Lift kit for 33" - RE, premium brands or components?

[Marcelo73]

Currently I'm running 30". I want to move to 32x11 or 33x10 tires so I need to lift my rig.
I've installed a Safari Snorkel and I can't to trimm too much.

My main decision is RE 4.5 Superflex with Bilstein 5100 shocks. But I'm reading a lot about the quality of their products is not the same (bushings, leaf, coils, etc) after the company was bought

I want to keep the short arm setup and see that BDS and Clayton have this kind of configuration and lifts. Besides there are companies like Deaver that sells top (and pretty expensive) products.

My doubts are:

Is really RE such bad nowadays?
Does BDS worth the price? A complete kit with Fox shocks and adjustable arms cost around $2300.
Clayton uses Bilstein 5100 and does not include shackles in their 4.5 SA. I will miss something? The cost is about $2100.
Is reasonable to buy the best of breed parts to build the lift (Deaver leaf and coils, JKS or Currie arms, etc) or it will be a PITA to make all the parts fit flawlessly (to complicate the things I don't live in USA so I have just one chance to buy well or lose a lot of money).

I'll appreciate any comments, recomendations, etc.

 

[Johnnie Walker]

Have you considered the OME/DPGoffroad hybrid kit? Contack Dirk and see what he can do for you. Probably the best you can get for a SA kit, will ride great.

 

[Marcelo73]

Have you considered the OME/DPGoffroad hybrid kit? Contack Dirk and see what he can do for you. Probably the best you can get for a SA kit, will ride great.

To be honest I found DPG yesterday reading about leafs and his R&D. Will take another look at his place.

 

[pokeyxj]

I'm running a 265/75/16 BFG MT on my 2000 and 32x11.50 BFGAT on my 01 both have Rusty's offroad lifts. 4.5 all spring on the 2000 and 3" all spring with a 1.5" buget boost on the 01. Have had no problems with rubbing. The 3" kit has been on two other XJ's of mine before. I bought it in 1999 for my 88XJ.

 

[SolarBell]

Does BDS worth the price?

Yes.

 

[clean4drxj]

Rockkrawler makes very good lift kits as well, but why not just peice together a lift? If you really want to be techincal BDS makes great springs but I'm not at all inpressed with their control arms and TB setups. Each company Has it's good and bad parts about the lifts, IMO the perfect lift kit would be clayton 4.5 longarms,clayton HD tb system, BDS springs and bilstein shocks.

 

[CaliXJ]

My doubts are:

Does BDS worth the price?
.

I have there leaf springs and they are worth every penny in my book! If i was so impatient... I would have gotten there whole kit too.. Hell the $$ i've spent getting my rig to this point now. I could have bought the BDS kit and saved money.

 

[yaromb]

I have installed the RE 3.5" Ultra Ride (full springs), added 1"coil spacers and my lift is above 4" now. Just need to add shackles.

They were acquired by 4WD and there was talk about some production sourced in India or such. The quality of what I got from them was way up there, when compared to the like of RC...

The difference between the 3.5" and 4.5" is longer coils and added shackles (same springs).

I am running BFG 32x11.5 with no rub and factory flares.

Mind you, I am not wheeling, flexing or rock crawling - no disconnects.

 

[Marcelo73]

Rockkrawler makes very good lift kits as well, but why not just peice together a lift? If you really want to be techincal BDS makes great springs but I'm not at all inpressed with their control arms and TB setups. Each company Has it's good and bad parts about the lifts, IMO the perfect lift kit would be clayton 4.5 longarms,clayton HD tb system, BDS springs and bilstein shocks.

The idea of select the best of each brand have the problem (in my case) that I have no options to choose the wrong part without lose lot of money and time. If for example the springs are shorter or larger and I have to send it back and enter in a in at nightmare of burochracy with customs. That's the reason I prefer a complete kit with shocks included.

Here are real good mechanics that can fix almost anything (you can see CJ3A or Land Rover from the 60, 70 in the trails) but it will be a pity being patching a new kit.

 

[clean4drxj]

I dont understand why it's a problem for you?, I went from knowing basically nothing about jeeps to putting together my own 4.5 lift. Reaserch... if you have the time, READ! Trust me it's really not that hard.

 

[Marcelo73]

I dont understand why it's a problem for you?, I went from knowing basically nothing about jeeps to putting together my own 4.5 lift. Reaserch... if you have the time, READ! Trust me it's really not that hard.

I read as much as I can, that's the reason I ask and didn't buy the first thing I see. But because I know so little about Jeeps I'm afraid of building some kind of Frankestein does not perform well on route nor off-road.

Just to be curious, what configuration and tires do you have right know?

Thanks in advance.