[a2tripp]

am need of some reassurance.

We are getting ready to move so I finally put the lift on the wifes tj. The install went well and the jeep drives and handles better now. Question is: I need a reference on how the TJ handles after a lift. There is nobody on this island with a simalar TJ to compare with. Every lifted vehicle I have had including my CJ had the sharp turn feeling when jerking the wheel going down the road, I mean.. when you are driving lets say 45mph and you jerk the wheel to avoid that dog in the road, you get that sudden pull to one side. Well that "sudden pull" got a lot worse since the lift. Its not bad, but I am wondering if others have noticed this as well. I have a little girl and this is my wifes DD so I just need some reassurance that every lifted TJ like mine does this. I aligned the jeep myself. I had about 7* caster, then I doubted myself and took it to les schwab, which gave me 5.5* caster, helped very very little. (btw, never take your jeep in for alignment, what a waste of money).
So, anyone else notice this when they lifted up?
I installed:
3.5" RE superflex with 8 adj control arms (netted 5" lift)
standard re adj front trac bar
bilsteins shocks

stock 30" tires and steering stabilizer. Put maybe 100 miles on since lift.

thanks

[ChiefWoohaw]

Sounds more of symptoms caused by 5" on short arms then steering.

[Apex]

You have 5" of lift, on 30" tires on stock 5.5" backspaced wheels...Your center of gravity is pretty high right now so it feels tipsy.

Just try not to make emergency manuevers, don't take turns like a porsche and work on getting some wheels with a deeper backspacing to kick those tires out a bit. Get something with 3.75-4" backspacing and a 31-33" tire between 10.5-12.5" wide.

It'll feel much more stable...

[Jerry Bransford]

No dropped Pitman arm and the track bar was an RE-1600 and not the RE-1610, right?

[a2tripp]

yeah, still got the stock pitman arm. I believe the trac bar is the 1600 model, its the non HD version that came with the kit. I plan on getting tires after we move. I wanted to keep the stock goodyears on there for the trip. I will be going to 33x10.5 on the stock ravines for now. Hopefully my springs will settle some helping out my steering issue. ( its not even really an issue, I have had this feeling with all lifted vehicles in the past. I guess I lack confidence, I did this lift myself without anybody local to help and now I am a little nervous having the family in it.)
I do want to say - JeepForum made this possible. I ran into all sorts of problems during the install and was able to remedy them by using the search function, I dont even think I had to start a thread other than this one. I got a lot of tips and tricks too, this forum saved me so much time/money and fustration, I really relied on this site. Lots of good people here. THANKS!!

[Knuckelhead]

Are the sway bars still hooked up front and back?...

[Imped]

I think you'll find that the Jeep feels much better with the 33x10.50's than the 30's

[RaggedOleMan]

Not sure if this will help, but, after installing my lift, MML + BL, I installed a steering bracket from M.O.R.E.

because I had similar issues. It solved my problem.

Here's the link; BLTJ97SBK Steering riser bracket 1"

[a2tripp]

yeah sway bars are there, I didnt know what length to set the links so I went with 7" for some reason I cant remember why.

Imped- I agree, I didn't want to get tires without putting on some miles on the lift first. I thought 33x10.5 (winter tires/ maybe bfg at's or something) would be a good start. Alaska gives us free money in october, so I got a couple of months to live with it.

thanks all for the replies!

[a2tripp]

Originally Posted by RaggedOleMan

Not sure if this will help, but, after installing my lift, MML + BL, I installed a steering bracket from M.O.R.E.

because I had similar issues. It solved my problem.

Here's the link; BLTJ97SBK Steering riser bracket 1"

really? riser for your steering box? I'll look into that. How did you determine that was your problem? - thanks

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by RaggedOleMan

Not sure if this will help, but, after installing my lift, MML + BL, I installed a steering bracket from M.O.R.E.

because I had similar issues. It solved my problem.

Here's the link; BLTJ97SBK Steering riser bracket 1"

Something is not right and their description is incorrect where it refers to bump steer. A body lift does not change the steering geometry because a body lift doesn't raise the position steering box. The steering box is bolted to the frame, not to the tub/body so its position is not affected by a body lift. There is something here I am not getting.

[Imped]

How easy is that contraption to install? It looks to be an effective item at straightening out the steering shaft.

[fire239]

A 33x12.5 would give you more stability (if thats what your looking for) thana 10.5 wide tire would

[SuperWade2]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

Something is not right and their description is incorrect where it refers to bump steer. A body lift does not change the steering geometry because a body lift doesn't raise the position steering box. The steering box is bolted to the frame, not to the tub/body so its position is not affected by a body lift. There is something here I am not getting.

The Box doesn't move since it connected to the frame, but everything to the steering wheel gets raised 1" by the body lift, yes? Don't really get how this would help either...might need to go crawl out and look at mine.

[RaggedOleMan]

Originally Posted by Imped

How easy is that contraption to install? It looks to be an effective item at straightening out the steering shaft.

That's exactly what it did/does. A bit of a P.I.T.A. to install, a bit.