I'm wanting to lift a CJ (putting 33s on it) and want to do it as cheap as possible without the thing wandering all over the road. Would just shackles do it? Add-a-leaf seems like a rough ride from what I'm reading, and the entire leaf spring swap seems a bit pricey. A body lift may not be possible cause most of the jeeps I'm looking at are rusty around the mounts. Thanks!!! Allen
DO NOT buy any Jeep with rusted body mounts. Run away as fast as you can!
Other than that, if you want to install 33s you'll need at least a 2.5" lift for clearance. Don't try to do this with shackles, it'll handle poorly and you'll have driveline issues as well. Best brands are Rubicon Express, BDS, and Skyjacker, or if you want to splurge, try the OME kit, which is a conversion of their YJ unit (longer springs, wider in the front than CJ.)
A CJ7 will take 31's stock and not rub much. Only on the plastic flair's on a turn through a ditch with the front anti sway bar 'connected' and the rear wheel hanging in the air off road and the back far corner of the plastic flair in the same ditch with the rear wheel...
So you need a couple inches at least to clear the larger diameter tire.
I went from 31's to 33's when I did a frame up restore with a 'glass body on a rust bucket 86. I now have 'tons' of room for 33's.
I added YJ shackles which gave me 1/2" and the tub sits about 1" higher than a stock one.
I needed new rear springs because of broken leafs and the top main was bent so went to a truck spring shop that does 'big' trucks and got them to order and install stock CJ hard top springs, (2 extra leafs and I do have the hard top I pack to the roof on trips) press arched for a 2.5 lift with a 'keeper' spring they ordered that already had a tempered
2.5" arch in them. The keeper replacing the first leaf of the 'spring pack'. All the leafs below the main can be ordered as a separate 'spring pack' part cheaper, the main is the expensive one.They can arch the 'spring pack' and change the top one for a keeper and bolt it onto the main leaf they left on your frame for pretty cheap.
To get the main off is serious labor. Mains don't wear out usually because all the leafs hold the arch, mains do bend though when the bottom leafs break out.
I needed the main leaf, mine were bent due to lost leafs so had to buy it all.
The rear set ran me $300.00 installed.
I had my stock front springs taken off and a 'keeper' put in place of the second leaf down or top spring pack leaf like the rear with the rest press arched and the YJ shackles so all the leafs had to come off, not just the bottom pack for under $200.00 and it has held perfectly since the first off road bounce to settle everything in place 3 years ago.
I did have to buy taller shocks myself and put them on, but the spring shop took off the old ones for me.
DON'T make the same mistake I did and buy stiff shocks for it! The only shocks my local parts store offered for a lift were 'expensive' Rancho
5000's. I bought them having no idea that you needed a kidney belt and no teeth fillings to fall out to drive a CJ empty with those damn 'lifetime' warranty shocks.Hey! I will trade them to anyone for a set of cheap soft shocks!!! LOL! Seriously though... Maybe they will fit a 1/2 or 3/4 ton or something? Anyone know what they cross reference too? They have a lifetime warranty and only are 3 years old....
I take my CJ7 off road and bounce her pretty hard too! I am impressed, they did a good job on the springs.
The 'serious' truck spring shop is the way to go in my mind, they got right into doing this 'cool little truck', it was a break from the dump trucks and semi tractors for sure.
LOL! the workers were scrapping with the boss over who got to do it, the boss wanted the job... The boss got the job. ;-) He got right into it too and had an obvious good time with many glares from his employees, though he did have all of them one at a time come over to help him on something during the job. LOL!
A 4x4 shop, makes gravy from labor and prices on lifts! The truck shop had 'fun' doing it and charged me like they charge for any other 'truck'.
Here in Canada, a CJ7 is considered a 1/4 ton 'utility' truck or 'vehicle'. Which is nice because it is a 'truck' and makes no bones about it.
It drives like a truck, rides like a truck, looks like a truck, shifts like a truck, stops like a truck, has the mileage of a truck, etc...
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT'ssnipped-for-privacy@columbus.rr.com wrote:
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