Need some advice.. Want more lift..

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:58 am

I want more lift. Thats simple enough.. Ive got a few options though.. I currently have the OME lift with Medium duty springs out front and HD rear. Im going to get extra spring isolators to take care of the rear, but Im unsure about the front. To have the franken lift, all I need is the upper strut plate and a spacer. My question is, whats the point of the upper strut plate? I already get Upper balljoint contact, so I cannot get more droop? Does it give more lift? I was dead set on getting some OME HD springs and hoping they gave me another 1/2 lift, but now Im thinking about keeping my OME medium duty springs and getting a $20 set of spacers from rustys. Ive heard those give right at 3/4in of lift, and thats perfect for what Im wanting. I dont want to be as high as the franken lift though.. thats why I need to know what the purpose of the different upper strut plate is on the franken lift.

Ive also thought about buying the rustys springs after a lost member said that was a good idea. I looked at the parts page on rustys website and it says the rustys springs are only a 2" spring? Why does it say this? Also, the spring rate it only 310lbs for the rustys springs? My current OME springs are 375lbs. Im alittl partial to OME so I kinda want to stay with them anyway.

Thanks for any advice guys.. :wink:

Science_Guy · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 8:16 am

I assume you already have a clevis lift. That would be the cheapest way to get more lift in the front.

Eddo · **Joined:** Thu Jul 07, 2005 7:01 pm **Posts:** 1214

Jeepjeepster wrote:

I want more lift. Thats simple enough.. Ive got a few options though.. I currently have the OME lift with Medium duty springs out front and HD rear. Im going to get extra spring isolators to take care of the rear, but Im unsure about the front. To have the franken lift, all I need is the upper strut plate and a spacer. My question is, whats the point of the upper strut plate? I already get Upper balljoint contact, so I cannot get more droop? Does it give more lift? I was dead set on getting some OME HD springs and hoping they gave me another 1/2 lift, but now Im thinking about keeping my OME medium duty springs and getting a $20 set of spacers from rustys. Ive heard those give right at 3/4in of lift, and thats perfect for what Im wanting. I dont want to be as high as the franken lift though.. thats why I need to know what the purpose of the different upper strut plate is on the franken lift.

Ive also thought about buying the rustys springs after a L.O.S.T. member said that was a good idea. I looked at the parts page on rustys website and it says the rustys springs are only a 2" spring? Why does it say this? Also, the spring rate it only 310lbs for the rustys springs? My current OME springs are 375lbs. Im alittl partial to OME so I kinda want to stay with them anyway.

Thanks for any advice guys.. :wink:

The upper top plate helps to relieve some pretension created by the addition of the spacer by allowing the spring and strut assembly to stretch out more. Also, since the strut assembly is now longer you get more droop and which results in upper ball joint contact with the a-arm.

Without the top plate and rusty's spacer you might have a little trouble compressing the OME spring enough to get it all back together. You'll probably need to take it to a shop that has a large spring compressor, I don't think a little DIY strut compressor will be able to compress the spring enough. That spacer is pretty darn thick.

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 11:46 am

Your best investment might be to get Als Upper Control Arms first. That should get rid of the UBJ contact and allow you to get a little more lift without any UBJ issues. Then add a small internal puc spacer to your strut to get lift and stiffen up the front a bit. Do the installs at the same time to save time and money.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 11:52 am

DarbyWalters wrote:

Your best investment might be to get Als Upper Control Arms first. That should get rid of the UBJ contact and allow you to get a little more lift without any UBJ issues. Then add a small internal puc spacer to your strut to get lift and stiffen up the front a bit. Do the installs at the same time to save time and money.

Yea, ive got two washers in there Science_Guy. I wouldnt really notice a difference adding another one..

I dont have the money Darby. Im not worried about the upper ball joint hitting b/c Ill already made a bumpstop for it and it stayed in there offroad. :wink:

Thanks for the reply eddo. That makes complete sense..

Guess Ive got some thinking to do.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Universeman · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 1:22 pm

Right now I'm running with Rusty's 3/4" spacer in the front and as much clevis lift as I dare go (6 2" conduit nuts per side, the bolt for the forks is about 1/4" from the bottom) and as an added measure of insurance I went ahead and intalled the extended bupstops from my terraflex kit I lost an inch or so of up travel but theres no way I'll bottom out, in the back I have a Terraflex 2" spacer and an extra spring isolator. But my ultimate plan is to put in the Terraflex 2" OTT spacers combined with the rustys spacers(I'll keep my stock CRD springs), OME front struts and Al's upper A-arms (I had a thought about the grease fitting hitting the bumpstop, put in a low profile needle style grease fitting and problem solved) for the rear OME HD springs and shocks combined with the 2" spacers. I estimate this will give around 3.5" of lift, I'm pretty confident this setup will work for a CRD with the front diff being 1/2" lower then the gasser(my front CV angles look pretty tame and I won't be happy till my jeep looks like OzLtds :-D

) also it seams to me one could get the brackets to do cradle drop the diff on a gasser.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:51 pm

Universeman wrote:

Right now I'm running with Rusty's 3/4" spacer in the front and as much clevis lift as I dare go (6 2" conduit nuts per side, the bolt for the forks is about 1/4" from the bottom) and as an added measure of insurance I went ahead and intalled the extended bupstops from my terraflex kit I L.O.S.T. an inch or so of up travel but theres no way I'll bottom out, in the back I have a Terraflex 2" spacer and an extra spring isolator. But my ultimate plan is to put in the Terraflex 2" OTT spacers combined with the rustys spacers(I'll keep my stock CRD springs), OME front struts and Al's upper A-arms (I had a thought about the grease fitting hitting the bumpstop, put in a low profile needle style grease fitting and problem solved) for the rear OME HD springs and shocks combined with the 2" spacers. I estimate this will give around 3.5" of lift, I'm pretty confident this setup will work for a CRD with the front diff being 1/2" lower then the gasser(my front CV angles look pretty tame and I won't be happy till my jeep looks like OzLtds :-D

) also it seams to me one could get the brackets to do cradle drop the diff on a gasser.

Dude, you have 12 conduit washers total? I didnt like the way the clevis looked with 3!? I couldnt imagine 6 per side! Thats just amazing. Did you have any trouble getting the spacer under the spring? Since the crds' spring rate is 35lbs more, I would think it would be harder to compress it than my OME medium duty springs. Since the rustys spacers are only $20, I do not think I can go wrong just trying it. The only thing, I was going to ask for the springs for Christmas.. If I ask for the spacers and not the springs, then ill be up the creek if it doesnt work out.. I may ask for both, then sell the springs or spacers depending on which route I plan to go..

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:39 pm

Haha, well, I just got off the phone with heather and I believe Im going to make the franken lift. She said I could get the kit(spacer and upper strut plate) and add it to my current setup(OME medium duty front springs and OME struts) and should get around 2.5in of lift. She said it would be alittle high at first but would settle down to what Im wanting. Ill go ahead and add the rear isolators to raise the rear up a 1/2in. I feel like Im satisfied now.. She also said since I had the medium duty springs, my front would sag alittle more than it would with the HD springs. I wanted less lift than the Franken lift gave anyway so I should be happy if it does sag alittle. I just want around 1/2in-3/4 more than I currently have and I should get that with this setup..

Sound good to you all?

So, the midwest guys.. We going to plan a another run in Jan or February so I can try my sliders and new lift out? IM SO EXCITED!

moose · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:04 pm

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Haha, well, I just got off the phone with heather and I believe Im going to make the franken lift. She said I could get the kit(spacer and upper strut plate) and add it to my current setup(OME medium duty front springs and OME struts) and should get around 2.5in of lift. She said it would be alittle high at first but would settle down to what Im wanting. Ill go ahead and add the rear isolators to raise the rear up a 1/2in. I feel like Im satisfied now.. She also said since I had the medium duty springs, my front would sag alittle more than it would with the HD springs. I wanted less lift than the Franken lift gave anyway so I should be happy if it does sag alittle. I just want around 1/2in-3/4 more than I currently have and I should get that with this setup..

Sound good to you all?

So, the midwest guys.. We going to plan a another run in Jan or February so I can try my sliders and new lift out? IM SO EXCITED!

It depends on the snow... But I'm up for it. And the local Jeep dealer said he'd pass out fliers for us to get interest in these runs...

Universeman · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:12 pm

Ya well I think all our KJs are a work in progress, heres a shot of my clevis lift with 5 conduit nuts I just couldent resist adding one more, but its really only 4 (3 in the pict) because 2 are above the part that the fork rests up against at the stock position(one of the 5 cant be seen because its up in an indentation at the bottom of the strut.

Now as for the spacer I'm in the military and the base auto hobby shop has a really nice spring compressor that made short work of installing the spacer and there is no way a little micky mouse spring compressor is going to cut it with the CRD springs

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:14 pm

moose wrote:

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Haha, well, I just got off the phone with heather and I believe Im going to make the franken lift. She said I could get the kit(spacer and upper strut plate) and add it to my current setup(OME medium duty front springs and OME struts) and should get around 2.5in of lift. She said it would be alittle high at first but would settle down to what Im wanting. Ill go ahead and add the rear isolators to raise the rear up a 1/2in. I feel like Im satisfied now.. She also said since I had the medium duty springs, my front would sag alittle more than it would with the HD springs. I wanted less lift than the Franken lift gave anyway so I should be happy if it does sag alittle. I just want around 1/2in-3/4 more than I currently have and I should get that with this setup..

Sound good to you all?

So, the midwest guys.. We going to plan a another run in Jan or February so I can try my sliders and new lift out? IM SO EXCITED!

It depends on the snow... But I'm up for it. And the local Jeep dealer said he'd pass out fliers for us to get interest in these runs...

Im not to worried about the snow. Like I said, if we did get some snow when we had a run planned, our luck must really suck. It almost never snows enough to amount to anything around here. And when it does, it melts the same day.. Not to sure how long snow hangs around out in the mountains though.. Thats the only thing we would need to worry about.

Although, when I woke up this morning we did have some snow on the roofs of houses and cars! ITS OUR FIRST SNOW!!

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 5:20 pm

Universeman wrote:

Ya well I think all our KJs are a work in progress, heres a shot of my clevis lift with 5 conduit nuts I just couldent resist adding one more, but its really only 4 (3 in the pict) because 2 are above the part that the fork rests up against at the stock position(one of the 5 cant be seen because its up in an indentation at the bottom of the strut.

Now as for the spacer I'm in the military and the base auto hobby shop has a really nice spring compressor that made short work of installing the spacer and there is no way a little micky mouse spring compressor is going to cut it with the CRD springs

Ahh, I remember that pic. The OME and Rancho struts are alittle different than the stock ones. Looks like I would only need 3 washers to achieve the same lift as you get from the 6.. :wink:

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:55 pm

Are these the same coils as the ones he sells with the full lift kit? If so, why do they only say 2" Springs?

Click

Does the rustys lift come with the same upper strut plate as stock?

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:26 pm

So Jeepjeepster is that your final decision? Sounds like a good plan. I have the ranchos and I think I have 4 conduits in, either 4 or 5 not even sure now. But now thinking I may have to add 1 or 2 more if you go higher! I was thinking of putting a top plate on mine just for more lift also. You see what happens on here, I bought this thing and said I wasnt going to do anything with it but drive it. Then found this site and have been L.O.S.T. ever since! Its really ruined me for life! :lol:

Science_Guy · **Posted:** Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:06 am

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Does the rustys lift come with the same upper strut plate as stock?

The Rusty Coil lift comes with springs and strut. You remove the stock spring and strut but use the stock upper strut plate. Here is a photo of the two next to each other.

Rusty Assembled next to Stock Assembled

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Wed Nov 22, 2006 12:20 pm

Science_Guy wrote:

Jeepjeepster wrote:

Does the rustys lift come with the same upper strut plate as stock?

The Rusty Coil lift comes with springs and strut. You remove the stock spring and strut but use the stock upper strut plate. Here is a photo of the two next to each other.

Rusty Assembled next to Stock Assembled

Thanks science-guy..

Anyone know if those springs that say 2" lift are the right springs? Are they the same ones that come with the lift?

Need some advice.. Want more lift..

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