This all ties back into trying to have decent axle travel and low static height. Why be satisfied with stock travel if there are good alternatives that let us keep our rigs low and have big travel.
That being said, if I was just trying to be cheap, I would run something like the monroe 37193, which has almost 11" of travel, and is only about 13.5" compressed. Perfect for a stock rig and can be had for about $35 a piece anywhere...
However, my efforts in this area have not been tied to trying to fit a cheaper shock, but trying to fit something like one of the better eye/eye type shocks (but not go so far as a big $$ short body 7100). I was looking at bilstein 5125's, so here is a basic compressed length breakdown by travel:
travel - compressed length
8" - 14"
10" - 16"
12" - 18"
At stock height, an XJ is at about 14" at full bumpstop, and normally sits somewhere around 18"
If we consider that the 5125's are eye/eye, and the typical conversion will add at least another inch to the compressed length of the shock, we can quickly see that only the 8" will work, as even the 10" will yield only an inch of uptravel, which is far to little...
So, if I can build an upper shock mount that converts the mount to an eye, and locates it about 2" up, I can run the 10" travel version with full stock uptravel, more overall travel, and slightly more droop in absolute terms as well.
Why do all the naysayers think that is such a bad idea?
Travis