I have a stock 2005 Unlimited (LJ) with a hardtop on 31-inch tires, as a daily city driver, with regular wheeling trips to the mountains when the weather allows. And I pull a heavy-ish trailer a few times a year. Yes, I'm trying to do 3 very different jobs with one vehicle.
I want to lift it 1.75 to 2 inches, keeping the 31-inch tires, to keep the street manners without too many alterations needed. No winch, no heavy bumpers, no plans for any. I would rather use springs than spacers, partly to replace the 16 year old OEM springs which are starting to sag a little in the rear. I read a lot of other discussions here, including Irun's "A Lesson Learned — Keep It Light And Nimble!". So I bought the H&R 52107 Sport Springs for 1" of lift, and planned to add some StreetRays 1" aluminum spacers, possibly turned down to a shorter height, to get the rest of the lift. But when I installed the rear H&R springs, the rear lift was exactly 0.0". Yes, I verified that I really did put the purple H&Rs in there I guess the rear weight of the Unlimited is a bit too much for the H&R springs. I didn't even bother to try the front springs, since it's clear that the rear ones are not going to work. I'm trying to work out a return with Tire Rack.
I understand that many "2-inch lift" springs will give a little more than 2 inches on a light TJ, and not so much on a heaver one. But there seems to be less real-world data on how they will act on an LJ. I really would like to limit the lift to about 2 inches. But with the old, possibly sagging springs, I don't even have a very good measurement baseline to start with. I ran a bunch of calculations on the Spring Rate, Free Height, and Install Height for the OME springs (Light 2932, Heavy 2933 for front, and Light/Medium 2941, Heavy 2942, Unlimited Heavy 2949 for the rear). But much of that is guesswork, too (weight of the rear corners of MY LJ, etc). That gave me a general notion of how the different springs will react, and somewhat of a ballpark of the lift I'll get (that's pretty vague, eh?).
So here's my question: From actual experience installing OME or other brand "2-inch lift" springs on a stock non-Rubicon LJ with a hardtop, how much lift did you get? And there's that trailer I want to pull. Yes, I know, that's a pretty narrow set of requirements. But just in case someone has this information . . .
Otherwise, I'll probably go with the "Stock/Light Load (0-90 lbs)" OME 2932 springs (2" lift) for the front, and the "Heavy Constant Load" OME 2942 springs (2" lift) at the rear. It doesn't have to be OME, it just seemed like they had a wider selection, and more data, for me to zero in on. It seems that lifting the Unlimited shifts all of the calculations a little.
Recommendations?
I want to lift it 1.75 to 2 inches, keeping the 31-inch tires, to keep the street manners without too many alterations needed. No winch, no heavy bumpers, no plans for any. I would rather use springs than spacers, partly to replace the 16 year old OEM springs which are starting to sag a little in the rear. I read a lot of other discussions here, including Irun's "A Lesson Learned — Keep It Light And Nimble!". So I bought the H&R 52107 Sport Springs for 1" of lift, and planned to add some StreetRays 1" aluminum spacers, possibly turned down to a shorter height, to get the rest of the lift. But when I installed the rear H&R springs, the rear lift was exactly 0.0". Yes, I verified that I really did put the purple H&Rs in there I guess the rear weight of the Unlimited is a bit too much for the H&R springs. I didn't even bother to try the front springs, since it's clear that the rear ones are not going to work. I'm trying to work out a return with Tire Rack.
I understand that many "2-inch lift" springs will give a little more than 2 inches on a light TJ, and not so much on a heaver one. But there seems to be less real-world data on how they will act on an LJ. I really would like to limit the lift to about 2 inches. But with the old, possibly sagging springs, I don't even have a very good measurement baseline to start with. I ran a bunch of calculations on the Spring Rate, Free Height, and Install Height for the OME springs (Light 2932, Heavy 2933 for front, and Light/Medium 2941, Heavy 2942, Unlimited Heavy 2949 for the rear). But much of that is guesswork, too (weight of the rear corners of MY LJ, etc). That gave me a general notion of how the different springs will react, and somewhat of a ballpark of the lift I'll get (that's pretty vague, eh?).
So here's my question: From actual experience installing OME or other brand "2-inch lift" springs on a stock non-Rubicon LJ with a hardtop, how much lift did you get? And there's that trailer I want to pull. Yes, I know, that's a pretty narrow set of requirements. But just in case someone has this information . . .
Otherwise, I'll probably go with the "Stock/Light Load (0-90 lbs)" OME 2932 springs (2" lift) for the front, and the "Heavy Constant Load" OME 2942 springs (2" lift) at the rear. It doesn't have to be OME, it just seemed like they had a wider selection, and more data, for me to zero in on. It seems that lifting the Unlimited shifts all of the calculations a little.
Recommendations?