Lift Upgrade

Sacha Rosenthal

Sacha Rosenthal

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2017
Messages
59
Location
Falls Church, VA, United States
So I still hate the ride:
2005 LJ with 35" tires and 4" skyjacker lift with bilstein 5100s. Lowered tire pressure, but still drives lie crap.

I want to love this rig. I want to feel safe with my wife driving it. I want to take my little girls (8 and 5) off road. I just don't trust the rig at the moment.

Spent a long time on the phone with Katie at Savvy yesterday. She's fabulous and gave me lots of ideas of where I ultimately need to go.

I will get the Currie/Savvy ultimate lift and also the correctlync steering.

So my questions.

Steering kit. Unsure if I should go with the currectlync version or the slightly cheaper savvy ultimate version?

Can I wait to do the SYE? I currently do not have one, but do have a tcase drop. No vibration that I know about, but that does not count for much. Also looks like the pinion angle is tilted up slightly.

Should I keep the bilstein shocks or replace with Rancho from Savvy?

Should I replace the steering stabilizer?

I have extended brake lines, but they are not braided steel. Should I replace?

How straightforward is a lift install/steering change?

Is there a forum discount? Fingers crossed here ;-)

And finally, how straightforward is a SYE install?

I'd like to get ordering soon. But pulling the trigger in ~5k worth of gear gives me pause, particularly when I am a jeep (and mechanic) noob....

It's a lot of Qs. My many thanks in advance.


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For the sake of your wallet and to eliminate variables while shaking down what you don't like I would limit making too many changes all at once. Provided the Bilstiens are the correct length I would probably start with the curry lift and currie steering and then re assess how it rides at that time.

And I apologize if I don't remember an earlier thread but 35s are going to suck regardless if your gearing isn't appropriate.
 
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I wonder if your Skyjacker lift is giving more than the advertised 4" of lift? Any more than 4" will put your short arms at a less than desirable angle, which in turn, diminishes ride quality. Just a thought. Tire pressure, like Jerry says. ??
 
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bobthetj03 said:
I wonder if your Skyjacker lift is giving more than the advertised 4" of lift? Any more than 4" will put your short arms at a less than desirable angle, which in turn, diminishes ride quality. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Being slightly over 4" of lift would not affect ride quality as much as some rumors say or some long-arm suspension lift manufacturers want us to believe. I ran a 5.5" Rockkrawler lift for a year or so with short arms and its ride was fine. I converted from that lift to the RE long-arm and I really didn't notice an improvement in ride quality. The control arm angles would have to be steeper than that height puts them at to make the ride that much worse.
 
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That seems like a lot of money, time, and effort swapping to a completely different lift when something as simple as a change in tire pressure or shocks could make the difference.

What is it doing that makes you not trust it?

What does replacing the steering have to do with the ride?

Seems like a lot more information is needed.
 
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Thanks for taking the time to ask Qs!

Tire pressure is 25.

The jeep shimmies and I have the occasional steering wheel wobble.

It makes some clunking sounds when going over small bumps and feels a bit like a boat on occasion. It does not handle well at speed (anything over 45mph) and needs 2 hands to keep steady. I have 3.73 gears so turn the o/d off when on highway. Future will be re-gear, but ride quality first. I'm not expecting a Cadillac, just something better than this!

If changing tire pressure and shocks does it, then I'm game.

It has a bolt on double shear hard rock track bar, which someone mentioned was not optimal.


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Your track bar is probably not parallel to your drag link, so that could be causing bump steer. The shimmies sound more like a tire balance issue to me. Your tire pressure is spot on.
 
Sacha Rosenthal said:
Thanks for taking the time to ask Qs!

Tire pressure is 25.

The jeep shimmies and I have the occasional steering wheel wobble.

It makes some clunking sounds when going over small bumps and feels a bit like a boat on occasion. It does not handle well at speed (anything over 45mph) and needs 2 hands to keep steady. I have 3.73 gears so turn the o/d off when on highway. Future will be re-gear, but ride quality first. I'm not expecting a Cadillac, just something better than this!

If changing tire pressure and shocks does it, then I'm game.

It has a bolt on double shear hard rock track bar, which someone mentioned was not optimal.


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Click to expand...
Take some pics if you can. These guys know what they are looking at and can probably assess the problem more accurately.
 
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There are a few photos on this other thread:

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/rough-ride-and-gearing.4696/#post-63969

It does appear that the track bar and drag link are nowhere near parallel...
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The track bar and drag link not looking parallel visually doesn't mean their operating planes aren't parallel. With all their curves and bends, they can look not parallel but they could actually be parallel where it counts... their operating planes.

I don't really see anything like a dropped Pitman arm or dropped track bar mount that would cause them to not be parallel.

The only way to know for sure is to attach a pair of strings between their respective mounting points where it will be easy to tell. Like these red and yellow lines that are doing the same thing...

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Right then! So a lot of photos. Hopefully I've captured most angles. If not, I'm happy to get back under!

I did not do the string attachment, but will try tonight assuming my two little people behave and give me the opportunity!

Again, I can't thank you all enough for taking the time.


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Looks like you have a dropped Pittman arm that should be replaced. I replaced mine when I put the Currie Correctlynk in and my steering improved a lot. How's the tread on your tires wearing? My biggest improvement in my opinion was going from an M/T to an A/T tire for highway driving which is 90% of my driving.
 
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Thanks Kevin.
I'm not sure about the dropped pitman. It may just be the photo angle. I measured the approximate drop from steering box side to drag link side of the arm and it's ~2-3". Is that normal?

Tires are rather new, even though I'm the 5th owner... will definitely keep the A/T in kind when it's time to swap them out!


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