The slightly larger-than-stock tires that I installed back in December of 2020 never looked quite right with original suspension and rake. So, to give the tires a little more room to articulate, deal with the less-than-desirable look of an overfilled wheel well, and level out the Jeep (it comes from the factory with negative rake), I installed a Teraflex 1.5" spacer lift kit. The rear rose 1.5" and the front rose 1". This doesn't seem like much, but with the larger tires and this small lift, the Jeep now has over 2" of additional ground clearance. Maybe that will make a difference someday? If we find ourselves taking on trails that require more clearance than we have, we can look into a true suspension lift and upgrading control arms and end links. For now, we're ready to go!
Pre-Lift Kit
Working on the front axles.
Post Lift Kit.
The process went pretty smoothly. Once I saw that 4WP had shipped the lift kit, I took apart the front suspension after watching an Extreme Terrain video and Teraflex video. The process was explained in detail, but the hardest part was getting the vehicle to sit on jack stands with one of the axles in the air. I did end up buying a second set of jack stands so I could use one set to support the frame and one set to support the axle. I followed the video instructions closely and probably spent a total of 4 hours on the project. The hardest part was getting the spacers installed on the rear spring mounts - it was awkward and difficult to reach the bolt that needed to be held. Everything kept falling out of place. I was able to find a Mopar spec sheet that listed all the torque values so I even got things back together with proper torque. The only real surprise was the steering wheel. Neither video addressed it, but my steering wheel was off center by 10 degrees when I was done. I had to adjust the drag link which was an easy process, but took more than 3 times to get right (moving wheel, test drive, repeat).
What did I learn?
The Jeep's suspension is relatively simple so working on solid axle vehicles is less difficult than I expected it to be.