Got an 02 Tj and it's bone stock so far. I'm not that knowledgable with lifts and could use any tips or advice. Was think of going with a 4" lift with some 33"s. Again any advice about anything would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you very much for this Jerry. I'm starting to understand how to do this properly. So glad I didn't run out and waste a bunch of money when I first bought my Jeep.First, there's not much to a steering stabilizer which is more accurately known as a steering damper. Its job is not to stabilize steering, its real job is to isolate & protect the steering system from jolts & shock while driving. Most are pretty much the same thing which is nothing more than a simple hydraulic (most, a few are gas charged) shock absorber that is valved 50:50 to give equal damping in both directions. Rancho, OME, Skyjacker, Rubicon Express, Bilstein, etc. all make good quality steering dampers (stabilizers) though I wouldn't recommend all those brands for everything they make. For 33's, 4" of clearance is strongly recommended. While a 4" suspension lift is the simple way of achieving that, a 3" suspension lift plus a 1" or 1.25" (but no taller) body lift works very well. In fact a 3" SL plus a 1" BL gives a very slightly lower center-of-gravity than a 4" SL (suspension lift) does. Good in theory but not really a big deal in the real world. My personal favorite brand for a suspension lift is Currie whose products are extremely well respected. Few experienced Jeepers would ever criticize someone for having chosen Currie. Currie comes with control arms that have the highly recommended "Johnny Joints" (named after John Currie) which are the flex joints that allow the suspension to move around as needed. www.savvyoffroad.com sells the 3" Currie suspension lift that when combined with a 1" or 1.25" body lift would be an excellent combination. They give a discount to Wrangler Forum members too. Point of information: Lifts much taller than 2" create drivetrain vibrations due to how they steepen the rear driveshaft's angle. That in turn steepens the angle the rear driveshaft u-joints have to work into which is the root cause of the vibrations. I say 'rear' driveshaft because it is so short that suspension lifts affect its angle far more than they do the much longer front driveshaft that generally does not vibrate with common suspension lift heights. Vibrations cannot just be lived with or they'll start taking out u-joints, seals, bearings, etc. The fix is to get rid of the excessive rear driveshaft angle that causes the u-joints to vibrate. The cheap way of doing that is to install a spacer of some type between the transfer skidplate and frame. That drops the transfer case 1/2" to 1" which decreases the angles at the ends of the rear driveshaft where the u-joints are. A 1" t-case drop is normally needed to get rid of the vibes caused by a 3" suspension lift. That said, dropping the transfer case skidplate an inch loses some of that ground clearance you gained from the suspension lift. Not good. Some will recommend a set of 1" taller motor mounts as a cure for the vibrations but that's not really enough by itself to cure the vibes caused by a 3" or taller suspension lift. The best fix is to install what is known as a SYE kit and CV driveshaft. SYE stands for Slip Yoke Eliminator which basically gives more room for a longer CV (constant velocity) aftermarket rear driveshaft. Having a longer rear driveshaft makes it less susceptible to vibrations from the suspension lift. But the SYE's real genius is that it entirely gets rid of the excessive u-joint angles by some true geometric magic. It entirely removes the angle the rear u-joint has to work into and divides the angle the front u-joint works into by half. It does that by converting the front single u-joint into a two u-joint joint where the usually excessive angle is neatly split between the two front u-joints so neither sees an excessive angle. The first illustration below with the "two joint driveshaft" is how the factory delivered the Jeep, the second illustration shows what you get with the SYE and CV driveshaft which has three u-joints, one in the rear and two up front inside the "C.V.". So basically I'm just saying a 3" suspension lift, 1" to 1.25" body lift, and a SYE kit and CV driveshaft will give you a nice setup. And should you ever want to go to 35" tires, all you'd need to swap would be the 3" springs for 4" springs, everything else could stay. There's a little more to all this but this is a bite-size recommendation that would work very well for you.