Another Michigander

[SkidMarx]

Hi, I'm from Ortonville, MI.
I've been mostly lurking for a few weeks while I planned my lift out and thought it was time to post an intro.
I've had may '07 3.7L Commander for a couple of years now and resisted the Mod sickness until a friend of mine offered me the nearly new 255/75-17 BFG MT off of his Rubicon for a great price.
Of coarse they wouldn't fit without a lift and spacers so what choice did I have.
My wife didn't buy into my man logic, but gave me the go ahead anyway. She insists I have Jeep height envy because her '10 Outlander is taller, so for the sake of domestic bliss, I'll let her think that.

As of Yesterday, tires and lift are on .
255/75-17 BFG MT, 2" Rough Country lift, 1.5" Spidertrax spacers, Pinch weld folded, Fender liners heated up and remolded.
No rubbing

Before


After


The lift install could have gone better.
The lower strut bolts were stuck on both sides.
I spent an extra couple of hours on the driver side beating on it before giving up and removing the upper control arm and installing the spacer with the strut still attached. My spring compressor was barely able to do the job. I really had to crank it down, but I got it back in.
The passenger side went a little better, After a few hours of working the bolt, I was able to get it out. Still not fun though. I wish they used anti-sieze or at least grease on any bolt that goes through a bushing.
Rear only took a half hour or so.
I did the brakes all around and spayed my freshly folded and painted pinch welds with some undercoating in a can and replaced the remolded fender liners.

I took it in to my father in laws shop to get the tires put on. A couple of min after they got it on the lift, the manager comes over and tells me someone left a spring compressor on one of the springs.

"Why, yes sir I am an idiot "

I thought it felt a little funny on the way over.

Anyway, I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I was worried about the 3.7l turning the 255/75-17 s, but it's fine.
My friend with the Rubicon works at the Chrysler Tech center is going to see if he can get the ECU reset to handle the bigger tires since there isn't enough adjustment stock.

Now I'll give it a bath and get going on the roof rack. I have a Surco basket from my old Cherokee and just need bars.
I picked up some Unistrut stock to make the cross bars like Sal-XK did.

[ItsMeKO3]

Congrats and welcome man. That looks awesome!

[AJeepZJ]

XK Looks excellent! Welcome to THEUltimateJeep!

[Holaday07 4.7]

Love the settup man!

[SkidMarx]

Thanks all, I'll post up better pic soon now that it's clean.

[CmmdrDan]

Welcome man!

[SkidMarx]

Better pix

[superacerc]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new lift and tires. What a difference it makes! Leveling spacer to come soon? How about the alignment? Did you get one done?

I just took my lower strut bolts off recently while putting on the leveling spacer. The driver's side was cake but the passenger side offered resistance. I had to jack up, and down on the jeep to change the resistance it was giving me (from how much stress was still on the strut). Eventually though it was able to be knocked out.

Looking at the last pic I was thinking I just want to reach up and pull off that black trim piece below your front bumper or just cut the bumper. That'll make it look awesome.

[SkidMarx]

I just picked it up from getting an alignment. At first I thought it was OK, but the alignment made a big difference.
The strut was hanging loose when I was trying to get the bolt out. The one i got out was just really rusty. On the second one, I cut off the tab on the head so I could get an impact socket on all the way and used a breaker bar to get the bolt to spin. once it spun, I used the impact to spin it while spraying it with PB Blaster. Then beat on it with a hammer and repeated for an hour or so. Near the end I switched to WD-40 once I realized the heat from spinning the bolt was evaporating the PB blaster. Might have been easier if I had used WD from the start. I think I could get the other side out with this method and might give it a try when I have some time or if I end up adding leveling spacers. I haven't decided yet.

Looking at the last pic, I realized I really need to stick some fog lights in the empty holes. Maybe I'll remove the air dam when I do that.

Had another idea.
My Surco roof rack looks pretty rough. the paint is flaking off really bad and I wasn't sure if I was going to strip the rest off and leave it bare, or repaint. I think I'm going to try some bedliner instead. should hold up better. I'll make sure I take some pics when I do it.

[Sal-XK]

"Why, yes sir I am an idiot "
I thought it felt a little funny on the way over

LMAO the look on your face must of been priceless haha welcome aboard man