I want 3" or close to it for several reasons:
1) This is a daily driver for the most part, and the only offroading it sees is during hunting season, which is normally driving down rough dirt roads with a few mudholes thrown in every now and then
2) The stock springs & current shocks are shot (rear springs are negatively arched on the front 1/2), and since the cost to replace them is not much less than a lift kit, I'd just as soon lift it and get better quality springs & shocks
3) I'd like to put some 31" tires on it in the future. It has 30's on it right now with a 2" budget boost.
4) I do not tow with it, and on average the most weight it carries besides driver is 300-400 lbs. I do plan on making some bumpers for it, or modding the stock ones, to allow a hitch style connection point for attaching a portable winch cradle. Again, as a DD, I do not want a heavy winch bumper & winch hanging off the front, nor a big spare tire hanging off the back
5) I do not want to get into the range of SYE's and such. I have a fullsize rig for that stuff. Shims I can do, but if I have to mod it enough that I am changing the tcase, I may as well drive my fullsize rig to work.
6) VA does have some really screwed up laws, since I can ONLY register this as a sedan, even though the vin plates say truck. Ask 53guy about these f'd up laws.
7) This truck is driven 'unloaded' 90% of the time, so I don't need but about 1" more than I have right now. Much more and it will not look right to me (and since that's all that matters.....:shocked: )
When I want to go offroading, I hook up the dually and GN and load the 42" tired, 80-1 geared (not counting the torque convertor), 700 hp fullsize rig up and go. No need to make this one capable to do the same thing.
Everyone I know around here only has 1 4wd, and so they try to make their DD into a dual purpose off road rig. I do not want that for this cherokee. I did that for 12 yrs with the fullsize, and I am too old to put up with a rough riding suspension for the 2 hr trip to the property I hunt.
The RE kit would be fine as long as it does not entail having to change the tcase output or anything more than "bolt on". I know, that connotates a mall crawler, but ya know what, for the most part, that is what this rig is.