rusty's 3" aal???

aduke

NAXJA Forum User
Location
monson mass
well my jeep now has full skids and tow points. i had my lisence for 6 monthes and wheeled at stock hieght from day one. its finally time for a lift.

i have some tubler lca's for a 3" lift sitting around.

i think i wanna go with the rusty's 3" aal set up. and just get some leaf packs of a 2000 sport ive been eyeing at the local pick a part. so will have some newer leafs. are there any better kits out there for under $300??

and who uses this kit????
 
I have the Rusty's 3" Spring-pack kit on my 89 XJ. I got the optional 180 lb. springs since I carry alot of gear and occasionally tow a small trailer. My advice is to get the spring-pack kit not the add-a-leafs. I never, ever use add-a-leafs. You are trying to force a spring to do something that it was not made to do. Do your self a favor and spend the extra money (wait til you have the money if you don't right now) you won't be sorry. By the way the ride will be a bit stiff for the first month, but then it will smooth out. :us:
 
First off, you're already one step ahead of most people. You're set with recovery points and underbody armor. My XJ came with everything, skids, bumpers, etc. I installed my rusty's 3" aal 4 months ago. I've had a blast with it. I must tell you, i'm very happy with it. For the price, I don't think anything else can match it. I'm running the heavier spring rate coils. If I could redo it, I would get the softer coils. A wise thing would be to buy yourself some swaybar disco's. I'm currently running no swaybar. My SB links were hitting my coils when the XJ would flex. All in all, it's a great kit. I'm not trying to win any rockcrawling championships, but I do use my XJ offroad very often. I think you'd be happy with the kit.
 
dont use the add a leaf, while it seems like a good idea and quick and cheap youll be greatly saddened at how the turn out, your already ahead of the game with whats sounds like a solid rig so spend a few bucks for new spring packs with a good lift to them
 
I have been running the rusty's three inch add a leaf for about a year and a half now on my 89. the leafs i had were tired but not totally shot. I also got the 1 1/2" greasable shackles at the same time because i was concerned that the adda leaf might sag and i wanted greasable anyway. the guy i talked with at rusty's said not to worry about them sagging. he turned out to be right. i have spent the last year and change sitting two inches high in the rear even with a heavy load of tools and ass'td recovery gear. other than that i have been very happy with the aal. it does flex nicely and the ride is not terrible and certainly nicer than it was before and ENORMOUSLY better than my buddy's tj rubi.
at some point this summer i'll add brake hoses and 1.5" pucks to the front just to level it out.
 
I have had the 3aal of rusty's in the rear of my jeep for well over 4 years and am happy with it. I will eventually replace it (totally custom rear springs for more flex) but there is nothing wrong with it for the price. It is FAR better than useing blocks or longer shackles with the stock spring pack.

However, if you are going to go to the effort of putting in another set of springs with the 3" aal. I would recommend you get a set of Dakota or S-10 springs and forget the aal. They will work better and cost you less money than the newer XJ and 3" aal would cost.

Michael
 
1993 Red XJ said:
Add a leaf makes your leafs sag.

How can a AAL make your leafs sag?

AAL's add support to a leaf pack.
Blocks and longer shackles can help a pack sag quicker due to less support, or greater range of movement in the spring.

Michael
 
I have Rusty's 3" kit /w/ AAL. AAL's are not the best solution for lifting the rear of an XJ. I knew that going into it, but my checkbook and my lack of patients got the best of me. After adding alot of weight to the Jeep through the addition of armor, bumpers, gear yada yada yada; The AAL's were starting to sag. For a temporary solution, I put on some MJ shackles for roughly another 1/2" of lift. It now sets right at 3", with obvious sag on the leaf packs just by looking. Where the rear end of the AAL ends on the main leaf, the main leaf is starting to sag.
My solution is a bastard pack. I have a set of s-10 leafs and my current XJ leafs to use. My goal is to shoot for around 3.5", for now. My main issue now is finding time to do the actual work.

So, if cash is tight; I'd get order 3" coils and make a bastard pack. If you can afford it, get the full 3" leaf pack. For shocks, I'd just go to the local parts store for shocks.

If I had to do it all over, I would have waited till I could afford the full packs, and bought shocks local. I don't really care for Rusty's shocks.
 
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