MG2013

Well here's the story.

There is a body shop right outside of my neighborhood that has had an auto,stock, two door, steel blue jeep sitting there for over two weeks. As I drove by recently, I noticed that it had a pretty good sized lift and what appeared to be 35 inch tires. I decided to go take a look at it.

They were 35 inch tires on 20 inch chrome rockstars with shocks that clearly said skyjacker. I saw some guys standing outside so i turned around and drove over to them. Both of them were cool and nice as could be. I asked them about that jeep and they said yeah its a 07 sahara with a 5 inch rough country lift on 35 inch toyo mtr's and 20 inch rockstars. He said he's been doing this for years and you can't do much less lift than that or you'll eat your fenders up driving down the road. I've read on here that 2.5 lifts will suffice for a daily driver, but he said not a chance. Secondly, he said that anything less than a 20 inch wheel would make me unhappy in the long run. He also said he didnt need to install new driveshafts with a five inch lift and the drop pitman arm sufficed. Next, I asked about axle regears. He said that they don't need a regear and its not worth it. He said a 1 inch body lift would also be terrible and cause it to drive poorly. He also claimed that nitto was a terrible tire brand and wear down faster than any other tires. As nice as the guy was, I don't really know how right he was.

I would prefer not to spend 5500$ that he said it would cost to run 35's. Could anyone point me in a more affordable direction. I was looking at a rc 2.5 inch lift with rear trac-bar relocation and steering stablizer, new front discos, 17 inch xd bully's, nitto trail grapplers, maybe a 1.25 inch bl, and a regear. According to what he said, none of that would work. So much of what he said was a contradiction to what i've read. Any help or comments would be great.

Thanks guys,
MG2013

RedOffRoad

yea it sounds like he knows his stuff when it comes to lifting a vehicle generally, but doesnt know the specifics of each individual vehicle. I would point you in the direction of an actual 4x4 shop in your area rather than a body shop. Also for a quick cheat you could look at quadratec, they have their stages builds and one of them would have parts lists for what you would want. if you were buying 35's, you could easily have 1200-1500 invested there in tires alone, depending on the wheels you choose $600-$1000, in suspension and regear alone you could easily hit the $2000 mark. so if you think about it, minimum you would be looking around the $4k mark just in those parts, so his $5500 price point doesnt sound to far off really, if its being installed by them then in labor its not bad. But from what he has told you then I wouldn't let him touch my Jeep. He seems just a little bit out of touch.

mrtremere

5 inches is too high and you can easily get by with smaller rims.
I would pass on the purchase if your thinking about it.

I have a 3inch lift with 35's on 17s. I off-road 4 times a month.

Paradise

Here's my current set-up on my 2012 rubi that I did just to get it in the air. I'll be upgrading the suspension within a year or so but fur now:
1. 2.5 ". TEraflex BB I got from CL brand new for $250. Great lift and ride is still good with rubi shocks and extensions.
2. Set of 5 20x9 eagle alloy wheels with 35" toyo MT tires from CL as well for $800. Tires only have about 25% tread life but again will suffice until I figure out what tire wheel setup I want to run permanently.
3. Sold stock rubicon wheels and tires for $925
4. Alignment $75

I did the lift install myself so I'm sittin 2.5" higher on 35's with matching spare for net $200. I still need to get a procal, exhaust spacer, and I just ordered a tire carrier bumper, but point is with some searching you can get lifted pretty cheap.

ssach

I would suggest finding a real 4X4 shop that knows what they are talking about and carry multiple manufacturers. I am going to be running a 3.5" lift with 35s and this combo has been tested and known to be reliable. Not really worth talking about who to go to as there are so many good choices depending on your overall needs.

Just out of curiosity was the owner short and trying to make up for his complex?

MG2013

Yeah I'm sure he knows a lot about the mechanical aspects but youre right. No way he knows that much about jeeps. I had no clue it was even possible to run that large of a lift without new drive shafts. I expected around 4 thousand for mods, but on mods that I needed. Like a regear, properly installed suspension, good tires, and some decent wheels. Not 20 inch wheels and a prayer of a lift with the most expensive tires on the market.

Na I wasn't much of considering it. Just curious as to what they did to it because it is aesthetically appealing despite the 20 inch rockstars which i utterly detest.

That's incredible actually, even if those tires were worn. Very impressive. Like I said above. 4k or a little more was understandable, but I want to get it right. Then there's always selling the stock wheels, tires, and maybe a couple of the suspension parts for some cash.



Thanks so much for ya'lls helps. I'm still trying to learn haha.

kleinrider

I'm all about finding deals. I got 4 35x12.50/17 Nitto Mud Grapplers with about 75% tread on them for (are you sitting down?) $500. He even delivered them to me (roughly 30 miles and had them unmounted from the wheels they were on). You just have to be patient and not too picky. I obviously don't have a matching spare now (it's a ProComp Extreme MT, metric 35 that has 35% tread that I paid $35 for), but I can live with that for the price I paid.

MG2013

That's quite a deal too. I guess i'll just look at CL. Any recommendations on a lift to fit them? I'm looking at Toyo Open Country Mtr just cause of the treadlife.

River Runner

simply put HE IS FULL OF SHIT, you can pic any profile on this forum and look at their mods and it will go against everything this idiot said, hell fella he WAS IN MISSISSIPPI wasnt he lol

JK-Ford

Ya, 2 maybe. And that is giving him credit.