Sinking Creek 4WD Association

I am looking to purchase a suspension lift for my 96 Jeep Cherokee. Any suggestions on brands and why?
I am looking to lift the jeep between 5 and 6.5 inches depending on the lift. I am not afraid of fabrications work and I do plan on getting chassis reinforcement rails.

Also do you guys have any suggestion on a 4 link or a 3 link suspension set up?

Build your own rear leaf packs, buy some used lift coils off CL or Pirate, make new panhard bar and draglink out of tube, lengthend dshafts, buy some used bilsteins, and viloa! You got a lift and probably saved a good deal of money with not that much time or effort.

I'm just shoting from the hip though, Stables, what did you do when you lifted your Cherokee on the cheap?

BadAssEddie wrote:Build your own rear leaf packs, buy some used lift coils off CL or Pirate, make new panhard bar and draglink out of tube, lengthend dshafts, buy some used bilsteins, and viloa! You got a lift and probably saved a good deal of money with not that much time or effort.

I'm just shoting from the hip though, Stables, what did you do when you lifted your Cherokee on the cheap?

DO NOT DO THAT

Alec I don't thing they are going for the Stables style budget Xj....From talking to yall at the meeting seems like yall have some money to work with. I would definitely recommend doing frame stiffeners from the get go so later on if yall want to fab your own linked suspension the uni-body is ready to go. I would check out Rock Krawler they make some really nice long arm kits and they also offer rear 4 link kits with coil conversion. I have owned a 5.5" rubicon express long armed xj and it was awesome. Rode excellent on the road and worked great off road. The only long arm kit I would stay away from is Iron-rock off-road, I heard bad things about the camber adjustment y-link setup.

Really any of the big names will be great, depends on what you want to spend.. I would recommend a clayton kit or rubicon express bolt on 5.5 or 6.5" long arm kit, spend the money on nice shocks, bilsteins are popular, then you will have to do an SYE kit with driveshaft, longer brakelines and some new wheels and tires.

Alll the kits come with everything you need, so no need to fab up panhard or drag link unless you really want to. My xj was pretty much a 100% bolt on kit and it worked great.

Matt612 wrote:DO NOT DO THAT

Lol, freal, dont. I was saying that just in the spirit of promoting fabrication and half making fun of Stables.

I agree with everything Matt said.

I'd do a LA kit in the front right off the bat as well. They offer some nice stuff out there and I second that Matt's green XJ was a great example of bolt-on rig quality and function.

BadAssEddie wrote:

Matt612 wrote:DO NOT DO THAT

Lol, freal, dont. I was saying that just in the spirit of promoting fabrication and half making fun of Stables.

I agree with everything Matt said.

I'd do a LA kit in the front right off the bat as well. They offer some nice stuff out there and I second that Matt's green XJ was a great example of bolt-on rig quality and function.

what matt said and buy these five 33's in my garage

33's? wheels and tires? What brands and how much?

Does anyone have anything bad to say about BDS Lift kits? I liked the look of the kit and have read some good things?

pcparas wrote:33's? wheels and tires? What brands and how much?

5 practically new ProComp Mud Terrains mounted on nice shiny Mickey Thompson Classic Lock Aluminum 15" Wheels 5x4.5... They'd be beautifully right at home on any XJ!!!

Could probably get more for em, but how bout 1300 for the whole set?

pcparas wrote:33's? wheels and tires? What brands and how much?

Does anyone have anything bad to say about BDS Lift kits? I liked the look of the kit and have read some good things?

I have no experience with BDS but I just checked out there kit and it looks really nice. The transfer case cross member with integraded control arm mounts looks really similar to my rubicon express set up. Overall that kit looks super nice. You thinking 6.5" longarm?

MtnManMatt wrote:

pcparas wrote:33's? wheels and tires? What brands and how much?

5 practically new ProComp Mud Terrains mounted on nice shiny Mickey Thompson Classic Lock Aluminum 15" Wheels 5x4.5... They'd be beautifully right at home on any XJ!!!

Could probably get more for em, but how bout 1300 for the whole set?

Matt seriously... $1300 let alone more! For 1300 you could go buy a BRAND NEW set of 5 33" km2s mounted on NEW steel wheels and km2s are way better than pro comps. Put some decent prices on your stuff or you will be trying to sell it for years. Shit I paid $1000 for my 4 brand new 40s..

We are definitely giving the truck long arms. The size of the lift depends on the kit, whats available and whats best for the truck. Do you have any opinion on the size of a lift? the pros and cons?

pcparas wrote:We are definitely giving the truck long arms. The size of the lift depends on the kit, whats available and whats best for the truck. Do you have any opinion on the size of a lift? the pros and cons?

I always like a lower stance.. to keep center of gravity low.. my 98 xj had the 5.5 LA kit and 35s.. I really liked the stance and it worked great.. it required some fender trimming but most do. I would stick with either a 5.5 or 6.5 kit and run 35s or a 4.5" kit with 33s. Both will require trimming. Are yall planning on re-gearing the axles? If not I would say stick with 33s. I will post of some pictures of my old jeep for reference and some other jeeps I have had. with trimming you can runs 35s with 4.5" lift.

5.5" rubicon express with 35" km2s








my 96 4.5" with 35" baja claws

I should add that the teal one is long armed and the dark green one is short arms. Also its hard to tell much difference in lift height in the pictures.. I trimmed the fenders to much on the dark green one so it makes it look lift it has more lift than it does in my opinion

Both of those stances look good and I understand keeping the center of gravity low. 6.5 inches was on the edge of our lift range, but if we are going with BDS they offer 4.5 inches and 6.5 inches. I couldn't see much of an advantage of the 4.5 other than the lower CG. I figure with the extra 2 inches we would get more room for further improvements. Larger tires larger, axles, ect. In terms of gearing I think we are going to lift it, see what we decide on in terms of tires and go from there. I am pushing for lower gearing and more, but the suspension on the truck now is almost non existence (the leaf springs have inverted) so we are tackling that problem first. To many projects and not enough time or money!!!!!

The difference in 6.5 and 4.5 most likely wont even be noticeable in the center of gravity department, i just mentioned it for shits. 6.5 with 33s or 35s will be awesome I think. Lots of people do that size and tire combo and it looks great. Like you said you can always regear later on. Keep us posted over break on the progress. Start a build thread if yall get going on it.