So I installed a 6.5 inch Rough Country lift on my 95 xj, now it rides so stiff its barley tolerable to drive, some people say if needs to be driven on to loosen up a bit but after 4 months now its exactly the same...Ive even hauled 1000 pounds in the rear and it barely gives any flex...every speed bump or little imperfections in the road feel like im hitting boulders. The quick disconnects that came with the kit are useless as ill never be able to get any flex out of the springs. Its just awful as a daily driver and I cant imagine if I did take it off road.
Any recommendations on a set of springs and coils that would be a good replacement ?
A big part of it are the shocks that the kit ships with. They are as rough as they come, the name fits. I used Iron Rock offroad coils and have better than stock comfort and steering response
The main contributor to your stiff ride are the RC shocks, not the springs. Better riding shocks are the answer, not different springs. And with your rear leaf spring suspension, your XJ is even more sensitive to how soft or firm your shocks are.
Make sure too that your tires are not overinflated which can add to the stiff ride. Whatever you do, don't inflate your tires to the pressure shown on the sidewall which is only indicating the tire's maximum safe air pressure to only be used when the tire has been made to carry its maximum designed for load. I dunno what size tires you're running since you have not yet filled out your Profile but if you're running 33's, for example, with your 6.5" lift, they should only be inflated to 26-28 psi at the most.
Im running 35s, not sure the air pressure at the moment, have to check when I get home from work later. I had the tire shop put them on so im guessing they did what the tire was listed at.
update, I ran home on my lunch time and took off the front shocks, forgot to grab an air pressure gauge...BUT it has alot of play now, i can rock it by hand outside the truck and it has some movement, ride back to work was alot different, bumps werent to bad and it felt pretty springy. Ill take off the back and see how much that helps later when i get home too.
Any recommendations on some good shocks that work well with my set up?
update, I ran home on my lunch time and took off the front shocks, forgot to grab an air pressure gauge...BUT it has alot of play now, i can rock it by hand outside the truck and it has some movement, ride back to work was alot different, bumps werent to bad and it felt pretty springy. Ill take off the back and see how much that helps later when i get home too.
You took off the shocks and actually drove it on the streets? :nuts: Never - and I mean NEVER - drive with the shocks off on a vehicle with coil springs.
Leaf springs need shocks too, but at least they are somewhat self-damping. Coils are not, it is downright dangerous to drive without shocks.
Checked my Tire pressure, I was at 35 psi so i aired down to 25, or as close as i could get my crappy gauges to that, I have two of the small pocket ones so I averaged the 2 of them, they werent that far off from one another, I think that helped alot airing them down.
Shocks are back on for now, I took them off to see if the coils gave any flex. Didnt think it would be an issue going down the road, what would driving without shocks on the front actually do thats bad?
Coil springs don't really provide any damping, they just carry the weight. In other words, without shocks there is nothing to stop the front bouncing up and down uncontrollably. It is actually dangerous, not just "National geographic channel"- dangerous.
I'd temper that by saying a residential test drive at 30 without shocks to see if they're the source of the stiffness is probably fine, but you have to be careful around corners. Highway? NEVER. The dampening effect of shocks does a lot to control body roll in addition to bounce, and you can set up a hell of an interesting ride (and maybe roll) for yourself if you hit the wrong combination of bumps at speed.
Monroe sensa-tracs are a common and relatively budget friendly option for people who like a soft ride. Bilstein 5100's are the go-to quality shock, but it's worth noting that they are pretty stiff, it's a responsive race-tuned kinda stiff, but it's there. Bilsteins and a soft spring probably wouldn't work out well for example, because you'd sort of be riding on the shocks instead of them just dampening the springs. OME shocks are also popular but I'm not sure they make them in a length appropriate to that much lift. Certainly not marketed for XJ's as part of their kits, but you could probably call them and see if another lift kit application's shocks would work for you.
Thanks for the replies everyone, ya i work literally a mile and a half from my house which is 35 the whole way so i had no issues. When i had my half ton Dodge pickup I lifted the front 3 inches with a coil spacer and didnt put the shocks back on and it wasnt any springier than before, drove it like that for about 4 years with no front shocks :surprise:
Stiffly sprung split axles are kind of a different world with that kind of thing than lifted XJ's, which can be a bit precarious in the best of circumstances.
OP:
Don't count on shocks making any difference.
I replaced the RC shocks with Doetsch Tech 3000's and the ride is just as stiff.
And 10+ years down the road, the springs have yet to settle
Control arm drop brackets didn't really improve anything for my short arms, and shackle relocation brackets only helped a little on-road.
OME has the best rep (based on Internet Wisdom <g>), but you probably won't find a 6.5" kit...
How much travel should I have when I jack one tire up? , seems like the coil only compressed an inch or so. I'm thinking the thickness of the coils are what's restricting the most, without shocks it was a little springy but still didn't compress much at all even when jacked up on one side. The new coils are alot thicker than the old stock coil.
Measured the thickness of my old stock coils at 1/2 inch, new coils are 5/8 inch thick. I would think that explains why it's not going to get much compression.
I would think I would want a coil that's the same thickness of my stock to have the similar feel.
What do you guys think ? Are all lifted coils going to be thicker material like this?
Roiugh country 6.5" coils are supposed to have about 190lbs. / in coil rate (which is about the same as what stock V8 ZJ front coils are); OEM XJ front coils for a 4.0 are about 140-150lbs. /in.
It is a difference, but not enough to cause a harsh ride because of the coil rate.
I never noticed it anywhere, but do you have long-arm conversion, or are you running short arms? If you have short arms, don't even think you're ever going to get a good ride quality without doing modifications. You'd either need drop brackets, or raise the axle-end mounts about 3" (preferred). Even with the raised CA mounts at the axle end, you're at fairly steep CA angle which will cause bumpier/ stiffer ride.
As for amount of flex: if you have the front sway bar connected and you lift one front corner (under the front CA mount on the axle) with a floor jack, you should get more than an inch of spring compression. If you have the front swaybar disconnected, you should get about as much flex as the floor jack has the ability to lift that corner.
Pretty much all lift coils are going to be stiffer than stock, really soft, tall coils can shift around as you corner and also encourage body roll. They're stiffer for a reason.
Thanks for the replies, that makes sense now. Someone else suggested a shorter coil with a spacer, as shorter coils can be softer than tall coils.
I am running the short arm kit, figured when I bought it in not building a rock crawler but I do like to play in the mud, guess I should have just wenthe with the long arm to begin with.
Any suggestions on a softer 3 or 4 inch coil ?
Thanks for the replies, that makes sense now. Someone else suggested a shorter coil with a spacer, as shorter coils can be softer than tall coils.
I am running the short arm kit, figured when I bought it in not building a rock crawler but I do like to play in the mud, guess I should have just wenthe with the long arm to begin with.
Any suggestions on a softer 3 or 4 inch coil ?
Decided to order the Control arm drop brackets, and the Shackle relocation brackets and see how it drives after that. Ill post back when I have something to report. Thanks for all the help so far!
Like I wrote above, RC 6.5" coils are supposed to be 190lbs/ inch rate. They are not firm coils, only slighly firmer than OEM. The reasons for stiff/ harsh ride and bad flex are the short control arms (@ 6.5" lift causing very bad CA angles) and RC shocks.
Control arm drop brackets help on the angkes, beeter shocks will help more.
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