Currie 3 inch or 4 inch lift?

I have a 2005 LJ and just installed 33" tires (285-70-17) and Currie (RockJock) springs, track bars (front and rear), bump stop kits (front and rear), new rear drive shaft, Swayloc, and new shocks. I had already installed Currie short arms all around about 9 months ago. Just took my first drive this morning. I spent a lot of time cycling the suspension, making adjustments, and learning how the suspension works. Quite a process to get maximum use out of the shocks and suspension. My build goal is a very capable trail runner, not a pure rock crawler.

My advice is to go for a 4" lift IF you DON'T have a 1" (or 1.25") body lift, and a 3" if you do have a body lift. My goal was to keep the height of the lift minimized and still utilize the shocks and associated travel to the max. I did the body lift about 6 months ago, so a 3" lift worked great and I am glad I didn't go for a 4". At full articulation the front tire stuffs up into the fender but doesn't rub anything, and the rear stuffs up with an ever so slight rub on the upper-rear of the fender (I could do one more adjustment and eliminate this, and I may over time). Shocks can be adjusted to come close to balancing up and down travel. So basically as good as I can get and I am really happy at this point - we will see what I think after a few trips. Undoubtably a few more experienced folks will chime in here and provide some better in-depth information.

A caution of you go for the 3" springs from Currie: their website lists both lift height, 3" for example, and "Spring Loaded Height". And if you use the much-reported stock spring loaded lengths (12" front, 8" rear) you will see that both the lift height and the Loaded Height cannot be correct. For instance, a 9131RH1 lists a 3" lift on an LJ, which would give a total loaded spring height of 8+3=11", but the listed Loaded Height is 12.25". I found, in all cases, the Loaded Height to be the correct value. When I first ordered springs, about a month ago, I ended up with a 2.5" lift on the front, and a 4" lift on the rear, and it looked really stupid bad with the rear way up in the air. I ended up having to order different rear springs. Currie is aware of this issue and is in the process of fixing it on their web site, so they may have it corrected online by the time you order, but I would give them a call when ordering and don't just pick springs that say "3" lift for an LJ" online and hit the order button. The have agreed to take the mis-ordered springs back, which is just good customer service. Everything else I ordered from them has just been freaking awesome - great products.

Hunters05lj said:

Good afternoon, I have been looking all over the forums and have decided to go with either a Currie 3in or 4in lift.

My Jeep is a 2005 LJ hardtop, all stock besides a dirtworx tire carrier rear bumper.

The goal is to eventually run 33 in tires.

My question is should I do the 3 or 4 in lift? I have seen some people that have gotten crazy amounts of lift from the Currie 4 but haven’t seen much on the 3 inch.

With my set up what would you expect the settled lift height to be with each one? Hopefully with the hard top and tire carrier it sits level

Thank you in advance! I really appreciate it.

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I’ve got the Currie/savvy 3 inch in the rear and Currie 4 inch in the front and I’m 20 mins away from you if you wanna check it out. Gonna be pulling them and installing taller springs so they’ll be for sale

Here’s a picture of an LJ with a 4” Currie lift and 33’s to give you an idea of what it would look like. This lift is now on my TJ with 35’s.

For 33’s:

3in susp. kit + 1.25in body lift

Or

4in susp. kit with no body lift.

Hunters05lj said:

Good afternoon, I have been looking all over the forums and have decided to go with either a Currie 3in or 4in lift.

My Jeep is a 2005 LJ hardtop, all stock besides a dirtworx tire carrier rear bumper.

The goal is to eventually run 33 in tires.

My question is should I do the 3 or 4 in lift? I have seen some people that have gotten crazy amounts of lift from the Currie 4 but haven’t seen much on the 3 inch.

With my set up what would you expect the settled lift height to be with each one? Hopefully with the hard top and tire carrier it sits level

Thank you in advance! I really appreciate it.

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4” without hesitation. You’re wasting your time with 3” lifts. It’s hard to find a good shock at that height. You really need to be at 3.5” or more for 33’s.

For an LJ Unlimited it's my strongest possible opinion that I'd go with 35's and a 4" suspension lift plus a 1-1.25" body lift. The Unlimited's longer wheelbase means it needs more clearance underneath it than the shorter wheelbase TJ does to have the equivalent breakover angle.



To me, 35's with a 4" suspension lift on an Unlimited are roughly equivalent to 35's with a 3" suspension lift on a TJ.

JMT said:

4” without hesitation. You’re wasting your time with 3” lifts. It’s hard to find a good shock at that height. You really need to be at 3.5” or more for 33’s.

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This hurts but it's true. I'm on 3"+1.25 bl and 33s and shocks can be tricky to get right on 3" springs. I chose this combo because I wanted the body lift to give me room for a tucked skid plate, so I made the trade off.

I think we have all forgotten to ask you what your intended use of the Jeep is. Are you rock crawling? Just fire roads and trails? Mostly on asphalt? Without that info, seems like folks on this forum lean towards rock crawlers with max articulation and bigger tires, which isn’t always the correct answer or advice. So…how are you going to use the Jeep?

Hunters05lj said:

Thank you everyone for the reply. I really don’t plan to do a body lift so it sounds like the consensus is 4inch. The Jeep is a weekend cruiser and will see moderate off-roading but no major rock crawling.

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Are you getting adjustable control arms?

Hunters05lj said:

Yes

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Providing more details leads to better answers. Is a SYE in the plans?

Hunters05lj said:

Ideally no, but if I get vibrations then yes I would do a SYE and new driveshaft From what I read I most likely will have to do that. I’m not a fan of the transfer case drop.

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The LJ gives you more latitude for vibrations, but with 4" springs plan to do a SYE and new driveshafts.

We all wish we had an extra inch

PRNDL said:

This hurts but it's true. I'm on 3"+1.25 bl and 33s and shocks can be tricky to get right on 3" springs. I chose this combo because I wanted the body lift to give me room for a tucked skid plate, so I made the trade off.

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I fooled around with 2”, then added a spacer for 2.5, then 3”, and finally ended at 3.5” with spacers and at that height the Rancho’s 55239 and 55241 worked pretty good.

When I got tired of hitting the rear bumper and rear CA mounts I said screw it and got 4” springs.