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Many
XJ-listers have been asking me for pictures of what I've done to my
truck to get the most articulation from it. I am writing this as a somewhat
general article about what can be done to your cherokee, regardless
of lift kit, to get the most articulation from your suspension. Just
as a reference, my truck has the following modifications:
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1994
Jeep Cherokee Country
Off Road Suspension Package
4.0L Inline Six
AW-4 Tranny
NP242 Select Trac Transfercase
Go Rhino! Brush Guard
Smittybuilt Nerf Bars (w/custom reinforcement brackets in frame
to strengthen the mounting)
Pioneer DEH P815 Cd/reciever
Rubicon Express 4.5" lift & mepco budget boost for a total
of 6.5" of lift.
Steel braided brake hoses
Eye to eye shock conversion in the front
Rancho RS9010 shocks (f/r)
32" BFG Mud Terrain Tires
15 x 10" "rockcrawler" steel wheels with 4"
of backspacing
Currie NP-242 T-case conversion kit
Custom driveshafts from Six States Distributors
Wilderness Accesories roof rack with spare tire carrier, flooring
and hi lift jack mount.
Custom Crossover Steering
Tomken Trackbar drop down bracket |
 The
first area of concern is the front lower control arm axle bracket. In
stock form this extends far back a good deal and it limits the amount
of droop that is possible. As you can see from the photographs, this
is no longer the case on my truck. Trimming the mount is fairly common,
and originally I just notched the back of it. This looked awful and
it still limited droop. What I did last summer was to just take a 4"
angle grinder and cut the entire back off. This looks much neater and
as you can see, it provides more than enough clearance. The top of the
lower control arm mount is along the bottom of the shock mount. I used
the back of this mount as a guideline for where to cut. To be perfectly
honest, I think the lower control arm still hits here slightly, but
I couldn't really get a good enough look.
 The
second area I will discuss is the frame mount on the upper control arm.
If you look directly beneath the mount there are little tabs sticking
off of the frame. I don't know what the function of these tabs are,
but they prevent downward travel of the upper control arm. I wanted
to get more clearance there, but since I dont know what the function
of this tab is
I didn't want to just cut it off. What I did instead was bend it down
out of the way with a pair of vice grip pliers. Now, this doesn't look
the best in the world, but I figured 2 things. 1) who is ever going
to look there? 2) My undercarriage gets beaten all the time so there
are dents and mangled metal all over, now this piece just matches everything
else.
 Another
thing that isn't addressed in "lift kits" is the rear shackle.
In my opinion you NEED to get a lifted shackle for the XJ if you want
to get the most travel you can from it. The reasons for this are twofold.
First off, at 3" long, the factory shackle is too short to accomodate
the movement that a long travel leaf spring suspension requires. After
a discussion with several people at different spring companies, they
told me that based on the specs I gave them for the spring I would want
a shackle that is 6" center to center. You can purchase such a
shackle from Rocky Road Outfitters or from Terraflex. These shackles
provide 1.5" of lift. The second reason you need a longer shackle
has to do with the mounting of the shackle. As you can see the shackle
fits within a "box" that sits outboard of the "frame
rail." This box narrows in front of the mounting location for the
shackle. With a stock shackle, the wider part of the shackle comes into
contact with the narrower part of the "box" and it limits
droop. As you can see, the narrower top portion of the longer shackle
allows
unrestricted droop.
As with any lifted
truck, you must get longer brake lines for your truck. Something that
isn't usually necessary on other trucks though is longer emergency brake
lines. Right now the emergency brake lines are the thing that is preventing
further droop in the rear. Nobody produces an extended emergency brake
line for cherokees. I have considered having custom ones made up, but
I have also heard of some other emergency brake lines that will fit
cherokees, but are longer. Once I take care of this I will update this
article.
Longer shocks are a necessity
with any lifted truck. On my truck I am using Rancho RS9010's. Some
people criticize this shock choice saying that I am limiting compression.
IMHO, my tires tuck more than high enough. If you are using narrower
wheels then me, then I would suggest using an RS9009 in the front instead
of a 9010 because it has the same amount of travel, but it is one inch
shorter which gives you more compression, but less droop. I recommend
looking at Ed Stevens page (http://members.aol.com/Stvns/XJhelp2.html)
for information about selecting proper shock length.
You might also
note that I am not running any spring clips. While this isn't really
advised because you have to pay very close attention to your spring
pack, it does free up a few inches of droop.
Other related Websites:
Ed Stevens
XJ pages (http://members.aol.com/Stvns/XJhelp1.html)
This is one of the best resource of cherokee suspension information
on the web.
Chris's XJ site
(http://www.geocities.com/~jeepxj/)
This site has a photo guide of many different tire and lift combinations.
(You can even see my truck when I was only at 5.5" of lift with
stock rims).
-Mike
Rizzi
XJGPN@aol.com
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