Lifting the Liberty

Nosilla · January 06, 2008, 01:33:53 AM

With 31's i believe you will be fine with stock wheels.

longarm · January 06, 2008, 09:26:52 AM

DO NOT DO A SPACER LIFT ON YOUR KJ. You will regret it. The ride quality will suck. Thats what I had on my 05 KJ CRD. The ride in the back was bad enough on our trip back from D.C. to make the wife and kid car sick. We had a 2.5" Daystar and BDS shocks. I would check out //www.lostkjs.com for any and all info for the KJ. If it were me and I was doing it al over again, I'd go with the Frankenlift. //www.boulderbars.com/frankenlift.htm They make em for the KJ and the KJ CRD. They had some of the best reviews on the lift and the customer service aspect as well. The reviews said that the ride quality improved alot too. Good luck. Ohhhh, I know of a friend who will be selling his Moabs w/ MTR's here shortly as well if your interested. The KJ lift is easy to do in the rear but a PITA to do in the front. I owe Harley for squaring me away with that one. We were in the garage until about 1:30 am I believe. The lift came off though.

dbikers · January 06, 2008, 12:07:40 PM

Quote from: "longarm"DO NOT DO A SPACER LIFT ON YOUR KJ. You will regret it. The ride quality will suck. Thats what I had on my 05 KJ CRD. The ride in the back was bad enough on our trip back from D.C. to make the wife and kid car sick. We had a 2.5" Daystar and BDS shocks. I would check out //www.lostkjs.com for any and all info for the KJ. If it were me and I was doing it al over again, I'd go with the Frankenlift. //www.boulderbars.com/frankenlift.htm They make em for the KJ and the KJ CRD. They had some of the best reviews on the lift and the customer service aspect as well. The reviews said that the ride quality improved alot too. Good luck. Ohhhh, I know of a friend who will be selling his Moabs w/ MTR's here shortly as well if your interested. The KJ lift is easy to do in the rear but a PITA to do in the front. I owe Harley for squaring me away with that one. We were in the garage until about 1:30 am I believe. The lift came off though.

And that's just how it handled on the road (not even considering how it would handle on the trail).
If you haven't ordered your kit yet i would research the link that longarm suggests, as well as other research...
i'd suggest these forum sites as they have lots of input from folks of all different terrains and walks of life...
JEEP FORUM
http://jeepforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=28

JEEPS UNLIMITED
http://www.jeepsunlimited.com/forums/fo ... y.php?f=30

These forums are not [/b]the end-all or the jeep bible by any means but can be helpful with technical discussion, questions, and remedies.

Just my .02

jeepfan1974 · January 06, 2008, 12:36:31 PM

hmm thats weird that it would change the ride that much spacers are supposed to not change the ride at all what shocks did he go with he also had the diesel too

longarm · January 06, 2008, 12:54:58 PM

The ride quality was changed alot. Alot more stress was put on the A arms of the IFS. I only wheeled that thing once, and that was in the very front scramble area of the mounds. It was too heavy of a vehicle with the CRD to be out there in the nasty mud. Keeping in mind that I only wheeled it once and very mildly at that, the front ball joints needed to be replaced. That had nothing to do with the recall, they had alredy been fixed once becuase of that. The LOST site has more knowledge of the KJ than any other KJ site I found and I looked at everyone I could find. I learned alot from them and there is very LITTLE drama over there, they don't tolerate it. I would look at a lift that has all four new coils, shocks, A Arms, ect...... As far as shocks, I would strongly recommend OME. They are very forgiving on the road.

longarm · January 13, 2008, 01:38:09 AM

Here are a few pics of what you can expect your KJ to look like with the 2.5" Daystar spacer lift and 255/70/16 AT's. The last one is the one and only time it ever saw the mounds. I played around briefly in the first scramble area and figured it was not a trail ride with the 2.8 CRD being to heavy. Too bad I didn't know ya towards the end of last summer. I sold the whole kit with shocks for $200.00 I think it was. I also sold the tires for about $250.00 I think it was for all 5 of them. Two people got screaming deals.

Scottie · February 04, 2008, 11:25:20 PM

probably too late to the party

but leave a liberty stock unless you want to shell out big bucks for a Solid front axle.

Frankenlift or Old Man Emu, if you really have the desire to lift it 2", anything more than that you have to get new upper control arms so your Ball joints don't bottom out, Stress on CV joints, and lastly the aluminium housed D30 in the front can be a bomb waiting to go off if you don't wheel it lightly with bigger tires on it. (it cracks with poor experience in stock form)

personally, just get a Locker in the rear, 245 70 16 mud tires and a bunch of skid plates and go for it.

i've contemplated lifting my Liberty before, But then i always come to the conclusion that it wouldn't be that cool. But if i were to do it, i'd go Old Man Emu.

94_xj_country · February 04, 2008, 11:47:05 PM

i beleive they went with rusty's. the other day there was a lifted one parked by my shop, i felt kinda girly for thinking it looked alright :lol:

longarm · February 05, 2008, 06:50:51 AM

Yup, I went through I believe it was two sets of ball joints in just over a year. Among other things...................................................