Hi all. I dig all the write ups I have read by most of you. I enjoy seeing how diverse all your jeeps are. I wish I would have dug into this years ago. It's like a small community. Everyone waves or visits with you in public. Sort of the opposite in the H2 and trucks. I read post after post on this site for weeks. My 9 year old daughter has begged me to buy a jeep. I finally took her with me and test drove a few. My wife drove her ford edge down to the dealership to see what I was looking at. Few hours later, I was trading in a hummer h2 and the edge for 2 jeeps. The jeep my wife fell in love with a lifted red jeep. How could I turn that down. haha I thought it was sexy. Any whoooo, I am still deciding what I am doing to it. So far I have ordered bumpers, 2 sets of rims and tires(street and off-road so don,t hate) and some side rails with welded steps. I am still contemplating a lift. Plan was for a 6" pro comp long arm and they discontinued it. The salesman changed it to a BDS 6.5 long arm. I have read many mixed reviews on all the lifts. I have the same questions most have. I know many of you are knowledgeable but getting an actual answer about lifts is silly. Everyone is biased to what they have. Seems from what i read, mixing and matching maybe the best way to go. All my trucks have been lifted at least 8" and ran 37's. Hummer had 37's. I never really cared for any lift I had on the trucks. I know a F250 will ride stiff though and lifted still road better than stock. I like half the other people on here want highway and off-road. I like tall vehicles. My wife has a 4" lift. I want just a little more. I know that in itself is an argument among jeep guys. I have 7k left in budget for a lift and would like some actual options not opinions. For example, I want a soft ride. I drive in some rough areas for work. This will be my DD. I also don't want to off-road and not have the worry of C joints, track-bars, sway-bars, bushings, etc. Well that is where I am at the moment.

 

Not going to go to deep into this as if you search there will be tons of threads that help you with your decision, but going with anything over 5.5 inches of lift you will run into tons of issues. You will have to replace driveshafts and pretty much every single steering and suspension component if you ever want your jeep to ride half way decent and not be all over the road. Also even if you do not plan to go off road if looking at 37's on a stock dana 30 I would strongly recommend gusseting the axle at minimum. I would look into quality kits like Rock Krawler and 5.5 inches is a ton of lift on JK's. Do some more research and be prepared to spend lots of money if you want it done right. The last thing you would want is your new jeep that drives like crap and is all over the road from day one. Good luck on your journey and be sure to post some pics when your done!

 

Thanks buddy. I have been looking and looking. I am going to reinforce all I can. I am having it geared and programmes for 37. My street wheels and tires will be night and day different from my off road wheels and tires. I can post a pic of the street look I am going for but the tires will be pretty wimpy looking. 20x14 fuel hostage with falcon 37( falcons were great in the h2. blew my kumo mt's away. Drove smooth as butter.) Not sure what off road setup I will get yet but I do know I want more rubber than rim. 15' look sick IMO. I dig the climbing stuff but I want a lift I can go fast and maybe catch a little air on a sand dune if I want. I imagine the dana stock front and rear will be replaced in a year or so. Agree that 6.5 is 2 high. I am just trying to figure out what to piece together that looks good plays hard and doesn't lose to much highway ride. I can deal with a lot on highway. What I can't deal with is when you have to turn up the radio so you don't hear the mt's RUMBLE on a 4 to 5 hour road trip. Different story when it's play time. Anyways thanks for the info. Here is a few pics of jeeps I think are just dirty.

 

Congrats on coming over to the Jeep side in a big way!

Personally, I'm a low center of gravity guy. I would generally suggest that you pursue the lowest lift possible to fit the desired tires.

This approach pays off in a lot of ways. The most obvious is that you simply don't need to take the suspension so far out of factory spec that you're looking to replace or redo everything.

Second, unlike some trucks, your Jeep will allow you to get into some pretty precarious situations offroad where you may be well offcamber. In that moment, you want to be as low as you can be!!

Lastly, the lower they are, the safer they simply are to drive around town for you and your family.

Maybe consider a small 2.5" lift and then replace the fenders with Bushwacker flat fenders or the Metalcloak fender options. Those fenders will allow you to run MUCH bigger tires with no lift at all. Then you can use a small lift,if you'd like, to fine tune articulation and ride quality.

Enjoy and good Jeeping!

 

As a follow-up, I noticed you talking about wanting to do some speed/air work. That's pretty rare in the Jeep world.

For that sort of situation, which can be a real challenge with a solid front axle, perhaps consider coil-overs and something like JKS ACOS Pros or the various high speed, pneumatic bump stops a few of the vendors sell.

You may want to consider a total front axle replacement with something much beefier or at bare minimum do maximum reinforcement to the existing axle.

 

I think I would rather buy a quad than build a jeep for jumping. So X that. i watched a video of a Mercedes 6 axle jumping and thought it looked fun. That's all.

 

Just pick one of these up, KOTH is over and you can pick them up used for $60k or so.

 

That is badass. My wife would probably object to that. Probably go with something like this.

 

Welcome to the Jeep world! I imagine you'll have a lot more fun in the Jeep, especially with the top and doors off than most other vehicles. The comradery that comes with a Jeep is a big bonus too. Don't forget to wave!

Just throwing this out there... usually 2.5'' to about a 4'' lift is pretty common for running 37'' tires on a JK (our generation of jeeps.)

 

I do have a backup plan.