more lift to the superlift

[stites-xk]

I'm trying to find a good way off adding an additional 1.5 in to the front and 1 inch to the rear. So if you have any ideas that would be great

[Fondy]

Old Man Emu medium duty springs and struts on the front, and the extra long load levelling shocks in the rear should do it.

[stites-xk]

Thanks I will definitely look in to it.

[AJeepZJ]

Old Man Emu medium duty springs and struts on the front, and the extra long load levelling shocks in the rear should do it.

This is exactly what I planned on doing.. Keeping my OME set up and stuffing a SL under it... at least for the front anyway. For the back, yeah I was just going to go with 6" coils.

[Matt]

You'll want to add some JBA upper control arms as well.

You could also get a set of custom length KING coilovers for the front.... that would get rid of the large spacer+strut setup and also allow you to fine tune the height (adjust for added accessories like a winch, etc). Last I checked they were around $1700 for the set. I think Jon (steel armadillo) was looking into becoming a KING distributor...

[kmax]

I've tried this. I tried installing OME med-duty springs after I loaded up the front end with a winch and bumper (back when Ross was making them). We couldn't even get the passenger side strut back in the Jeep. The effective lift ended up at about 8" as best as we could guess and though the driver side did install, it barely compressed under the weight of the jeep. I subsequently sold the OME springs to Tom (Phunkeydude) who tried to install them with exactly the same results. He removed them, cut off a full coil (as I recall), reinstalled them and had the lift he was looking for - about 6". He did complain the ride was a little stiff, though. I eventually had custom coils made by Deaver Suspension which worked perfectly, give a great ride and they're on my XK still. But I just wanted to let you know - putting OME springs on a 4" SL did not work for either Phunkeydude or me.

Here is the writeup I did on this modification (other forum) in case anyone else is interested in custom coils (based on the weight of your jeep + accessories)...

I have the 4" Superlift kit which has been great - zero problems. Once I added the GL4x4 winch bumper and a winch (about 200 pounds total), the front coils began to beg for mercy. I had a noticeable reduction in ground clearance with the front end, especially during steep descents when the weight would transfer forward. My original solution was to order a pair of 2-3" Old Man Emu coils to boost the front end back up. During the installation, it was discovered the new springs didn't work with the geometry of the Superlift kit and it boosted the front end an additional 4". Essentially, the front suspension was at full downward extension when sitting under the Jeep's weight. Phunkeydude experienced the exact same situation after he bought those springs from me What we discovered was a coil needed to be cut off the OME springs, then the front end went together much better. Far as I know, he's happy with the springs now. The side effect of cutting a coil off a coil spring is you raise the spring rate, as there is now less material to take a given load. My goal was to get 2" of additional lift while keeping close to the stock spring rate (I liked the cadillac ride). I looked around for a spring fabricator and was eventually led to Deaver Suspension in Santa Ana, CA. I purchased a brand new OEM XK front coil spring (code SGZ, I think) from a dealer in Boulder, CO. I sent the spring to Deaver and asked them to exactly match the top and bottom of the spring so it would fit into the strut perfectly, and I told them I wanted a similar spring rate, but with the 2" of lift at the hub. They returned a pair of springs that looked identical to the stock spring except for slightly thicker wire (load carrying) and one more coil (to bring the spring rate back down).

OEM spring on the right, Deaver spring on the left...





The installed product brought the front end back up 2.25", exactly what I was hoping for. The ride is very close to stock, maybe just a touch stiffer.





The angles of the CV shafts, A-arms and balljoints all appear to be very similar to anyone running a 2" spacer lift.



Here's the upper control arm/balljoint angle before:



And after the new springs:



The upper balljoint angle looks a little dramatic compared to before, but because the coil is providing the lift and not a spacer, I still have the 'factory' downward travel limit provided by the strut. While I may upgrade to the custom UCA's for peace of mind, I'm not worried about the stockers. Several off-road trips have not brought up any issues.

One concern I had after receiving the new springs (with an additional coil) was whether or not the coils would bind on themselves during full compression. I flexed up the jeep yesterday enough to lift the rear tire off the ground, and there was still about 1/8" space between coils. No worries.

The blue bungee is holding the stabilizer bar up out of the way. It hasn't been connected since April - personal preference. The Jeep does lean over more than when it's connected but the ride is much better in my opinion. I'm not an aggressive driver so it's working for me.

So that's the experiment. The factory spring cost me about 80 bucks shipped. I then spent another 10 bucks to send it to California. The Deaver custom coils were just under 400 bucks, engineered, fabricated, and sent back to me (along with the OEM spring). If anyone is interested in contacting them, my guess is the cost would be something less than 400 bucks since they now have the specs on file. Though keep in mind these were engineered taking a winch and winch bumper into consideration. Without that weight, I'd probably be at about 6.5" of total front end lift. It's about 5.5" now. You can find Deaver Suspension on the web.

[AJeepZJ]

Thanks for the info guys... After doing some more considerations, I've decided to just go with the SL as is... I just got these tires to a point where the engin can haul them around... Any more than 5" and I'll want to get bigger tires to fill that wheel well, lmao. So I'm going to peak at around 33x12.5 tires. 5" is just about all I'm going to need.

[stites-xk]

Thanks kmax for the info that is good stuff to know and I'm with ajeepzj I just want 5 to 5.5 in the front. Hey kmak are you in Colorado if you are we should do some wheeling sometime.

[El Cid]

The concept can be done with the right ingenuity. For instance, I know of someone who has experimented with an add-on to the standard SL that provides a positive range of adjustment to the front-end without new UCAs, coils, struts, etc. I don't think we ever maxed it out, but it was run for a long time with a one-inch adjustment without a problem. I don't want to share his specifics (in case he wants to pursue marketing it), and I'm sure there's more than one way to skin the cat anyway, if you know what I mean.

[AJeepZJ]

The concept can be done with the right ingenuity. For instance, I know of someone who has experimented with an add-on to the standard SL that provides a positive range of adjustment to the front-end without new UCAs, coils, struts, etc. I don't think we ever maxed it out, but it was run for a long time with a one-inch adjustment without a problem. I don't want to share his specifics (in case he wants to pursue marketing it), and I'm sure there's more than one way to skin the cat anyway, if you know what I mean.

That is a horrible tease, Cid. lol.