Finished with the lift. Happy with the results so far. Drives great! Some things I need to complete though...
1. I really need to get the new tires on. That'll be the first thing to do after July 4th weekend.
2. I haven't centered the rear axle yet. I have an RC adj. rear trackbar, but just got notice that my Savvy skid is on a brown truck! So it'll be much easier to replace the trackbar with the gas tank out. I'll just add some weight in the backseat when I adjust the TB to compensate for the gas tank being out.
3. I took measurements but haven't compared them to the before numbers yet. I'll post those soon. I have leveling pucks from RC to raise the front a bit, but am going to wait awhile. I still have alot of weight going into this thing with skids, bumpers, sport cage, etc. I'll level after the heavy stuff is on.
4. The quicker discos are set at 14.5 degrees. That's barely inside the JKS acceptable range. I figure this thing will settle a bit though and with the weight I'm going to put on it, I'll check the swaybar again at that point. My guess is I'll be up around 17-18 by then and it'll definitely need to be adjusted down to 10-12 degrees.
5. I did get the shorter shocks from RC. Very good response from Jeffrey when I called--thank you. Below is a pic of the rear shock. If you ignore the rubber bumper on the shock, there's about 4 1/16" travel. I didn't extend the rear bumpstops yet, but when I do, I'm cutting the rubber bumpers off the shock.
6. At some point I WILL get new control arms. Even though I don't "need" them, I really want the strength and adjustability of the Curries.
7. This took longer than I anticipated but was done in my garage, with my tools (and several trips to Autozone and Menards for new ones), jackstands (no lift), and my second set of hands was a 2-year old (except for the MML problem where my Jeep wife stepped-up). Total for the entire build so far has been 3 weekends and a couple of afternoons. Again, a little longer than I thought, but not bad. Good practice though for when I tear into that rusty '97 sitting in the driveway.
Here's the pics. I'll post the numbers later along with any "oh by the ways." More to come with the skids, bumpers, tires, cage, steering upgrade, arms, etc.