The burning question for me now is, do I really need to lift a 2004 Jeep Liberty Sport?

Some of the trails I'd like to explore are described at:

http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/Lake_Arrowhead

and

http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/Big_Bear

I don't think I would try to do any kind of rock crawling in it, and more than likely my wife and kids would go along so I'm imagining that would be limiting. I would probably classify it as "occasional" off road use, maybe once a month. I do need to replace the shocks, struts and get an alignment, so naturally I figured I should just get the Frankenlift and take care of everything in one shot.

What do you think? Also, what order of items assuming I'm not going to drop 5k at once (ie...Recovery Points, Tow Hitch, Tires, FrankenLift, etc...).

If you want to hold the price down; you can order springs by Ironman or OME and Bilstein shocks and install them all yourself. Throw in a clevis spacer and you can get 2.5 to 3.0 inches of lift for moderate trail use provided you got some decent tires....

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Supporting Vendor and Moderator of LOST
05 Jeep Liberty CRD Limited
Ironman Springs/Bilstein/Shocks
Yeti StgIV Hot Tune
Week's BatteryTray
No FCV/EGR
Samcos/ProVent
SunCoast/Transgo
Carter Intank-pmp
2mic.Sec.Fuel Filter
Flowmaster/NO CAT
V6Airbox/noVH
GM11 Bld.fan/HDClutch
IronrockArms/wwdieselMount
98 Dodge Cummins 24 Valve

If you stay on the Blue or Green rated trails you should be OK with decent tires and no lift, do not go on any black rated trails. Also, please don't wheel alone. Check out our group, Lost Jeeps SoCal for a bunch that loves to wheel and takes care of our forest. New members always welcome and you get great experience from being with an experienced leader group.

IMO,

1. Recovery points
2. Tires
3. Lift

However, if you need shocks and stuff now you could do the lift which would keep you from having to deal with shocks twice.

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2004 KJ Limited
Eaton "e" locker front
Detroit Locker rear
Frankenlift II
245 75 16 Goodyear MTR's
Moabs
Al's UCA's
Boulderbars
Backbone with Warn XD9000i, Viking synthetic line
Rubicon Big Brother

Lift it, better overall ride on and off road, better handling all around, it'll be like driving a different vehicle

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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