An Uplifting Experience

To lift... or not to lift. Is there any question?

Of course there is, or should be. We all want our vehicles to be great on the road, so we have to keep them low. They need to stay out of the wind drag to get good mileage, and have more power. Also, they corner much better, and aren't so dang tippy, right? Plus, you need to be able to have people of all ages climb into the vehicle with no problems, right

Yeah, but... Jeeps are supposed to be able to travel on trails without dragging their belly on the ground all the time. Of course, snakes do a pretty good job of travelling with their bellies on the earth, but I haven't seen a Jeep that can duplicate the motion of a snake yet. Anyway, when the Trail Limo hits its belly on the ground, it usually causes a sudden stop. Or, at least some seriously nasty slowing and expensive noises from down in the basement.

Since the Trail Limo has a very long wheelbase (116 inches, which is the same as my Durango had) it tends to drag a lot more than its shorter cousings did. When I first bought the Trail Limo, I really didn't intend to modify it very much. I knew it was limited for center clearance, but I figured it would be ok for fire roads, and it probably wouldn't see trails much worse than that. After driving the Trail Limo out on the trails, I realized two things: 1) It was definately well endowed when it came to gears and traction, and 2) It's clearance limitation was not worthy of its traction capability.

So, after doing a ton of research, I found that the best reasonable way for me to go was to get a lift kit installed. I looked at all the "budget lifts" and determined that their lack of engineering makes them a poor excuse for a lift. Invariably, Jeepers who installed the budget lift ended up eventually upgrading to a fully engineered lift. The geometry of the new suspensions on Jeeps creates a need to be able to adjust the suspension to get reasonable road manners and maximum trail capability.

After checking prices and features of all the lifts, I found there were several options, but one overriding factor was that Jeep has developed a relationship with Rubicon Express that has encouraged most of the Jeep dealers to install them at their service departments. Since the dealers install them, they will be more likely to do warranty repairs on the rest of vehicle without pointing fingers at the lift and saying "Oh, we can't repair your broken whatchamacallit because you have that lift on there, and we don't know if the whatchamacallit is being affected by it." So, I decided to go with a dealer installed Rubicon Express 3.4 inch super flex lift. It was spendy, but I figured in the long run it will be worth it.

After it was all said and done, I love the new look, the trail capability, and the driveability of my lifted Trail Limo. It is noticeably higher, and the 32" tires on it look undersized for the vehicle now, but it looks a lot more serious, and it is soooo much better on the trail. No more belly dragging on all but the biggest rocks, and the suspension does a great job of keeping all the wheels on the ground. Yeah, it would be great to get a bigger tire on it, but on my limited budget I need to get the wear out of the existing tires before I replace them. Baby steps.

I would say that if a person didn't want to lift their Jeep, and they wanted a 4 door Wrangler, they should seriously consider one of the less expensive models, like the X or the Sahara. The Rubicon is definately not needed for a Jeep that will stay on roads and highways. It's features like axle lockers, electric disconnect sway bar, 4 to 1 transfer case gearing, heavy duty Dana 44 axles, and factory rocker protection are all wasted on a vehicle that isn't going to be doing trail work. Given that, when you have a Rubicon Unlimited (4 door) Wrangler, you really are wasting all those trail features if you can't go on the trails because of clearance issues. So, if you are going to go big in the driveline, you need to go big in the height, to balance it out.

So, at least for the Trail Limo, there is no question!

Gil