Putting a 2.5 lift together

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wiseguy127

Member
Well Hello everyone I got a 2008 jeep jku X and a set of 33 12.50. I plan of piecing together a 2.5 inch lift with different parts. My concern is future proof parts for future lift heights. Like shocks,Sway bar disconnects and control arms. are they future proof? I'm in no rush to lift would rather get parts slowly and get a better lift then a combo lift. Am I right or is a kit the way to go?
 
boardsurfer

boardsurfer

Active Member
The control arms can be future proof for sure as long as you buy quality adjustable arms. Swaybar links - sort of. There are adjustable links out there (Evo and JKS come to mind) but they only cover a small range of length.

Shocks - sort of. If you go from 2.5 to 3 inches of lift you might get away with the same shocks. If you stray too far from what the shocks were intended for, you start to compromise articulation and potentially damaging things.
 
boardsurfer

boardsurfer

Active Member
Right, shocks always seem weird to me. If you run those at the bottom of the range (1.5 inch lift) you sacrifice up travel. If you use them at the other end (3.5 inch lift) you sacrifice down travel. We're talking very small amounts here so maybe it doesnt matter as much as I think it does. If you go with 2.5 inches of lift on those shocks that would be a perfect application.
 
J

JKDream

Guest
boardsurfer said:
Right, shocks always seem weird to me. If you run those at the bottom of the range (1.5 inch lift) you sacrifice up travel. If you use them at the other end (3.5 inch lift) you sacrifice down travel. We're talking very small amounts here so maybe it doesnt matter as much as I think it does. If you go with 2.5 inches of lift on those shocks that would be a perfect application.
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It depends on tire size as well. For a smaller tire, you would want a slightly shorter bodied shock to increase uptravel.
When you increase tire size, you increase bump stop size as well, which means you can run a longer shock because you're limiting the uptravel with bumps.

Any 1-3" shock should suit the application fine, I can tell you the 4-6" will 100% be too long. I run both, with the shorter shocks in the rear with relocation brackets to make them longer. The Fox 4-6's are really long, I went through a couple sets of springs before I found ones that wouldn't unseat at full droop.
 
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wiseguy127

Member
So If I stay with in 1.5 to 3.5 the shocks are future prof. Long as I don't go over the max lift height. Does that really sound right?
 
wjtstudios

wjtstudios

Hooked
wiseguy127 said:
So If I stay with in 1.5 to 3.5 the shocks are future prof. Long as I don't go over the max lift height. Does that really sound right?
Click to expand...

Yes. The other thing to keep in mind with the shocks is that they are a wear item. Depending on how long you go between your stages of lift, you might wear out the shocks and end up replacing them to fit the next stage. The control arms, sway bar links, etc are buy once at a high quality and keep them for the life of the Jeep.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
J

JKDream

Guest
wiseguy127 said:
My concern is future proof parts for future lift heights.
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wjtstudios said:
Yes. The other thing to keep in mind with the shocks is that they are a wear item. Depending on how long you go between your stages of lift, you might wear out the shocks and end up replacing them to fit the next stage. The control arms, sway bar links, etc are buy once at a high quality and keep them for the life of the Jeep.


Sent from my iPhone using WAYALIFE mobile app
Click to expand...

To add to this, there isn't really "future proof" with Jeeps, they aren't computers.
My advice would be to determine what tire size you are wanting to run, and build for that.
You mentioned you have a set of 33's, but maybe you want 35's down the road.
There are so many spring/shock combinations out there.
A 1-3.5" Fox shock might work for some 3.5" springs, and not others, because you might end up gaining more lift than expected from a spring.
That's why I have relocation brackets on mine (as well as providing ground clearance), the rear shocks are a bit short without them on my specific springs.
 
catahoula

catahoula

Caught the Bug
Well a pieced together lift would be cheaper and take longer to compile. Shit,. You can get a leveling puck kit, but the EVO was under $240 and a lot of guys running Rubi shocks with that as well.
 
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