Best overall build?

Chris said:
Well, you're not going to get a quality lift for that price, and that certainly isn't enough money to run 35s the way you want to.

To run 35s effectively with quality parts, you're going to need to spend around 10k or more.

You'll need a big brake kit (this is very important if you value your safety), a Currie 4" short arm, SYE and CV driveshaft, proper gearing, alloy axle shafts, lockers (ideally), shocks, and a number of other little things. Either way, when you add all that stuff up plus tires, you're easily looking at 10k or more for quality parts.

Running 35s isn't cheap, that's for sure.

$1500 to $1700 won't get you more than a shit quality Rough Country lift, some shocks, and maybe a few other parts. But if you want to wheel it and not worry, you're going to want the higher end parts, trust me.
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As was stated, to go to 35" tires on a TJ/LJ, safely and reliably, you need upgrades for:

- Brakes
- Suspension
- Gears
- Driveshafts
- Skids
- Steering
- BL & MML
- and more

Cutting corners will lead to disappointment, poor performance and/or safety issues. It's not a cheap journey and shouldn't be treated as one
 
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Chris said:
Well, you're not going to get a quality lift for that price, and that certainly isn't enough money to run 35s the way you want to.

To run 35s effectively with quality parts, you're going to need to spend around 10k or more.

You'll need a big brake kit (this is very important if you value your safety), a Currie 4" short arm, SYE and CV driveshaft, proper gearing, alloy axle shafts, lockers (ideally), shocks, and a number of other little things. Either way, when you add all that stuff up plus tires, you're easily looking at 10k or more for quality parts.

Running 35s isn't cheap, that's for sure.

$1500 to $1700 won't get you more than a shit quality Rough Country lift, some shocks, and maybe a few other parts. But if you want to wheel it and not worry, you're going to want the higher end parts, trust me.
Click to expand...
FWIW I'm still on stock brakes. With my 5 speed I use gearing to slow down most the time. While it won't stop on a dime I don't think it's unsafe. Now if I had heavy wheels, like beadlocks, it may cross into the danger zone
 
Revenant4x4 said:
Would mml matter in the future, if for say, I wanted to do a 2.8 diesel swap in a few years?
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Seeing as you'd be welding the mounts wherever you wanted I'll say no. A few people here have done that swap btw.
 
For $6k go for 33’s, even that would be cheap. I’ll be in for ~$8k for my 33” build. It kicks ass though.

Im not bragging, but I walked up stuff a wheelin buddy in an XJ on 35’s locked front and rear had to be winched up. He almost cried
 
Chris said:
Well, you're not going to get a quality lift for that price, and that certainly isn't enough money to run 35s the way you want to.

To run 35s effectively with quality parts, you're going to need to spend around 10k or more.

You'll need a big brake kit (this is very important if you value your safety), a Currie 4" short arm, SYE and CV driveshaft, proper gearing, alloy axle shafts, lockers (ideally), shocks, and a number of other little things. Either way, when you add all that stuff up plus tires, you're easily looking at 10k or more for quality parts.

Running 35s isn't cheap, that's for sure.

$1500 to $1700 won't get you more than a shit quality Rough Country lift, some shocks, and maybe a few other parts. But if you want to wheel it and not worry, you're going to want the higher end parts, trust me.
Click to expand...
Chris

You bring a tear to my eyes when you remind that running 35's as I am, is 10k. I was hopping to forget that part.

PS the wife thinks it was much less than 10k, and if ever tell her different I will have post bad things on Yelp about this website LOL :)
 
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Alex01 said:
FWIW I'm still on stock brakes. With my 5 speed I use gearing to slow down most the time. While it won't stop on a dime I don't think it's unsafe. Now if I had heavy wheels, like beadlocks, it may cross into the danger zone
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You're a brave man. I had to hit the brakes hard on my 33s, and even that scared the shit out of me with as long as it took to stop.
 
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Plumber1 said:
Chris

You bring a tear to my eyes when you remind that running 35's as I am, is 10k. I was hopping to forget that part.

PS the wife thinks it was much less than 10k, and if ever tell her different I will have post bad things on Yelp about this website LOL :)
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Oh, don't feel bad haha. I was into mine for about 50k give or take. Though that was more than just doing stuff to run 35s. These things are a rabbit hole for sure :ROFLMAO:

My wife also has no idea how much I actually spent, haha.
 
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Alex01 said:
FWIW I'm still on stock brakes. With my 5 speed I use gearing to slow down most the time. While it won't stop on a dime I don't think it's unsafe. Now if I had heavy wheels, like beadlocks, it may cross into the danger zone
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The inadequate breaking doesn't manifest itself under routine conditions but during emergency braking. Then it can become unsafe and costly.
 
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Revenant4x4 said:
I'm used to building a cheap xj, blowing it up, selling it or building it, and repeat. Just now getting into reliable things lol
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Truthfully though I have had fun under 6K with low quality parts many times over the years with no issues or breakage...if you are wanting best of the best first go around though they know what they are talking about...no need to fool with the steering though or brakes at first imo they work just fine if they are in good shape....built a XJ with waggy dana 44s with detroits front and rear with a 8.5 inch long arm and 37s and a 241OR swap for 6700ish....no need to spend 10K all at once otherwise no one would ever build a jeep...not everyone is Walker Evans :p
 
The safety aspect is something that should not be ignored. Stock brakes, 35s, and highway driving is a recipe for tragedy. One quick emergency move and you and possibly others could be smeared across the road.
If you are playing in the mud (or rocks) you need to think about serious upgrades to the rollbar. And connecting it to the frame. That will likely be $1k+ alone. There is no cheap road to safety and durability with 35s.
 
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Goatman said:
The safety aspect is something that should not be ignored. Stock brakes, 35s, and highway driving is a recipe for tragedy. One quick emergency move and you and possibly others could be smeared across the road.
If you are playing in the mud (or rocks) you need to think about serious upgrades to the rollbar. And connecting it to the frame. That will likely be $1k+ alone. There is no cheap road to safety and durability with 35s.
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I second the roll bar reinforcement seen some accidents with fatalities from the stock bar collapsing...as to 35s and TJ and quick highway maneuvers all do not go in the same sentence...at 70 you are driving in a death trap plain and simple and 20 ft of better braking will not help if you twitch the wheel :)
 
L J said:
The inadequate breaking doesn't manifest itself under routine conditions but during emergency braking. Then it can become unsafe and costly.
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Is there a ECU flash to compensate for the ABS to correctly handle the larger tires? Done this on newer vehicles but would be good to know for my LJ
 
Better brakes should be high on the priority list. You won't realize just how shitty factory brakes are on a TJ with bigger tires until you have to make a panic stop. There is also an advantage offroad with better brakes. You'll realize it if you've spent any amount of time with your foot on the brake pedal while waiting for someone in front of you to get passed an obstacle. Black Magic pads and Centric rotors would be a huge improvement over stock brakes.
 
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Chris said:
I'll preface this by saying that there is no such thing as a good bolt-on long arm lift, period.

If money is no option, the best setup would be the Savvy mid-arm (or similar).

But that leads to the question: How much money are you prepared to spend?
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As for steering upgrade, what's the best steering set up to eliminate or reduce death wobble? I was looking into 1 ton steering swaps, but I saw your thread about a curry steering system too?
 
Revenant4x4 said:
As for steering upgrade, what's the best steering set up to eliminate or reduce death wobble? I was looking into 1 ton steering swaps, but I saw your thread about a curry steering system too?
Click to expand...

The best steering you can get is the Currie steering, period:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003EM9F5M/?tag=wranglerorg-20

This assumes you have stock width axles. If you have wider, aftermarket axles, then you'll need a different steering setup altogether, in which case you can probably add another 20k to your build (on top of the 10k) for wider axles, coilovers, custom steering, etc.

For stock axles though, there is no better steering setup than the Currie Currectlync.
 
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