hope you take all this info you are getting in this post seriously. These guy's know what they are talking about. I offroad more than I thought I ever would. I wish I had found this site before I purchased the lift. Good luck.

drew

Almost 20K miles and no problems.

karben276

why would drive shaft fail?

wayoflife

not surprised - most people get about 30,000 miles/48,000 km before they fail and less if they wheel their jeep. still haven't answered how you will be able to address it when it fails with the kit you have.

because on a 2-door, the rear drive shaft is really short and at 3" of lift or more, it will sit at a much steeper angle. this will put the CV boots in a constant state of pinch and, over time, this will cause the boots to fail. once this happens, there will be nothing to keep the grease inside and subsequently, the bearings inside will fail. the answer to this problem is to install a double cardin u-joint style shaft but, in order to do this, you would need to install a set of adjustable rear upper control arms.