Rusty's coil lift "soft"?

Coyotefred · **Joined:** Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:50 pm **Posts:** 36

I've heard or read somewhere that although Rusty's coil kit is advertised as 2.5" lift, you really end up getting something less than that because the coils are somewhat "softer" and compress more.

Has that been true for those of you running Rusty's coil kit? I want to get as close to a full 2.5" lift as possible and if the Rusty's won't give me that it might make sense for me to go with the Daystar 2.5" spacer kit with new shocks and struts.

Thanks-

Edwin · **Posted:** Tue Jan 10, 2006 10:26 pm

Go with Frankenlift or OME HD. Both these lifts use the same springs and the same Rancho shocks/struts, but the Frankenlift has a few other parts added to it to make it taller and have more droop. Both are very goot.

AdamIsAdam · **Posted:** Tue Jan 10, 2006 11:56 pm

I've been extremely happy with Rusty's. I did measurements (on this site somewhere) before and after. I got about 4" overall, including tires and 3/8 clevis. It was more in the front than the rear initially.

Since ARB bumper, I cannot remeasure front since I took measurements at the front chin spoiler. (oops)

krazz1e · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:27 am

ride is great on rusty even with the rattly shocks in the rear.

I got 2.5" plus tires that pushed it even higher... the front diff with a lift really get's a lot more clearance.

On a pre-lowered KJ ('02) you only net around 1.5". Maybe that is where the confusion is coming in play? A Daystar will actually net you the full 2" or more, but consider that may push your cv joints to a angle they may not like. Franken may be best for you if you are looking for max lift, but rusty coil lift is a safe play as it has no bj contact.

Coyotefred · **Joined:** Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:50 pm **Posts:** 36

krazz1e wrote:

ride is great on rusty even with the rattly shocks in the rear.

I got 2.5" plus tires that pushed it even higher... the front diff with a lift really get's a lot more clearance.

On a pre-lowered KJ ('02) you only net around 1.5". Maybe that is where the confusion is coming in play? A Daystar will actually net you the full 2" or more, but consider that may push your cv joints to a angle they may not like. Franken may be best for you if you are looking for max lift, but rusty coil lift is a safe play as it has no bj contact.

Maybe I'm confused here, but I thought the "lowered or prelowered" issue became irrelevant once you started talking about a coil suspension lift like Rusty's, since the only difference between the "lowered" or "prelowered" KJs was the coil length, which you'd be replacing with the new ones... ???

I've heard that the OME coils are stiffer, but I think they are only 2" rather than 2.5" with the Rusty's ?

krazz1e · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:54 pm

rusty 2.5" is measured off a lowered KJ. So where as the pre-lowered is actually almost 1" taller stock then a lowered because of the springs, when you put the rusty springs on you'll actually only see a 1.5" gain.

OME Heavy Duty are stiffer, the Med. Duty i think are close to equal. I am not sure if OME is based off pre-lowered or lowered measurements, I would guess lowered.

Coyotefred · **Joined:** Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:50 pm **Posts:** 36

[quote="krazz1e"]rusty 2.5" is measured off a lowered KJ. So where as the pre-lowered is actually almost 1" taller stock then a lowered because of the springs, when you put the rusty springs on you'll actually only see a 1.5" gain.
quote]

Oh...I see what you're saying. But obviously at the end of the day you're going to end up with the same amount of clearance whether you're pre-lowered or not. It's just that you'll be getting 1" less "new" clearance if you were pre-lowered, since you had more 1" more to begin with, right?

My '02 pre-lowered 4x4 has about 6.5" under the front skid plate and about 7" under the rear diff, and about 9.5" under the exhaust line. I'd like to get that front clearance up to at least 10", at least 8.5" in the rear, and hopefully get that exhaust line up a few inches higher so I'm not starting range fires when I drive across pastures

I'll probably be running 245 75 16s.

From what I've been reading here I think the Rusty's coil kit will get me that, although I'm not sure on the exhaust.

I thought the Daystar kit was considered pretty "safe" by folks as far as stress on the cv joints?

Frankenlift sounds great, but is a little more than I can spend right now

AdamIsAdam · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:40 pm

Coyotefred wrote:

Oh...I see what you're saying. But obviously at the end of the day you're going to end up with the same amount of clearance whether you're pre-lowered or not. It's just that you'll be getting 1" less "new" clearance if you were pre-lowered, since you had more 1" more to begin with, right?

Right

Coyotefred wrote:

My '02 pre-lowered 4x4 has about 6.5" under the front skid plate and about 7" under the rear diff, and about 9.5" under the exhaust line. I'd like to get that front clearance up to at least 10", at least 8.5" in the rear, and hopefully get that exhaust line up a few inches higher so I'm not starting range fires when I drive across pastures

I'll probably be running 245 75 16s.

Thanks for those. I seem to recall getting a 7" measurement under my stock front skid. I'll try and measure tonight to see if I have what you're looking for with my Rusty's, 3/8 clevis, and 31" tires. I'll post back.

1calkid · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:22 pm

I have the Daystar 2.5" lift and have not had any issues with the CV angles. As a matter of fact, it actually seemed to have put the angle a little straighter then stock but, just reversed it.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:36 pm

Ive got The ome med front struts with hd shocks and rear Med springs with normal duty shocks. The front needs a clevis like but ive got 8 at the front skid. Got around 2in rear and 1.5 front. Sits to high in the rear which is the way i like it but i need to do a small clevis lift. Ride is awsome and ive yet to tow with it to see if it sags, Until i do im not doing the clevis lift to see how much its going to sag.

Myke · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:09 pm

krazz1e wrote:

but rusty coil lift is a safe play as it has no bj contact.

lol You said Ball Joint

AdamIsAdam · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:46 pm

Coyotefred wrote:

My '02 pre-lowered 4x4 has about 6.5" under the front skid plate and about 7" under the rear diff, and about 9.5" under the exhaust line. I'd like to get that front clearance up to at least 10", at least 8.5" in the rear, and hopefully get that exhaust line up a few inches higher so I'm not starting range fires when I drive across pastures

I'll probably be running 245 75 16s.

I just measured and I've got the following:

9.5" under front skid at its lowest point. (that's 3" over your pre-lowered stock height and 4" over my stock height) (this is with an ARB bumper)

8.5" under the rear diff (that's 1.5" higher than your stock and 2.5" over my lowered stock height)

wahoo!

Coyotefred · **Joined:** Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:50 pm **Posts:** 36

I just measured and I've got the following:

9.5" under front skid at its lowest point. (that's 3" over your pre-lowered stock height and 4" over my stock height) (this is with an ARB bumper)

8.5" under the rear diff (that's 1.5" higher than your stock and 2.5" over my lowered stock height)

wahoo![/quote]

Hey that's great...thanks for going to the work of measuring that for me. I think that would probably do it for me as well. If anyone is running the Daystar 2.5" spacer kit with 245 75 16s I'd sure appreciate having your clearance measurements for the same of comparison.

Thanks for all the help everyone...this is by far the best group of this type I've been involved with--great information with a minimum of off-post topics, juvenile name-calling and bickering, etc. etc.

AdamIsAdam · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:27 pm

My (our) pleasure.

Yes, this board is great. I stopped going to any other. REALLY!

One more thing, I'm pretty aggressive with where I go and what I do, and my setup works very well. Plus, I do 18k/year as a daily driver while wearing a suit!

Edwin · **Posted:** Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:18 pm

With the OME HD I got 2.5".It might have settled .25", but no more than that. No upper ball joint contact.

Coyotefred · **Joined:** Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:50 pm **Posts:** 36

AdamIsAdam wrote:

My (our) pleasure.

One more thing, I'm pretty aggressive with where I go and what I do, and my setup works very well. Plus, I do 18k/year as a daily driver while wearing a suit!

I'm glad you mention this, since I definitely don't want a setup that would be great off-road, but leave with you an impractical "daily driver." I don't have the coin for a stable of different vehicles, so this has to do "everything." Your setup of Rusty's coil kit and the 3/8" clevis sounds like the best approach. Did you use spacers (e.g. 2" x 1/8" conduit pipe nuts) for your clevis lift or not? I'm probably going to have a local shop install all of this. Should there be much additional labor time ($) for the clevis lift since they'll be in there already installing the 2.5" lift?

Thanks-

Rusty's coil lift "soft"?

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