Help a NewB

[Lifesabeach01]

Well I am really getting the itch to start making some big mods on the jeep once I get paid. I need your help to pick my lift and gears for 35" KM2's. I was seriously looking at the 5" RE hybrid lift from DPGoffroad.com because it seemed like the most complete kit for the best price. I want to do this once and do it right so if it means saving more a little longer that is fine. I am stuck between 4:88 and 4:56. I do a lot of highway driving but I do go upstate in the mountains a skiing and camping and such. I am looking for the median between power and highway speeds. This will be my daily driver for a while longer so it needs to be street legal as well. I like the look of no fender flares at all but I think I will need the bushwacker flat fenders. How about bumpstops? backspacing? Am I missing anything? Thanks alot

[HeavyMetal]

4.56s or 4.88s will treat you well regardles of which you pick. They are very close together. With that said I have run 4.56s on 35s on an auto since 2007 and it has treated me just fine. Others do 4.88s the same.

bumpstop is hard to say, you need to measure that out when you have the suspension and tires installed. A very general way of looking at it is 1" of bumpstop per 1" of lift added. Backspacing, i run 3.5" BS on mine, anywhere between that and 4.5 is probably ok, i havent messed with backspacing in a long time though, perhaps others will chime in on that one

If you are looking at 5" lifts, I gotta suggest going the long arm route, though more expensive, your on road ride will be much better and generally they perform better. What comes with that kit are drop brackets for the stock short arms, while they work for the sake of ride equality like the long arms, theyre a bit of a clearance hog. Up to you there

[Bigbike]

I have 4.56 with 35s I like it, enough power but it can use some more. 4.88s are the deepest you can go with a D30 so the pinion gets pretty small, making your gears the weak point.

I dont run flares, most people on SIS dont run flares either. I dont like flares on XJs but the flat flares dont look to bad. But Id break them on the first run.

With running 35s there is a lot to go along with them other than gears. What steering do you plan on running? Brake upgrades? Unibody stiffners? Axle upgrades? etc....

[HeavyMetal]

good info there too ^

[Zullock Holmes]

As far as suspension goes...... everyone knows where i am about to go here.....

Basically, buy something for the "best price" end up changing out suspension joints and shot bushings pretty much once a year. That is the lifetime for all of RE's new stuff. Their 2 piece rubber bushings are garbage. I'm not knocking the RE kit, their coils, leafs, etc and all fine, but that front end is gonna be one headache after another especially if you put alot of miles on the truck and wheel it a considerable amount.
This is where that quality comes in, spend alittle more off the bat, and not have to worry about these things. For that reason i recommend a kit that uses clevite bushings or johnny joints, like JKS arms or a Clayton Offroad kit. The extra cost is deffinately worth the quality in the long run. I can garuntee you that you put that Clayton kit on a you won't have to touch it for at least 4-5 years.

[Bigbike]

Get some armor on it before you wheel it too! I wrecked my last jeep due to not having armor.

[Zullock Holmes]

I have 4.56 gears with 35's and on highway and around it town it drives like it is stock, the power is there and it's actually comfortable to drive hahaha. Accelerates nicely, about 2500 rpm at 60-65 mph.

fender flares are good for on the road and being legal, but if you're like me or phil and don't care about the placement of trees on a trail, i suggest against them, you will rip them off and destroy them after one run.

[Zullock Holmes]

Get some armor on it before you wheel it too! I wrecked my last jeep due to not having armor.

and a hammerdown mentality contributed to the destruction

[Bigbike]

and a hammerdown mentality contributed to the destruction

hahaha I guess that helped a lot too.

[Lifesabeach01]

Thanks for the advice so quickly damn,

I am looking at an 8.8 in the rear and a D44 up front for axle swaps.

I do like the LCOG thread that was posted on here and I think that is the way to go. How is the quality of the Rough Country lifts if I added bilstiens 5150's. I had a rough country lift on my suburban and I really didn't like it. I hear the quality has greatly improved since I installed that lift about 4 years ago.

as for the steering I like the Currie system. My buddy has it on his truck and loves it.

Stiffeners are a must and I will doing a lot of the body armor fab on my own.

Brakes are still up in the air I am looking at rebuilding two complete axles or at least rebuilding the front D44 and buying a complete Ford 8.8 not sure yet.

on a different note.....this forum is by far the best I have joined so far and it has not even been a day....the quick responses and help is great. I look forward to meeting all of you in the near future....Jeep build/BBQ/party at my house in the spring???

[SupermanIce-J]

I think if you go long arms... Pretty much any kit will treat you well with proper maintenace. However, I would stray away from rusty's because I have never heard a good thing about the reliability of their long arms.

RC had a batch of thier first longarms joints suck gut i think they have resolved that issue.

With any long arm there benefits and drawbacks.

Rock Krawler- 3 or 4 link design and proven tough and reliable ( I have not heard many complaints about their kit) however mounts below the frame rail so loss of clearance.

Clayton- Radius arm kits ar proven reliable and have never heard of a complaint...3-link kit i have yet to hear anything about however they hang below the frame rails.

Rubicon express: RE name and pretty nice kit. As of late have been hearing problem with joints and probably the most expensive of them all.

TNT: Probably one of the besterest. only problem i know of is it uses RE bushing (read above) and is fairly expensive.

RC: Pretty hard to beat the price if they have resolved their bushing issue. arms hang below frame rails.

JUST IMO on longarms... take that with a graini of salt because I am going the Drop Bracket route.

[clean4drxj]

I run RE (springs, HD trackbar system) and roughcountry longarmkit with belly pan, I've been running this kit for a little less than a year and have wheeled with it a handful of times withzero issues to report ( I have the newer redesigned kit) and it was great for the money and gives a great ride as oppose to shortarms. I do however need to change my shocks in the near future as they're 4+ year old RE twintubes. On 4.5 inches I run 32bfgMt's and still have not trimmed my fenders and need the flares with the amount of cops I have in my town and also being that it's my DD.