Lift? SOA?

I have a pretty stock 71 Cj5. Ross box steering,10" brakes, 31 x 10.5"s etc. I have been thinking about lifting in some manner. Looking for opinnions on type of lift and hieght. What about a spring over? Or shopuld i leave it alone. I am not going to replace steering box at this time so I do not want to change handling (handles ok...55-60mph with little wander). I mostly drive it around town and mountain roads. Do not do a lot of hard 4-wheelin' as cannot afford to replace broken parts quickly. Any help is appreciated

 

From the sounds of it, I would have to say go with a lift and not S.O.A. With the S.O.A. you would have to do alot modification to the steering, axle housing, etc. If all you do is mild off roading, a lift will accomplish everything you will want, with alot less headache.

 

You didn't list it as an option but for the money invested, an add-a-leaf kit does a lot to help out stock springs and it gives you a stronger spring.

I think a kit costs about $60.00 and I'd imagine you could do it yourself. Might want to go ahead and buy new u-bolts just in case you break one taking them off.

I had them on Nixon and I think it gave me about 1.5" to 2" of lift, debatable because no one really knows what the stock ride height was on these rigs.

The ride'll be a little rougher, but not objectionable, and for $60.00 if you don't like it, you can ride it like that till you save up for a real suspension lift, or you can put it right back to stock pretty easy.

My $.02

 

I agree with John if money is a real concern and you are sagging a little. Otherwise the rancho 1" or some other 2-2.5" spring lift. I got the 4wd hardware 2.5" kit. It raised mine so much more than I was expecting that I went with taller tires. 31's looked funny with the 2.5" lift


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i say stay, if your are not going to be wheeling a lot and you want to keep your tire size there really is no reason to put in new springs unless yours are cracked ( mine were)

 

Sping over needs at least 33 inch tires to look good. If you dont want bigger tires, and dont do alot of wheelin, just leave it alone, unless you are trying to solve another problem with lift that we dont know about like jeep lean.

 

It seems like I read about more people converting back to SUA than converting to SOA. I vote the 1" Rancho lift like Boyink mentioned. Close second is the add-a-leaf option.

 

Just a thought, and maybe a bad one but, a guy I used to know put a set of coil over shocks on his intermediate years ago and it jacked the thing up about 1"-1 1/2 ". I never rode in it so I can't say how it affected ride quality but, I would imagine it stiffened it up considerable. He used one on each corner.

 

That had to ride like a lumber wagon, not to say these ride great, but i think this is just short of welding the axles where you wanted them