Piecing together a 4 inch lift for a right hand drive TJ

ViPer

ViPer

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Jun 29, 2021
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Colombo, Sri Lanka
After reading a bit on lifts including the beginners guide by Chris which helped a lot for me to understand what would be needed to do this correctly, I've decided to piece together a lift to be able to have a complete list of parts especially with the limitations around a RHD Jeep.

I've tried to stick to decent sources and a reasonable balance of cost. here's what I have come up with so far

Rock Krawler tripple rate coils - 4.5 inch lift
Bilstein 5100 shocks - 4 inch lift compatible
JKS sway bar disconnects front and back
Teraflex rear shock mount extensions
Rubicon Express Extended brake lines
Prothane bumpstop extensions
Rocky Road RHD Adjustable track bar - front
Teraflex SYE
Adams CV driveshaft
Core 4x4 Tier 1 adjustable control arms with Poly bushings
Custom Drag link and tie rod
Custom Rear adjustable track bar
Custom Rear trackbar relocation bracket

Questions I have are;
1. Am I missing something with the above plan?
2. Is there an issue with the half inch difference with the RK coils being 4.5inch lift and the Bilsteins being 4 inch lift compatible?
 
You probably don’t need rear anti-sway bar disconnects. The stock bar flexes plenty for most TJs while still being connected. Regular extended end links will work perfectly fine for the back, and save you some money for other parts…

The 4 1/2” coil springs matching close enough for the 4” lift shock’s travel will probably be fine. A 1/2” usually doesn’t make or break compatibility between springs and shocks, usually. Also depends on how much lift the springs will actually give you. A big part of that equation is how heavy your TJ is as well…

I wouldn’t bother with such rigid control arms that come with poly bushings. I’d opt for original style rubber bushings any day before polyurethane. Those polyurethane bushing have almost zero deflection once torqued down and that really limits the articulation that you’ll have with the front anti-sway bar disconnected…

Im not a fan of the prothane bump stops either. Very harsh. I’d drill the bottom pad on the differential and add needed bump stop length/extension there. Some people utilize hockey pucks, etc. That way you retain your o.e. jounce bumpers which are much softer than the prothane pieces…

Have fun with it and update this as you progress through your build!
 
sycboi said:
You probably don’t need rear anti-sway bar disconnects. The stock bar flexes plenty for most TJs while still being connected. Regular extended end links will work perfectly fine for the back, and save you some money for other parts…

The 4 1/2” coil springs matching close enough for the 4” lift shock’s travel will probably be fine. A 1/2” usually doesn’t make or break compatibility between springs and shocks, usually. Also depends on how much lift the springs will actually give you. A big part of that equation is how heavy your TJ is as well…

I wouldn’t bother with such rigid control arms that come with poly bushings. I’d opt for original style rubber bushings any day before polyurethane. Those polyurethane bushing have almost zero deflection once torqued down and that really limits the articulation that you’ll have with the front anti-sway bar disconnected…

Im not a fan of the prothane bump stops either. Very harsh. I’d drill the bottom pad on the differential and add needed bump stop length/extension there. Some people utilize hockey pucks, etc. That way you retain your o.e. jounce bumpers which are much softer than the prothane pieces…

Have fun with it and update this as you progress through your build!
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Thank you for the response. I read more on your suggestions and decided to go with clevite bushings on the control arms. And regular extended end links for the rear.

Other than that, any thoughts on the specific brands? Especially the Rock Krawler coils and Bilstein 5100? I've been looking at RockJock 4 inch coils which are a little more money but better matched to the shock possibly? Any other coil I should look at which won't sag and make the Jeep handle worse?

My jeep isn't the heaviest but does have a winch upfront and a 33 spare at the back (which will eventually become a 35). Mostly road use with some trails and mud occasionally.
 
Anyone here from NZ, Aus or UK had any luck finding RHD track bars? I saw several inconclusive threads here. I was wondering if anyone successfully found them anywhere?

Rocky Road apparently builds them but they are so difficult to communicate with and get my order in their system. I read some reviews of them and they seem to have terrible customer service which is evident with my dealings with them so far. So I'm not too confident about proceeding with my order with them.
 
ViPer said:
Anyone here from NZ, Aus or UK had any luck finding RHD track bars? I saw several inconclusive threads here. I was wondering if anyone successfully found them anywhere?

Rocky Road apparently builds them but they are so difficult to communicate with and get my order in their system. I read some reviews of them and they seem to have terrible customer service which is evident with my dealings with them so far. So I'm not too confident about proceeding with my order with them.
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I've got a Roadsafe asjustable rhd trackbar, I've included the link from an australian website. It's been good so far, running it with about 3.5 inches of lift.

https://www.jeepkonection.com.au/TJ-RHD-Front-Adjus-Trackbar-Kit-Roadsafe-RSAPR001V2
 
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ViPer said:
Anyone here from NZ, Aus or UK had any luck finding RHD track bars? I saw several inconclusive threads here. I was wondering if anyone successfully found them anywhere?

Rocky Road apparently builds them but they are so difficult to communicate with and get my order in their system. I read some reviews of them and they seem to have terrible customer service which is evident with my dealings with them so far. So I'm not too confident about proceeding with my order with them.
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Really sorry to hear that as they seem to be one of a very limited range of options. I have seen a couple of options from Australia suggested, but they never seem to be willing to ship to the UK. I have even been thinking that having one fabricated by somebody locally may be the best option.
 
Thanks @Hammer24 and @UKTJ for your comments. Jeepkonection seems to be out of stock but I found another site that will ship to the UK and have the parts in stock.

https://doubleblackoffroad.com/products/tj-rhd-front-adjustable-trackbar?variant=37724854091974
https://doubleblackoffroad.com/products/dbor-tj-rhd-rear-trackbar?variant=37723858043078
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What do you think about the adjustment nut being in the center of the rear track bar instead of an end? Wouldn't this twist the track bar in a weird way when the pinion angle is adjusted for the double cardan driveshaft and the axle side bracket is twisted back?
 
While I try to figure out if the whiteline trackbars will work, I went ahead and placed an order with Quadratec for the majority of my parts. A few changes from the initial plan.

A phone call to Rock Krawler and I found out that their 3.5 inch coils will give a lift closer to 4 inches since I don't have a whole lot of weight in the form of fenders and armor. So I went with the 3.5 inch coils matched with the Bilstein 5100 4 inch shocks.

Without going for the custom Drag Link and Tie Rod, I went with the Crown automotive kit for the RHD TJ. I read here on another thread that this is closer to XJ V8 steering and is a decent upgrade to run 35s on the TJ.

On to the SYE and driveshaft, control arms and track bars.
 
I went ahead with the Core 4x4 Tier 1 short arms with rubber bushings.

For anyone in the UK who may be looking for RHD track bars, hopefully this will help. Apparently, it's the same track bar that's offered in many of the Australian websites discussed above. I managed to find a distributor located in the UK which meant a cheaper price and quicker shipping times.

The front was tricky. The Nolathane site doesn't show the item for anyone accessing the site outside the UK. Even with a VPN, the direct link may not work and you have to use the drop menus at the top of the page to locate the panhard bar. Even then, the site wouldn't accept credit cards outside of the UK. I had to get a friend living in the UK to buy it for me eventually.

https://www.nolathane.com.au/product_detail_REV.php?part_number=REV144.0002&sq=38936

The rear was much more straightforward. I called them checked if this is OK with an adjusted pinion angle and I was told it would work. I will report back when the Jeep gets set up.

https://ukwhitelineperformance.com/collections/all/products/w82688-panhard-rod

Last piece to buy is the Adams's driveshaft and SYE. They insist on a specific measurement for the driveshaft which will only be visible when the Jeep gets lifted. So I will have to drop the T-case for some time to get the jeep drivable after the lift until I can get the kit shipped over. Anyone see any other options to go about it?
 
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ViPer said:
I went ahead with the Core 4x4 Tier 1 short arms with rubber bushings.

For anyone in the UK who may be looking for RHD track bars, hopefully this will help. Apparently, it's the same track bar that's offered in many of the Australian websites discussed above. I managed to find a distributor located in the UK which meant a cheaper price and quicker shipping times.

The front was tricky. The Nolathane site doesn't show the item for anyone accessing the site outside the UK. Even with a VPN, the direct link may not work and you have to use the drop menus at the top of the page to locate the panhard bar. Even then, the site wouldn't accept credit cards outside of the UK. I had to get a friend living in the UK to buy it for me eventually.

https://www.nolathane.com.au/product_detail_REV.php?part_number=REV144.0002&sq=38936

The rear was much more straightforward. I called them checked if this is OK with an adjusted pinion angle and I was told it would work. I will report back when the Jeep gets set up.

https://ukwhitelineperformance.com/collections/all/products/w82688-panhard-rod

Last piece to buy is the Adams's driveshaft and SYE. They insist on a specific measurement for the driveshaft which will only be visible when the Jeep gets lifted. So I will have to drop the T-case for some time to get the jeep drivable after the lift until I can get the kit shipped over. Anyone see any other options to go about it?
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That is a brilliant find, thank you for posting. The rear I had found, but not the front, despite a lot on internet searches. Think I am going to order one, even though I am not ready for it yet, just incase they disappear! Thanks again.
 
UKTJ said:
That is a brilliant find, thank you for posting. The rear I had found, but not the front, despite a lot on internet searches. Think I am going to order one, even though I am not ready for it yet, just incase they disappear! Thanks again.
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Glad I was able to help. It didn't appear on web searches. I found it over the phone with a UK representative for white line. The double black offroad site out of AUS has both listed but I couldn't get a quote when I asked for shipping. Probably the best option for someone out of AUS and NZ
 
ViPer said:
Glad I was able to help. It didn't appear on web searches. I found it over the phone with a UK representative for white line. The double black offroad site out of AUS has both listed but I couldn't get a quote when I asked for shipping. Probably the best option for someone out of AUS and NZ
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So are they the exact same part as the ones sold by Double Black? Was that something Whiteline told you?
 
UKTJ said:
So are they the exact same part as the ones sold by Double Black? Was that something Whiteline told you?
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That was what I gathered from the double black representative. When I asked them I wanted to ship to UK, their first question was whether there was a Whiteline dealer in UK.
 
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ViPer said:
I went ahead with the Core 4x4 Tier 1 short arms with rubber bushings.

For anyone in the UK who may be looking for RHD track bars, hopefully this will help. Apparently, it's the same track bar that's offered in many of the Australian websites discussed above. I managed to find a distributor located in the UK which meant a cheaper price and quicker shipping times.

The front was tricky. The Nolathane site doesn't show the item for anyone accessing the site outside the UK. Even with a VPN, the direct link may not work and you have to use the drop menus at the top of the page to locate the panhard bar. Even then, the site wouldn't accept credit cards outside of the UK. I had to get a friend living in the UK to buy it for me eventually.

https://www.nolathane.com.au/product_detail_REV.php?part_number=REV144.0002&sq=38936

The rear was much more straightforward. I called them checked if this is OK with an adjusted pinion angle and I was told it would work. I will report back when the Jeep gets set up.

https://ukwhitelineperformance.com/collections/all/products/w82688-panhard-rod

Last piece to buy is the Adams's driveshaft and SYE. They insist on a specific measurement for the driveshaft which will only be visible when the Jeep gets lifted. So I will have to drop the T-case for some time to get the jeep drivable after the lift until I can get the kit shipped over. Anyone see any other options to go about it?
Click to expand...
Have your parts arrived yet?

As per above I went ahead and ordered, even though I am not ready for them yet I did not want to find the opportunity to source from the UK disappeared. Oddly both Whiteline and Nolathane list the rear track bar, but show slightly different pictures. I contacted Whiteline about this and they were surprised Nolathane had one listed - the Nolathane price was considerably higher than the Whiteline listed price. I ordered the rear from Whiteline and it has now arrived, it is exactly as per the one in the Nolathane picture, which looks exactly the same as the Double Black Offroad image. Yet to have confirmation of despatch for the front from Nolathane and dropped them an email today to ask for an update. Shouldn't be a big concern as they are both part of the same group and located at the exact same address, the contact email address is for the parent group RedRanger.

One point for anyone thinkin gof buying either or both of these, I see that even since I ordered the prices of both the front and rear trak bars have gone up. The rear on Whiteline from £159.68 to £175.00 (currently £238.80 on Nolathane) and the front on Nolathane from £145.00 to £154.80. I guess it could be that they regularly adjust their prces for exchange rates.
 
UKTJ said:
Have your parts arrived yet?

As per above I went ahead and ordered, even though I am not ready for them yet I did not want to find the opportunity to source from the UK disappeared. Oddly both Whiteline and Nolathane list the rear track bar, but show slightly different pictures. I contacted Whiteline about this and they were surprised Nolathane had one listed - the Nolathane price was considerably higher than the Whiteline listed price. I ordered the rear from Whiteline and it has now arrived, it is exactly as per the one in the Nolathane picture, which looks exactly the same as the Double Black Offroad image. Yet to have confirmation of despatch for the front from Nolathane and dropped them an email today to ask for an update. Shouldn't be a big concern as they are both part of the same group and located at the exact same address, the contact email address is for the parent group RedRanger.

One point for anyone thinkin gof buying either or both of these, I see that even since I ordered the prices of both the front and rear trak bars have gone up. The rear on Whiteline from £159.68 to £175.00 (currently £238.80 on Nolathane) and the front on Nolathane from £145.00 to £154.80. I guess it could be that they regularly adjust their prces for exchange rates.
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Both track bars arrived in the same package in under a week of placing the order to the reshipping office I'm using in London. It's waiting for a container which will bring them to me via sea freight so I haven't had the opportunity to inspect them myself. I paid £135 for the front at Whiteline with a discount code they were running at the time and £145 at Nolathane for the rear.

Every listing for the RHD rear I saw was this particular one which I'm pretty sure is manufactured by Whiteline Australia (which is probably why the £ value keeps changing as you have noticed) red Ranger, Whiteline and Nolathane all seem to be operating out of the same place but I have no idea how that works but I'm sure glad I managed to find these. From a fair bit of digging the only other option is Rocky Road Offroad. Even they have stopped building rear track bars now.
 
ViPer said:
Both track bars arrived in the same package in under a week of placing the order to the reshipping office I'm using in London. It's waiting for a container which will bring them to me via sea freight so I haven't had the opportunity to inspect them myself. I paid £135 for the front at Whiteline with a discount code they were running at the time and £145 at Nolathane for the rear.

Every listing for the RHD rear I saw was this particular one which I'm pretty sure is manufactured by Whiteline Australia (which is probably why the £ value keeps changing as you have noticed) red Ranger, Whiteline and Nolathane all seem to be operating out of the same place but I have no idea how that works but I'm sure glad I managed to find these. From a fair bit of digging the only other option is Rocky Road Offroad. Even they have stopped building rear track bars now.
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Rear looks sturdy. Silly that they did not just send them together to me as well. Yes, same prices I paid as I ordered on last day of MCM15 code - phew!

It was a great find, thanks again. The front may be more visible soon as I see Nolathane are building a UK 'shop front', but it has yet to go live.
 
UKTJ said:
Rear looks sturdy. Silly that they did not just send them together to me as well. Yes, same prices I paid as I ordered on last day of MCM15 code - phew!

It was a great find, thanks again. The front may be more visible soon as I see Nolathane are building a UK 'shop front', but it has yet to go live.
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Glad it was useful :) the only reason I found Nolathane was after talking to Ryan from the Whiteline phone line. That site doesn't even display the items for me for some reason since I'm outside of the UK.

Now I'm waiting on the rest of my shopping list from Quadratec. The Rock Krawler coils, the Bilstein 5100s are on back order and they will only ship the whole thing once they have all the parts I ordered in their warehouse. I have a couple of months of waiting for me to get this lift done.
 
After waiting over a month for the Bilsteins and RK coils to come in from backorder, I decided to change the order and get the parts shipped out immediately. This meant I had to opt for Rubicon Express 3.5 inch coils and Fox 2.0 IFPs. Now I'm waiting for the shipment consolidators to sea freight the full order to Sri Lanka.

I have a question about the driveshaft angle. I'm considering keeping the 2 inch body lift installed by the previous owner. he has installed a 2 inch suspension lift without a transfer case drop kit. I believe a motor mount lift was done as well but I'm not 100% sure. With the body lift in place, is it possible to adjust the pinion angle and dial out any vibrations without dropping the transfer case when I go for the higher lift? In that case, do I really need a SYE?
 
At long last, all the parts arrived. There was a mix-up with the shocks and Quadratec shipping me 3 fronts and 1 rear shock, they quickly turned around and sent me my missing rear at no additional cost. And I now have a spare Front on hand! rob Windle was super helpful with this.

Onto installation, all of the components I sourced went on the Jeep with no drama except for the front track bar. the axel side is not bent quite the same as the OEM and it is hitting the bracket with even very little axle articulation. The clearance at the pumpkin is also super tight. Therefore, I'm looking at getting the OEM track bar chassis mount end cut off and threaded to take the adjustable stub of the aftermarket track bar. Even with the OEM track bar, the axle is fairly centered at eye level so I'm not sure if adjustability is super critical.

Sitting on the ground, I figured I wanted to keep the 2 inch body lift. It looks like it can use the clearance especially with my pocket fenders. There's a vibration between 20-35 kmph which I'm trying to sort out by adjusting the rear pinion angle. failing that, I will temporarily drop the t-case and place an order for the SYE and CV shaft. Will keep you posted.
 
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