Choosing a Lift for your Jeep

Choosing the correct lift for your vehicle can be very stressful. It’s a big decision!

What type of Jeeper are you?

If you do not instantly know the answer to this question, you need to find that answer out first!

Check out our blog post on how to find the right type of jeeping for you, to help answer that question.

Rock crawler, overlander, weekend adventurer – all have different needs in lifts.

Different types of Lifts

Generally there are three main types of aftermarket lifts:

• Short Arm
• Long Arm
• Drop Link

Each kit has it’s advantages and disadvantages.

1. Short Arm kits – great off-road performance but on-road driving comfort will be sacrificed
2. Long Arm kits – most expensive … but best off-road performance
3. Drop Link kits – best on-road performance but reduced articulation compared to short or long arm kits

Lift size

In addition to selecting a style of lift, you must also consider the size of the lift.

Discounting the spacers and leveling kits (under 2” of lift) on the JKs and JLs, you are looking at a lift of 2.5” to 4.5”.

Lift size is really more dependent upon the desired tire size than anything else.

Desired tire size is dependent on the type of wheeling you want to do AND the size of your axles. Don’t put 37s on a Dana 33 – you will break it. But you can run 35s if you are smart.

Other inputs

Lift type, tire size, axle size… it can be a lot to digest so let’s keep it simple.

For 95% of the people who buy a Jeep and want to wheel local trails and still have a vehicle that drives OK on-road, a quality Short Arm or Drop Link kit on 34s or 35s will be a great setup.

For more info, check out our upcoming blogs.