jessmcquaid

I personally did not want to trust a jack for anything I was under. When I was installing front spacers to level the Jeep I bought a set of jack stands from HF and used the jack that came with the Jeep to jack up each side and put a stand in place. That was very safe and secure without spending much money. When I did my 2.5" coil lift a few weeks ago I bought a 3 ton hydro jack at HF and still reused my jack stands. That was also very safe and much faster than the jack the Jeep came with. I firgured the money be saved by not having a shop do it would easily pay for the $79 jack and $39 stands.

zerodown

Like everyone said...Get a floor jack. I don't trust a hi-lift for anything but emergencies.


You might need an alignment. See how it drives when you're done.

You can do the alignment yourself. It's super easy with a tape measure, a couple beers and a friend.

dustdriver

OK did the TeraFlex leveling kit installation today, went very well. First thing I did was go to Napa and buy a 2-ton floor jack and new jack stands (came as a package deal for only $60). It was all that little jack could do, and I had to move it around a few times, but it did the job. Total install time was about 3 hrs, which is pretty good for me since I'm not really that mechanically inclined.

The front was easy enough, no problems there.

The back was a bit more work. In addition to removing the lower shock bolts as per the instructions, I also had to remove the rear swaybar end links and disconnect the brake cable brackets to get enough drop in the axle to wrestle those coils out and get them back in again. The new TF rear spacers did not seat completely until the weight of the vehicle was back on the axle, then they popped into place with an audible THUD. I used some white lithium grease to help them seat into position.

And with regard to the original question about the Hi-Lift: with hindsight, it might have been possible to use a Hi-Lift to position the jack stands, and the stock bottle jack on a block to move the axles, but the floor jack made the whole thing a lot easier and MUCH safer, no question about it.

Here are a few before & after pics. Note: I'm one of those guys who likes the factory "rake", because I carry a lot of gear in the back, so I only installed the 1" spacers up front instead of the 2". And because of the slight drop from the weight of the ARB bumper and winch(and the fact that I was only installing a 1" spacer instead of a 2"), I opted not to install the extended swaybar links that came with the leveling kit, since the 1" spacer basically just put things back where they used to be (let me know if that's a bad idea!).


Stock, heavy bumper and winch, and a ton of camping gear in the back:


With 1" spacers all around


Stock, heavy bumper and winch


With 1" spacers



Yeah I know, it's not really that obvious a difference, but it is there. One inch all around.

The rig drives fine and I did NOT get an alignment. No steering wheel off center.

Thanks again for the input.