cj5 lift ideas CHEAP

to get this back on topic...

a spring over is NOT a cheap way to have a good lift. With a spring over, expect more like 5-6" of lift, and 31's will look ridiculous with that much lift. Spring over will get you room for 35's if you do it right.

My jeep is spring over, and it works great on the trail, but it was a TON of work just to get it to drive anywhere near safe on the street. (and its still not that safe, I wouldnt let anyone else drive it on the street, and I dont even register or insure it. She rides the trailer to the trails)

My spring over has involved:
welding spring pads on axles. (a few times, to fine tune driveshaft angles)
welding new shock mounts (a few times again)
flipping spring centering pins
custom driveshafts (CV rear, extended front)
Grinding welds and resetting caster on the front end (along wiht re-welding the spring perches again)
Extended brake lines f&R (still a little short)
Making spacers to trop the t-case a bit
Drop pitman arm
and probably a dozen other things I forgot about.

In the end, this was MUCH more expensive and time consuming that just buying a nice 3-4" lift kit.

IMHO a spring over is too much lift for a cj5, and if I were to do it all over, I just buy a lift kit, and save myself alot of headaches.


for reference, this is standard spring over ride height for my jeep, factory-type HD springs in front. Those are 33x13.50's in the front and I still have a ton of room above them. Spring overs are too tall for any street driven jeep.



buy boy, does it kick arse on the trails.

 

No spring over for a short wheel base Jeep that will ever be driven on the road.

 

alright, looks like i'm either going stock suspension or buying a 4inch kit from a guy for $300, all i need is the money, i still need to get an engine for it though.

 

i think i'm just gonna put blocks under the axles to get a 2inch lift and call it good.

 

That will lower a spring under vehicle. blocks are a no no on front axles and only work on spring over vehicles.

 

Its your jeep, do what you will but whatever you do, DO NOT block the front axle. I dont even recommend blocking the rear but blocking the front axle is just asking for that axle to go wonky on you. As stated, you dont need lift for 31's. If your wanting to get a small amount of lift without paying alot for it, get you some 2"x 3/8" steel an make you a new set of shackles. Make them 2 inches longer then what your current ones are and call it good. but again, blocking the front axle is just plain dangerous. Either springs or shackles for lift...or even a small body lift (which im not a fan of either but better then axle blocks). Good luck and just remember that we are just tryin to help. I, as do everyone else, would hate to find out that something happened and an accident or even worse came from it.

 

This got me thinking, im going to throw another idea out here.

knowing that you can cut fenders and put tj flares on the jeep, and you can probably make some lifted shackles for really cheap if you got access to a grinder and welder. (metal shops will sometimes have scrap bins if you can find them with the right metal it's cheap)

You can probably (might?) clear 32's maybe 33's.
If I remember correctly a jeep with 2 1/2 lift clears 33 but with flairs 35's. You would have allot more stability and money to throw into gearing, or steering, brakes ext the good stuff that makes it so you can drive around town safely.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't remember seeing anyone with stock suspension doing a tj flair mod only lifted

 

X2 you're going the wrong way besides being dangerous as others have said. If you are only going to run 31s you don't need any lift. The lower you keep the center of gravity the better in any 4x4, even more so in a narrow body jeep.

 

Not to mention illegal in some states. I know many shops that won't touch a vehicle with front blocks except to remove them.


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I do a lot of wheeling with the Jalopy and it has 31's. I had 33's and didn't care for them. If you are smart on tire placement on the trail, you wont get stuck or hung up. FWIW, trail jeeps are built over the years, not in a few months. It took me 5 years to build the Jalopy to where I like it. Concentrate on the major stuff then you can worry about lifts and winches. A stock jeep does just fine too. I took my completely stock '49, with bald skinny stock size tires, down a few trails and had a ball. I also see why jeep moved the spare from the side to the back. It gets a little tight...

 

you can do a shackle lift and cut the spring hangers off and block them up. then your not messing with camber angles and everything and keeping the springs level you dont really need any lift for 31s though. 33s take a little trimming.

 

The spring packs on my '60 gave me more than that much lift.
You can find spring packs that will do it for you.

As for running in mud, you need to practice that, and learn how to do it properly.
Not amount of lift or big tires will get you through mud if you don't have proper control to begin with.