because a lift kit answers every thing!
In the beginning…
If you’re going to roll bigger tires, then you’re probably going to want a lift kit. Some modifications seem to just go hand-in-hand with each other, but few are as close as a “lift & tires”. A couple of years ago I lifted my TJ witha 2.5″ lift and put 33″ tires on it. That thing was great fun, but I pulled off my 33’s when I bought the LJ. Flat fender flares was something else that I knew I really liked, but the plastic one’s I put on the TJ were so high in price now that they were on par with metal ones.
I put the flat, metal fender flares on after a couple of weeks with the 33’s and expected to get something that I’d be pretty happy with. I could see the vision, but I still wasn’t sure about ho much of a lift kit I wanted to bite off. I knew when I sold the TJ that I’d take the wheels and tires off it to move them to the LJ. I’m just a big fan of the copper and green look. I’m not sure that I’ll go to 35″ tires without a re-gear and I’d rather not do that if I don’t have to right now.
Going back and forth, searching the web for every scrap of data, and taking into consideration the weight difference of the Wrangler Unlimited I decided to go with a 4 inch lift kit. Then I started thinking through the options with available kits. My short list was the usual players for cost effective lifts:
Your mileage may vary
My total budget for this build was $2,000 and the plan was to dump it all into the lift. I’d leverage the tires and wheels I had as a cost savings and get other stuff down the road. I just never could figure out which route I wanted to go and I kept going back and forth through details on the internet. I’ve watched all the same YouTube videos you’ve probably looked at. I ended up getting a killer deal on the Rough Country 4″ lift kit, so that’s what I went with. I ended up with a kit that had a lot more components than I was use to replacing, so I spent many hours checking and rechecking specs.
The process is pretty much like every YouTube video of “How to install…” for a TJ. One thing I noticed from this lift, compared to the TJ lift, was the overall weight of the rig. It was just something that was different, but not totally unfamiliar. I can easily say that the biggest issue that I faced was getting the pitman arm off. Man that thing was a beast!
First thing I did after the lift kit was to get an alignment job at the local 4×4 shop. I’ve got to wait several weeks before I will be able to take this on any great trails. Around the block and around town it’s a great setup. I’m really happy with the look of this kit.
