asere22

I apologize ahead of time for whom this thread may offend. I know some if you hate people starting the same threads over and over about lifts.
The reason I'll ask is because I'm totally lost when it come to what I need from a lift. I'll write what I'm looking for in a kit and hope you guys can point me in the right direction.
I have a 2015 jk sport unlimited, this is my daily driver. I want around 3.5" lift. My budget is up to $1500 I want the best ride possible. I will not be doing any extreme offroading, no rocks or crazy flexing, just light trails.
I care about quality components but don't want unnecesary parts because of what I mentioned aboved. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jeepstercanada

Why 3.5? What size tires you going to run. 2.5 is enough for 35's 3.5 you can run 37's

Scott777

Has pretty much everything in the lift you'll need..
Rubicon Express Part RE7145M - 3.5 Inch Sport Lift Kit with Monotube Shocks-WS2

Yamaha90

Many people have their own preferences for brands,

From my experience my Rock Krawler components have been fantastic and ride great when paired with Bilstein shocks.

RK has several kits to suit your needs to help dial in your front end geometry if you need front lower control arms, or just want the coils and track bar to center your front axle.

If your going to be doing light trails i would recommend a 2.5 lift and just grab a set of control arm geometry brackets to reposition the castor and geometry back to stock.

Let me know if i can help with anything, there a surplus of information out there.

nthinuf

Open the Thoughts On Lifts thread, it is stuck right to the top of this Modified area.

What tire size?

Define 'unnecessary parts'... Many of them are for onroad handling, not offroad badassedness. And there can be a grey area here. You will see recommended parts, which you may or may not want, but that get more important as you lift higher. Some people will tell you that they are driving fine without them, others say they are must-haves. No way for us to know what 'you' would consider to be a required part vs a "good to have but I can live with it" part.

The basics, you will want caster correction (research the various forms to see what is right for you), a way to center both axles, a good raised rear trackbar bracket, brakelines or brackets so they don't rip off the frame, bumpstops for the lift height/tire size/flare type, shocks and/or brackets appropriate for the lift height.

And then you will want to research steering angle correction (flips/drop pitman) and what to do when your front driveshaft spits out all of its grease due to the lift height.

Kojack

From what you a describing, you don't want a 3.5" lift. I would go with something lower, and have less drivability issues, handling issues etc.

My setup is bang on for a daily driver on a budget. I have the teraflex leveling kit, gives you 2" up front 1" in the rear, keeps a bit of rake for milage. I added teraflex sport lower control arms to get caster back in check, the Teraflex steering stabilizer (not needed but my stocker was worn out at 185,000 and the TF was cheaper), I have Monroe monotube shocks all around and they are an awesome shock for a daily driver. I also added airbags for weight carrying, and I am also adding JKS flex connects to smooth out the ride more. I run 33's and its perfect for daily driving as well as you don't need a regear, another driveshaft, or anything else. I build rigs to the purpose, not the look. I wheel mine 2 or 3 times a week in the spring/summer/fall and it goes Everywhere I need it. We do not rock crawl so massive lifts, tires etc are not needed. My pet peeve is mall crawlers with huge tires/wheels and they are all polished up and shiny. Poser mobiles.

JayswranglerX

For whay you're describing I would definitely say AEV for ride quality and kit completeness at that budget.

http://www.aev-conversions.com/shop/...-sc-suspension

Sent from my SM-N920T using JK-Forum

Kojack

A complete 2.5" teraflex system will be within budget as well.

realjeep

I myself did a 2008 JKUX build with 4” Rockroller lift, with most of the Tie rod and drag link accessories. I also ran 33” With 2.5 Back spacers all the time.

This ended up costing me about 1500+ a year in replacement parts maintenance IE: ball joints, tie ends, power steering gear box etc. And I wore out those fancy $600+ rebuild-able ball joints twice and once with the Moog ends. Just driving around town normally.

My Jeep is a DD 99.5% of the time.

I decided to trade my 2008 X for a 2015 JKUR. I kept my front and rear bumpers with dueling wenches. Then I put armor on the differentials, Full Synergy armor plates from gas tank to oil pan. That lowered my stock hight about 1” in from and 1.25” in rear so I put 1.75” Synergy spacers on the stock coils. Then I bought a second set of Rims with 5” back spacing and put 35” Kevlars for off road use only and a set of cheep thin fender flares to clear the 35’s (to be upgraded later.)

Basically with the 35” and spacers on I got a real lift of around 4” (from stock) with one of the best under armor kits out there. I’m not sure why I get that much lift my speculation is that the 35” tires are holding their roundness better then the stock tires. And if stock parts ware out they are very cheep to replace compared to aftermarket kits. One of my mechanics told me that driving with large tires and back spacing all the time put tones of extra ware on the system. Even though 33” is only 1 inch size bigger than stock the back spacing really stressed out the axles.

So I DD with the stock Robi Tires. They seem to work better in the snow anyway and I live on the side of a mountain. Either set of tires I get a factory style ride all the time and when I deflate the 35”s down to say 15 LBS I get the same cushy ride I got with the 4” lift and 33” tires.

Of course this limits me to intermediate trails but I’m not looking to do a lot of body damage repairs.

My 2 Cents

PS I spent about $4000 with tires, armor and labor. Keep in mind I already had the bumpers and wenches from the old jeep witch is probably another $2000+. I need to get better rock sliders and fender flares ... have to save for now.

You can do some start ups cheep though. The Spacers 1.75-2" will set you back Less then $150 + install. You can probably run 34" tires with no fender mods but if you want 35" then you will need to ether cut your stock fenders or get some flares. If your are going to run larger tires off road defiantly get a second set with a little shorter back spacing and run the stock tires for Daily. This will give a stock ride with a good lift. Then if you start to run areas with rocks and more obstacles save up for armor.