New to site..lift kit question for a beginner

Love the site. I am new to the whole lifting process and have visited countless sites and read many threads. I have a 2004 renegade liberty and want to do a 2.5" lift. I narrowed it down to 2-3 different kits. I want a complete bolt in kit straight from a reputable manufacturer. I was looking at the rocky-road rockfather II kit or the frankenlift I premium. I see the general consensus is to use an ome spring/rancho combination. I'm looking to stay around this price as well. Vehicle is primarily a daily driver 99% on road. If I venture off road it will be lightly (have atvs for heavy use). My questions: 1.) Which "out of the box" lift is the best. 2.) For a 2.5" lift what size tire can I use w/a 16x8/12mm offset/4 backspacing wheel? Dependability is very important. I hear so much about balljoints giving out prematurely, cv joint tearing and a-arm/spring rubbing w/a lot of kits and different views between one kit and the next. Once again this kit will be used mostly on the road w/occasional treading-light excursions.....thanks

Welcome to KJ Country

Best factory lift is straight OME.
If you want a little taller - the Frankenlift from All-J's adds 1" spacer.
I've heard good and bad about Rocky-Road - I haven't dealt with them.
OME struts/shocks work better for a Diesel - but the gas folks seem to like Rancho's.
I'm not sure about that backspacing - sounds close - but 245/75/16's should work well, - you might want to consider 7" wide instead of 8" - virtually every tire that fits under a KJ works better on 7" - check TireRacks recommended rim widths.

OME HD coils all around with Rancho shocks and struts

I would stay away from Rocky Road very poor customer service. (blarg)

Lot of places sell OME springs 4X4 Connection, and of course AllJs, OK4WD, all about the same price 70 or so each. AllJs of course has the Frankenlift which is unbolt , bolt in but its also not hard to do with buying springs, and taking them somewhere to be changed out, ( you can remove and all they have to do is remove the stock coil/shock and replace with new coil/shock) and run back home and bolt it in! If you are in an area with some others around you could get a lift party together and do it. 3 hour job, 4 with eating pizza and drinking a coke!

I did the Rustys. Took 3.5 hours to install and I have had no sagging and the ride improved a lot. The Rustys brand rear shocks I have had to replace after 9 months with Ranchos....

Other than that I am very pleased.

well after seeing what happens when you wheel "others named" springs
and KNOWING how well the OME springs hold up I would NEVER buy any thing less
We have OME Med springs all around on the KJ with Rancho struts and OME shocks
it has been that way for pushing 30K and only settled about .25" in the front to make it look like it did the day we drove it home
the ride is still good to very good but I can tell the shocks/struts have 30K on them
we run 245/75 MTR's on OE wheels with NO rub as far as DD and only very slight rub out back at very full stuff ,off road
I would have it no other way ,it looks 100% factory but when you park it next to a bone stocker you can really tell

The future holds another story for this KJ
my wife will be getting a new ride soon ,depending on if and when we move
I will need a DD so the KJ will be my DD which means that I can do what I want to it
this will mean a Frankie front ,this will get me the HD springs and new struts ,ARB bumper, Detroit locker rear and TT front along with 4.10's and some less expensive MT's
and I will be DDing it ~30 miles 1 way ,still better than a TJ on swampers