Roughcountry lift kits...

[shtunot]

Hey guys I'm new so please bare with me. A friend of mine recommended a lift from rough country that looks great but I would like a 2nd,3rd,4th opinion on it.

http://www.rockcrawler.com/features/newsshorts/04november/rough_country_kj.asp

Here is a review that he found and it looks promising.

Q1: Will lifting my jeep void the warranty off the bat? I thought that only if they could prove that the modification caused the damage would it void or am I wrong?

Q2: What types of wear and tear would I have to be concerned about after the jeep is 3" higher compare to the stock height?

Q3: Would the shocks that come with the kit be enough or should I purchase bilstein/rancho instead?

Again I know nothing so go easy on me. I also read through all the post here. I love this forum!!!

TIA.

Ed.

 

[yoda13]

1) Not per se. If it causes the damage then it won't be covered. However, some dealers will try to void the whole warrenty, and once that gets in the computer, then you have problems.
2)Ball joint issues.
3)The shocks that come with the kit are probably OK, but I would rather have Bilstein or Rancho myself.

Don't know anything about that exact lift :-k

 

[kj lad]

Ed,

To answer your questions:

1. It depends on your local stealership... I mean dealership! Some dealerships are 'lift friendly', but most aren't. It is therefore likely to affect your warranty. Only by speaking to your local dealerships will you find out.

2. Any lift over 2.5" at the front end WILL put undue stress on the cv's and cause ubj contact. This will result in costly repairs. Even 2.5" lifts are on the borderline for creating problems to the IFS! Old Man Emu will only build a lift kit of 1.5", but there are a lot of guys running 2.5" lifts with no problems.

3. I'm not sure about the shocks. I don't know anybody who has used this kit.

My advice is to not lift the Jeep more than 2.5". There are several good lifts that are tried and tested, just read up and this board and the LOST board.

Ian

PS Oh yes sorry....... WELCOME!

 

[-=JoN=-]

nice another member from queens. where abouts in queens are ya?

havnt heard much abot rough country lifts....
usually see rusty's, and daystar..and the frankenlift..
might want to check those out...

everyone has pretty much said what i'm gonna say...
but i'll re-say it...
going higher than 2.5" will put extreme stress on ur cv's.
Skyjakcer's lift's which gave a lil more than 2.5" caused premature CV failure. I have heard their rear lifts are better than the usual. (i think the franken lift has rusty's front, and skyjacker rears)

as far as the shocks, i dont know, i've heard good things about rancho's and bilsteins, even Koni's, but never about the lift kit you have mentioned.

as far as warranty issues are concerned, it varies from dealer to dealer. look for a dealer thats off road friendly. (stay away from bayside jeep, they are not friend at all.....on or off road)

and dont worry, we all knew nothing when we first got our jeeps....we wont castrate you for asking even the simplest of questions...(just stay away from the gas and oil issue....LoL)

tho we do have a pretty nice collection of information here, you might get some more stuff from the LOST boards ( http://www.kjjeep.com ).

enjoy ur new ride, welcome aboard..and if u see a Silver 02 limited with the mopar tube brush guards/steps with a KJ sticker in the rear window in queens blvd ....honk and holla....

 

[raceinfan]

Don't know of anybody useing them but I'd go with RUSTY'S full suspention lift,I'm a L.O.S.T. member and the guy's swear by RUSTYS well a good majority do,as for shocks I swear by RANCHO have had them on every truck I've owned(6) & will put them on the KJ soon,go with the Rancho RSX,I tried them on my last vehicle ( dodge ram ) & loved them,much better ride than the 5000's which do give a good ride but a little stiff there good on &off road,as for dealer's up here in MASS. very strict with lift's my dealer is pretty good with me but if something major broke(engine,******,rear end,etc.etc.) and they had no choice but to get the warrenty company involved,I'D BE SCREWED with a lift,hope this helps

 

[Flaren]

Raceinfan, what dealer did you go to? I ended up going all the way out to Randolph for mine! They seem pretty cool, but I've heard that Mass dealers aren't too lift-friendly. I'm still considering it anyway though....heh heh heh.

 

[bluelib03]

lift kit

hey Flaren , i got mines in Hyannis but got minimal work at ralphs on church street. They told me that I could go as high as 4 inches of lift with no problems from them. I was going over my warranty quick so I figured it really didnt matter.Later
Orlando

 

[raceinfan]

HEY FLAREN I do all my sevice work with SOMERSET CHRYSLER JEEP those guys are the best as far as I'm consernd,as for the lift NOT LIFT FRIENDLY,but would work with me unless something major breaks I have the extended warrenty bumper to bumper till 100 thousand which will come up quick with the driving I do,but all in all very customer friendly

 

[Flaren]

Hey, thanks for the info, guys! I'm thinking I'd like to get a 2.5-er eventually. I'm surprised Ralph's is cool with it, seeing they're so awful with other things.

 

[shtunot]

Hey silver I live in bayside and I think I saw your jeep on utopia and LIE one day. I go to the car wash next to the arbys on the lie service road going eastbound. I'll be sure to say hey nexttime. I'm the guy driving around with my sunroof/windows open cranking metal at 7am breakfast drive. Just got my chrome taillight guards last week as well.

Anybody have a link to a good deal on a skyjacker kit?

Still unsure on rancho shocks or bilstein.

On the warranty issue a friend of mine says that again unless the mod causes the malfunction by law they can't just "void if they feel like it". They would have a inspector come down and figure out what percentage of falt is whos and figure it out from there.

Unfortunately I bought my jeep from the stealership ](*,) on northern blvd 1 block off of bell blvd. I'm going tomorrow to make sure of the boundarys I'm dealing with. I can understand that the new parts I buy won't be covered by the old warranty... But I just don't want to be screwed on anything else.

Just checked the rustys site and now am perplexed at how much I want to do...The strut spacer lift kit or the whole suspension kit. How are the rustys shocks comparable to rancho/etc...? How much less can I get away with just the strut spacer kit and new rancho shocks?

So I guess there is no clear "best lift kit" to buy? Are they all close in quality and you're just paying for the name?

Thanks for the help guys!

Ed.

 

[-=JoN=-]

ahh, so you bought urs too at b a yside eh? who's ur service manager, nate?

only 2 lifts that i've heard that u should stay away from, the skyjackers (tho there is a fix for if you go wit the platinum lift) and the OTT lift...

if anything, i'd go with rusty's or the franken lift. ppl seem to like those a lot.
I think just upgrading the whole suspension along with the lift is the best way to go

I'll be sure to look for ya around that area.....

if anything, i'll probably catch ya at the stealership... ](*,)

 

[shtunot]

I think just upgrading the whole suspension along with the lift is the best way to go

Let me sleep on this. If you think about this I'm spending close to a grand for all the work but it would be worth it in the long run. Hmmmmm :-k

Ed.

 

[speleorelic]

Rough Country Lift

I've been running the Rough Country lift for a year now. They didn't supply the rear spacers until I called them. Without the rear spacers you will only get about 1 inch in the rear. The rear shocks that come with the kit seem to be doing a good job. My front OEM shocks have just recently been replaced with Rancho RSX. Before that I was getting some banging due to worn out shocks. The lift gave me 3.5 inches so I installed 31 inch Cooper Discoverer S/T, nice mud tires. I had a dealer install the lift kit for $125. No problem with warrantee. They replaced my ball joints for free last month under a recall . The ball joint contact issue only happens when your wheel is hanging at full droop, so that's not that big of an issue, unless your wheels will be leaving the ground a lot . I get a little tire rub at full lock, but not much. Don't agree with the assertion that a anything over 2.5 inches puts extreme stress on the CV. No matter the lift, with the original a-arms in place, you only have so much travel on your suspension. Adding a lift flexes the travel to a different position,,, well within the range of travel of both the suspension and the CV.