Alright everyone here you go. I am going to document my experience with the Rocky Road Outfitters Budget Lift for the Jeep KK. I promise to be very honest about the experience Good, bad or ugly. This will either be a very informative thread or one that all of the "old hands" can point to and say "Here read this. This guy didn't listen to us either and this is his sob story."

I know that this type of lift is not popular and the company even less so. So please hold all of your I "I told you so's" until the end.

I selected this kit because most of my off road driving is farm roads, desert trails or logging roads. I have yet to need to hang or stuff a tire. I admit that if harder driving is what you desire then this is not the right kit. You are better off going with a full suspension kit.

To date, I have found RRO Customer Service to be exceptional. Prior to my order I sent many emails asking questions. All were answered the very next day if not the same day. I requested instructions before I placed my order so I could review the install and they were sent via email the next day. The instructions seemed to be pretty straight forward. I placed my order on a Friday night around 8:30. I received confirmation that my order had shipped the following Monday. The kit was delivered that Wednesday. Keep in mind it didn't have to go far. RRO is in Utah and I am in Arizona. I will be installing the kit Saturday morning with a buddy in his garage. Both the instructions and the Reps at RRO's say it should take 3.5 to 4 hours for the install.
*Side note: My friend and I are both aviation mechanics, no stranger to cars and have several tool boxes full of tools not to mention shop air. So our definition of easy to install may be different than others. Same I guess could be said if we say it was hard.

Oh yeah, I purchased the budget lift with rear shocks. Total shipped price $300.74.

I have included a picture of the components and of the Jeep as it sits now. The tires installed were put on two weeks ago tomorrow and are 245/75 R16. If you are curious yes they fit with without mods and under normal city and light trail driving they do not rub, even at full lock forward and backwards.

I will take pictures on Saturday of the install and try to comment regularly about my daily drives and experiences. (null)

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2010 KK 4WD BRILLIANT BLACK
Fox/King/Bilstein ATH BUMPERS ATH RACK GY DURATRACS

ATHFAB.com

I wish you the best of luck my friend

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2008 KK Liberty Sport NIGHT OPS EDITION + GILLS
OEM & Custom Skids - Factory Tow Package - Rock Lizard Skink Super Sliders
Prototype JBA 4 Inch Lift - JBA UCA's - Flowmaster Super 44 OR - Whacked Resonator
Jet Stage 2 - RL Gecko Basket Rack - Custom Winch Bumper - Recon 10.5K Winch

Very curious to see what happens. Like you said, either it'll work out, or it'll be a sob story. Good luck, and be safe.

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2008 Black Jeep Liberty Sport
4.7L throttle body
Old Man Emu lift
Sky Slider
Hypertech Max Energy
K&N CAI
Gibson stainless steel exhaust
Blacked out
ScanGauge2
BFG All Terrrain 225/75/16
JBA upper control arms

It's better than a daystar lift but the shocks bottom out a lot and the springs don't last but they don't last very long anyway.

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2010 KK Deep Water Blue,OME Liftplus 1",JBA 5.5 UCA ,Dynaflow cat back exhaust, Weathertech VV & mats,Mopar skids,Atthehelm front bumper, Smittybilt XRC 10, Rigid LED's,RL Skink Supersliders,Gecko Safari Basket Detroit Truetrac rear, E-Locker front, G2, Dana 4.10's

Actually - it takes at least a couple of years for the Daystar to kill the front springs (mine lasted 3)

the OTT lift has killed front shocks in as little as one weekend.

we have had a couple of folks run them for a while - with the extended bumpstops to limit travel.

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2005 CRD
stuff
Skeptic quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur

I had the same lift for awhile. As soon as I noticed my shocks were bottoming out almost every time I hit a bump I ordered the teraflex bumpstops from JBA. They helped alot but could only do so much to prevent bottoming, the squishy springs added to the problem. I haven't hit the bumpstops once that I'm aware of since installing OME springs. I can't stress enough the importance of JBA's upper control arms for alignment and extended bumpstops to help keep the front shocks from bottoming out. Rear bumps should be put on, level to the rear spacers to prevent the spring from over compression. Also, washers need to be used as shims between the rear shocks and the shock bracket to prevent bending the bracket. Shocks go on with the shaft upwards or it'll ride like a wagon. Overall, for a spacer lift, it's as good as anyone else's I guess. I also had good customer service from RRO but I didn't have anything fail to require the use of a warranty. Others haven't had any luck with their warranty when their parts failed.

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2010 KK Deep Water Blue,OME Liftplus 1",JBA 5.5 UCA ,Dynaflow cat back exhaust, Weathertech VV & mats,Mopar skids,Atthehelm front bumper, Smittybilt XRC 10, Rigid LED's,RL Skink Supersliders,Gecko Safari Basket Detroit Truetrac rear, E-Locker front, G2, Dana 4.10's

All right everyone here we go. My buddy and I installed the lift on my Jeep yesterday. As I said earlier I will be brutally honest concerning this kit. So here it goes.

Take the 3.5 to 4 hour time estimate and throw it out the window. It took us 1.5 hrs to do the entire rear end. It then took us 7.5 hours to do the complete front end. We started at 8AM and finished at 5PM. We did not stop for lunch. If you are under the assumption that you can do this lift with basic hand tools please evaluate your definition of basic hand tools. Basically what I am saying is if you carry every tool you own in a bag or they only fill up one shelf in your kitchen cabinet. Don't try this. I have a roll around tool box with a GOOD assortment of tools and I don't have all of the tools necessary. Thankfully my buddy has every tool under the sun so we were never lacking. Shop air is a HUGE benefit. Also make sure you have an 18mm socket. Both deep and shallow. It's kinda of an odd ball size so make sure you've got one before you start.

Ok so on to the install. The instructions provided are complete but basic. Think of them as more like a guide line than the law. Be sure to read them several times. The wording can be misleading at times. Like pointing out a bolt and how you need to remove it, then explaining what it does then saying don't remove it until the end though, remove this other bolt first. Can be confusing.

The rear end was pretty easy. Just follow the directions. However you will need disconnect the sway bar and be sure to watch you vent hose coming off the pumpkin. The instructions fail to mention either of these. The vent hose will need to be rerouted once the rear lift is done. (Hose isn't long enough to stay in its factory position.) You will also need extra washers (not included with the kit) for the rear shocks. These washers will be used to shim up the gap between the shock and its brackets, both upper and lower. If you do not there is a lot of side to side motion on the shock.

Now to the fun part..... The front. I think the front is the whole reason that I feel like I got hit by a Mack truck this morning. Again, just follow the instructions Step 2 of the instructions says you may need to disconnect the lower A-arm. We did not have to.
Step 5 says unbolt the sway bar. This should be step 3. It makes the job easier, I use the term loosely. You will need a pickle fork to separate your ball joints. WATCH YOUR BOOTS! The disassembly is pretty straight forward. The re-assembly is a different story. You will need a grinder as the holes for the front spacers are in the correct position however they are not well drilled and will need to be elongated so the spacer will fit over the shock strut. You will also need a high speed cutter or grinding disk to cut or grind the pointed tips of the shock strut mounting bolts down to the threads. (The instructions do mention this) I will point out here my hardware kit only came with 7 locknuts. You will need 8. Fortunately we found one in my buddies spare hardware that he had lying around the garage. The spacer will fit over the center shock strut plate. Just use Vaseline and walk the spacer down a little at a time by tightening the nuts in a criss cross pattern. The instructions say the installation just goes in reverse order. If only it were that easy. Now the battle begins. You WILL need a pry bar. We had to disconnect the steering arm too. Watch your CV boots. We ended up cutting my left front one. (Errrr!) We pried, pulled, tugged, twisted, cursed and smoked on this install. Don't hurry. We sat and thought a lot while putting the front together. It's like trying to put a 3 inch peg in a 1 inch hole. We managed however, it wasn't easy, but we managed.

So far I have driven the Jeep home and to the store. I am going to let everything settle a bit then go in next Saturday for an alignment. However, that said the Jeep drives straight with the steering wheel centered. Better to be safe than sorry. The ride is a bit firmer but definitely not uncomfortable. The steering has a little lighter feel to it and is more sensitive to wheel movements. Nothing scary or unsafe. Just noticeable.

Measurements and mileage for reporting purposes.

2008 Jeep Liberty Sport 4x4. 47,092 miles. Goodyear Duratrc 245/75 r16's

Before the lift. Measuring from the center of the wheel to the bottom of the fender.

(Inches). The road was not all that level. I did try to park in the same spot however.

LF: 17 1/4 LR: 18 1/2 RF: 18 RR: 19

After

LF: 20 1/2 LR: 20 RF: 21 RR: 20 1/2

So it looks like the 3 inch front 2.5 inch rear lift generated a little over a 2 inch lift up front and an inch and a half in the rear. I will mention here we also took the option to leave the factory rubber pad on the rear. Had we not we. Would have one serious rear down rake on the vehicle.

I will post before and after pictures next

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These pictures will show different views. The first is before and the second after I will post them side by side for comparison purposes.




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Oops. Try that again.




















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I will try to report back regularly with my driving profiles and experiences. Wish me luck.


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The light front is caused by the camber being so far out after the lift. Easy fix during alignment providing your lower has enough travel. Not sure as I replaced my upper control arms when I lifted. I used a spring compressor to shorten my struts so they would fit, it made the job a lot easier.


Edit for spelling correktion

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2010 KK Deep Water Blue,OME Liftplus 1",JBA 5.5 UCA ,Dynaflow cat back exhaust, Weathertech VV & mats,Mopar skids,Atthehelm front bumper, Smittybilt XRC 10, Rigid LED's,RL Skink Supersliders,Gecko Safari Basket Detroit Truetrac rear, E-Locker front, G2, Dana 4.10's

So many things you could of done to save yourself headaches.
Hope no one follows your way of doing it to a "T"
Sorry but you made it hard on yourself

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MUDD'S MOTORSPORT'S We do IFS lift installs ,
03 OVERLAND EDITION /Kilby-Skidrow-Mopar-4XGuard skids/ 2.5 inch TOTAL CONTROL JBA coilovers -JBA Arms/MOABS-31 FALKEN WILDPEAK AT3W / 4.10's etc, 04 Kilimanjaro Edition loaded, plus 05 KJ limited

Another good looking KK. What are the plans if this turns out to be a horror story?

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2008 Black Jeep Liberty Sport
4.7L throttle body
Old Man Emu lift
Sky Slider
Hypertech Max Energy
K&N CAI
Gibson stainless steel exhaust
Blacked out
ScanGauge2
BFG All Terrrain 225/75/16
JBA upper control arms

Spring compressor would have been nice.

Hi Tom. How about some suggestions then for those looking at this lift? Forums are meant to help right?


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Well Gageraid, I am not sure. Maybe fall back on an OME lift with shocks and struts or sell my children and buy a JBA lift. Probably the OME as the JBA kit I feel is overkill for my lackadaisical off-roading adventures. For what I do a lift really isn't necessary. I just wanted to clear bigger tires.


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Should never lift just to fit larger tires or for looks.
Lifting should be a combination of providing a better ride, better handling both on and off road.
With the right combination of lift parts the ride will be so much better than stock and will last three - four times longer.
Lots of posts have been written on what you need to do a lift and shortcuts, have to remember the front is the same as a KJ so lots of info out there
Like pickle forks, hate them things, they've torn up more boots than they have done good. A 3 lb hammer/one smack and ball joints /tie rod ends are knocked loose. Rachet straps to pull the clevis in makes it easy for one person to do a lift. Wrapping the CV boots with a heavy rag, popping the UCA ball joint loose which some try and work around. Have never loosened or done anything with the LCAs.
Not sure why you think spring compressors would of helped since you didn't have to compress the spring any, those spacers just sit on top ???

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MUDD'S MOTORSPORT'S We do IFS lift installs ,
03 OVERLAND EDITION /Kilby-Skidrow-Mopar-4XGuard skids/ 2.5 inch TOTAL CONTROL JBA coilovers -JBA Arms/MOABS-31 FALKEN WILDPEAK AT3W / 4.10's etc, 04 Kilimanjaro Edition loaded, plus 05 KJ limited

Sorry Tom I apologize. JBA is the only kit in the world anyone should buy and it's founders walk on water. Those of us who can't afford the lift and would just like our a jeeps to look a better are the common people and do not deserve the knowledge or respect that this forum offers. Really? Come on now. How about hey manger at job. Sounds like that lift was tough. Or just FYI next time try this, or nice looking Jeep. Positivity is not a bad thing.


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Dang Buddy you asked
even lots of PMs
Just saying that you did a lot of extra work that if you had read you would of seen what works / what doesn't
NO JBA is not the only place to buy a lift nor is OME the only game
You came out saying that you basically knew that what you were doing was not the best
You posted things up that if someone follows it will make the job harder
Real sorry for trying to help ya out

By the way I don't have a JBA full fledged lift since I can't afford what I want, but I pieced together a good lift that works well

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MUDD'S MOTORSPORT'S We do IFS lift installs ,
03 OVERLAND EDITION /Kilby-Skidrow-Mopar-4XGuard skids/ 2.5 inch TOTAL CONTROL JBA coilovers -JBA Arms/MOABS-31 FALKEN WILDPEAK AT3W / 4.10's etc, 04 Kilimanjaro Edition loaded, plus 05 KJ limited

That was me, I used a spring compressor to squish the shock assembly so I could put the clevis bolt in. I could've used ratchet straps I guess. That lift has a 2" spacer, if it were 1 1/2" like the teraflex kit they copied, no compression of the spring would've been necessary.
Btw, don't forget to get longer bumpstops. They won't stop you from your front shocks from bottoming out but they will minimize the damage.

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2010 KK Deep Water Blue,OME Liftplus 1",JBA 5.5 UCA ,Dynaflow cat back exhaust, Weathertech VV & mats,Mopar skids,Atthehelm front bumper, Smittybilt XRC 10, Rigid LED's,RL Skink Supersliders,Gecko Safari Basket Detroit Truetrac rear, E-Locker front, G2, Dana 4.10's