KJ smoother ride?

[scottg]

My wife drives a 2005 KJ with 36k miles and loves it, the only thing we have noticed while living in Maine is the front suspension takes HARD hits on all the "frost heaves". Now I drive a torsion bar 4wd truck, and it rights a hell of alot smoother (could just be the style suspension and 32x11.50x15s that I'm running)


Her KJ is in stock form and running P235/75r15 on some 15x8. That seemed to help some.


Is there softer coils/shocks? Are any lifted out there rated softer then OE?


Thanks for any helpful info

ScottG

 

[Jeepin05]

Well, the OEM suspension seems to wear down much earlier than I would expect, I believe it is said to be around 40-60k. For an SUV, I would expect most of the mechanical parts to be more HD and last longer, but it seems Chrysler is only supplying parts that last the extent of the warranties they give out .

I have ~55k with the same rough ride, and plan to upgrade to full OME HD sometime soon. Even though this should be more of a firm ride, I think others have been pleasantly surprised with how nice the ride is after the upgrade.

Just my .02, but if you're interested in aftermarket suspension, you should be able to find a bunch of good info in the Lift Kit Discussion section.

 

[scottg]

it doesn't necessary need to be a lift, Even OEM style replacements like KYB or Monroe Struts

 

[J-Thompson]

scottg
we had that EXACT same issue with my wifes KJ when it hit 36K
what I did was replace the springs and struts/shocks
replaced the springs with Old Man Emu medium duty coils all around
and got the rancho struts ,only because there was a back order of like 2 weeks on the
OME struts and the OME rear shocks ,the ones that are stock length or no L at the end of the number
that was pushing 30K ago and it still rides good
we gained about 2"+ in lift over where it was sitting the day before we got the work done and it now rides on 245/75's and looks completely stock
and dont worry about warranty issues
we just got a new CV boot ,joint was still good, under the 7/70

 

[LibertyFever]

My 04 Liberty Sport has about 83,000 kms on it and I'm on my second set of front struts. The first set failed shortly after installing an OTT lift. I suspect the lack of extended bumpstops is why my struts are failing early.

The reason I'm telling you all of this is because my front shock seems to be bottoming out too on the frost heaves in the road. Spring is not a good time to discover your shocks are shot Do you think your front shocks are shot on your wife's KJ?

 

[tjkj2002]

If you go softer you will bottom out more often and it will in turn cause a harsher ride then getting new and quality coils/struts(which Monroe and kyb are not) that give a firmer and more stable ride like Rancho and OME does.