Thanks for a taking a few minutes to help the newbie. I'm about to take the plunge and lift the Jeep -°lllllll°- and put 35s. Been doing my research. Reading the forums. Getting pricing. Now to back up a bit. My Jeep -°lllllll°- is my primary vehicle. I do a fair amount or around town and freeway driving. My off-road will consist of my long gravel driveway and the occasional camping trip or trip to the lake with the kayaks. So all I need is a lift of 2.5 -3 inches to get the 35s on and still have a relatively good ride still. In reading everyone's recommendations and gripes about this kit and that kit and how they had to add this and that and adjust this and that. And replace this and that. Constant realignments. I'm now concerned that I'm getting myself a series of headaches. I have no idea how this all works. Do I need sway bars or re-gearing, exhaust extension. Track bars? Apart from not know what any of that is for. I'm just confused. Is all that necessary for the level of use my jeep gets? I start to wonder if all these various issues are confined to those who do the heavy off roading or are these universal problems regardless. To say the least I'm at a stand still. I just don't want to take my Jeep -°lllllll°- that I love and that drives great and ruin it by trying to get some 35s on it. Do I just need a leveling kit? Do I do a budget boost? What is appropriate for my level of Jeep-dom?

 

No one needs a lift and larger tires. Wants is more likely. For what you see off road 33's work. So you could just get aggressive 33's, wheel spacers, place a front only spring spacer and call it a day. Jeep keeps OEM suspension so drive feel is the same and cornering with less roll from wider track. (may lose cornering grip from MT rubber)

 

I can't see the "need for 35's and 2.5" lift" for driving a jeep down a gravel driveway. Gearing, caster, track bars are mainly for on road comfort and performance to get the jeep back to that stock feel in power and handling. Hard core off road are more concerned with, clearance, suspension travel, and how the suspension reacts in certain situation.

If you don't care about how it rides or the performance then simply throw on some big tires and cheap lift. You will gain some ride stability with the wider tires and if going MT expect noise and limited tread life. You can do it right the first time and likely not have to mess with it as far as alignment goes. Just rotate the tires around every oil change. Guys that have headaches what to take short cuts and do it on the cheap and really don't understand what is needed to run big tires and expect too much from the weak JK powertrain.

I see people constantly changing coils and shocks to get that ideal ride for them, then you see they are daily driving an E rated MT tire with 50 psi in them. If you call them on the E rated tires they come back with sidewall strength and about what they have read about sidewall cutting. This is complete bs, you can cut any sidewall and if you watch your lines it really should not be an issue. Many will also build their DD for a certain trail they may run 4 times a year while sacrificing performance, mpg and comfort for the other 99.8% of their driving time.

 

Honestly. With what you're saying. Put a 32" tire on your jeep. This is the Rubicon size tire. Then you don't need a lift and the associated problems won't be present. If you must have it look higher then maybe a budget boost or a leveling kit. You would still need to recalibrate the tire diameter in the computer but that's it.

 

Thank you for your advise geared toward my situation.

 

You haven't seen my driveway after a winter of pot holes. It it's a bumpy ride. But that aside. The driveway wasn't my driving force at all. From the day I bought this Jeep -°lllllll°- it felt short and pedestrian. What you say makes sense and sheds some light on all the things I've been reading. If you don't do it right the first time you can exspect to be adjusting and adding and replacing to get that "ideal" ride. Since I'm just trying to make my jeep look better ( I feel shallow now ) I need to approach this differently. And consider my options under the parameters of my goal. Thanks dirtman for the frank and direct advise.

 

What you say makes sense. I rolled out a 33 next to what I currently have and there was little difference. The 35 just felt better. But it's time to approach this differently. Thanks for your input.

 

DRK,

I would suggest doing the Mopar 2" lift. It rides at least as good as stock. I ran that lift for 2 years and loved it, but I got the 37" tire bug and swapped out most of it. It's not a cheap lift, but it is high quality and high reliability with great ride quality. If I get my wife a JKU, I'll do the Mopar Performance 4" and call it done.

 

Read the sticky... "My Thoughts on Lift" .. started by The Dirtman. a lot of good info.

Also, Here is a thread with a handful of videos that provide some info and might fill in some blanks on definitions, etc

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...%2A%2A-331913/

Personally I went with the AEV 2.5 dualsport (with geo correction brackets) and 315/70/17 duratracs. For my purposes and off-road usage it is a great kit. Real nice on road manners and capable off road. Been running it for 18 months with no issues. I did regear, but I have a manual and did not like 6th gear with the new setup. Could have made it work, but decided to throw in new gears.

 

I pondered much of your questions
I did a 2"/1" level and put 33's on.
I do get lift envy when I pass my neighbor or any other 3" lift but I don't "need" it.
I suspect I'll do a full lift later at some point.
But for now I'm content with this.