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Backspacing, shocks

Discussion in 'Wrangler JK (2007-2017)' started by jeepavalanche, May 17, 2019.

  1. May 17, 2019 at 9:31 AM
    #1
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    I have noticed most all lift kits require wheel backspacing to be 4.5 or less. Just curious, as you will see from my pics, there appears to be plenty of space between my shocks and wheels? Are my shocks in stock location, or are the aftermarket teraflex shocks mounted in a different location? Reason i ask, i want to put 37s on in place of my 35s, but im scared if i try to get different shocks i might need different wheels.

    20190517_120945.jpg
    20190517_121001.jpg
    20190517_121025.jpg
     
  2. May 17, 2019 at 10:22 AM
    #2
    aggrex

    aggrex Well-Known Member

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    Some lift kits are designed to use relocation brackets for the shock or sway bar thus they usually recommend 4.5 or less backspacing. A set of quality wheel spacers should provide the clearance if needed. Generally the rub can occur during articulation or suspension movement.
     
    chris4x4 and JKBob 25 like this.
  3. May 17, 2019 at 10:28 AM
    #3
    boondoc89

    boondoc89 Well-Known Member

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    3 inch zone lift. Fox 2.0 shocks. 35 inch nitto ridge grapplers. Bushwacker flat fenders. No name steel bumpers front and back for now.
    It don't see any problem with 37's according to your pictures. You've got tons of room behind the wheels
     
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  4. May 17, 2019 at 7:28 PM
    #4
    JKBob 25

    JKBob 25 Well-Known Member

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    From pics you posted. Shocks won't be an issue. And I don't see any aftermarket relocation brackets. Again...based on your pics. But in most cases, larger tires don't usually rub on shocks. Also....35s are generally 12.5" wide. And I believe so are 37s.
     
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  5. May 18, 2019 at 6:06 AM
    #5
    Blue Baby Sound

    Blue Baby Sound Well-Known Member

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    All the world's indeed a stage And we are merely players Performers and portrayers Each another's audience Outside the gilded cage
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    The backspace is mainly for the rear end links, when lifted your wheels will rub on them.
    Also depending on tire height/width you can rub the front sway bar and the frame when fully turned.

    Our '18 with a 37x12.5x17 is happy with 3.75" BS, the '14 when it ran a 37x13.5x17 needed less than 3.5" BS because of the extra width. But shocks had nothing to do with that, it was all frame, sway bar and end link clearance. Now the frame and sway bar can be rectified by putting a spacer in your steering to limit the turn radius, I have to do that on 40s because I can't get my BS low enough (until I get wider axles.)

    Now here's the tough love.

    It takes more than a 37" tire to run a 37" tire.
    To start with:
    • Gears
    • Gussets (sleeves or truss would be good to)
    • BBK- to stop all that extra rolling mass
    After that you need to make sure your long term plan includes ball joints, tie rod, drag link, unit bearings, rear axle shafts, etc which will all fail much more quickly with a 37". It was about 20k miles for my ball joints and rear shafts to fail, about 40k for the steering components.

    I'm not telling you to skip 37s, just trying to make sure you know what to expect and plan for it. That said, 35s are a more sensible choice for those that don't need the extra 1" of clearance.

    Good luck!!
    :thumbsup:
     
  6. May 18, 2019 at 7:03 AM
    #6
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Thank you. I'm on a 3 inch shock/spring lift right now. Looking to add another 1 & 1/2 inches, aftermarket driveshaft (stock one already looks compromised), tie rod. Gears have already been switched out to 4.11 (according to the person I purchased it from, FWIW), but it does have some torque which gives some credence to his claim. Really, even if I was to stay at a 35 inch tire, I'd like to get another inch or two lift out of it, if I can keep axles centered and stay stock on control arms.

    Thanks for the responses everyone. Eventually I'd like to completely build this with MetalCloak shocks instead of my teraflex, MC control arms, Drag link, adj trac bar, and tie rod.
     
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  7. May 18, 2019 at 7:27 AM
    #7
    Blue Baby Sound

    Blue Baby Sound Well-Known Member

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    I made it a few months with 4.10 and 37s on our '14, but it was not a good match. You'll still want to regear. 4.88 minimum, 5.13 preferable for a 4 door. 4.88 is good on a 2 door.

    There's no way you'll be able to get a 37" to fit, when flexed, with the factory control arms. You have to move the rear axle back to fit in the wheel wells. Even with arms I had to trim a lot of metal to make them fit when stuffed.

    IMO stay as low as possible, 3" is plenty to run 37s. The higher the Jeep the worse it handles on road and off. Plus anything over 3.5" requires a lot more work/money; you have to start getting into high steer (which loses up travel) and it's almost impossible to get enough caster out of the factory axles at that height.

    If it's not your DD then go for it, but if it needs good road manners keep it low.


    The pic below is my wife's '18 with 3" of lift and a 37" when stuffed up front. Perfect clearance IMO

    bGbVGe_94c90a4603a26aafc78111324b56d4139955cc16.jpg
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  8. Jun 5, 2019 at 3:06 PM
    #8
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    For a quick fix on getting more height I decided to get some 1.75 inch coil spring spacers (which should get me up to about 4 inches on my 3.5 inch lift), and front control arm drop kit, and go ahead and put that exhaust spacer in. Maybe in a year or so I will go in on 8 adj control arms, driveshaft, tie rod and adj track bars.
     
  9. Jun 5, 2019 at 3:30 PM
    #9
    Prerunner1982

    Prerunner1982 Well-Known Member

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    I am not sure that's how math works... 3.5+1.75=4? :notsure:
     
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  10. Jun 5, 2019 at 7:32 PM
    #10
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    You're making the assumption that a 1.75 coil spring spacer is actually going to lift it that much, but in reality it doesn't. You only get about 30 percent of the actual spacer size in lift size. That 1.75 inch coil spacer will probably net me a touch over .5 inches.
     
  11. Jun 6, 2019 at 5:25 AM
    #11
    Prerunner1982

    Prerunner1982 Well-Known Member

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    If the spring was not directly over the axle I would agree however that is not the case here so please enlighten me with how you came to this conclusion.
     
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  12. Jun 6, 2019 at 7:09 AM
    #12
    Prerunner1982

    Prerunner1982 Well-Known Member

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    I also made no assumption. I have run spacers before and as you can see below I gained far more than .5"... I'd day somewhere around 2". ;)

    Stock, no lift.
    93 XJ no lift.jpg

    Front 2" spacers only.
    93 XJ front 2' spacers.jpg
     
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  13. Jun 6, 2019 at 7:14 PM
    #13
    JKBob 25

    JKBob 25 Well-Known Member

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    I've also installed spacer lifts in my old XJ, and my current JK. And I got ALOT more than 30% of the spacer height. I'm also curious how you came up with this assumption @jeepavalanche .
     
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  14. Jun 8, 2019 at 5:52 PM
    #14
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    I've always used straight coilsprings, never have considered coil spacers until recently. But the 4 x 4 shop in Raleigh told me to expect less than 50 percent if I used spacers due to some compressing of the coils. So, do validate that I talked to my mechanic who is a Jeep owner (which I didn't know at the time), and I asked him if that was the case because I was trying to determine what kind of spacer size I needed for a half inch or so of lift. He showed me his Jeep and said yes to what the 4 wheel drive place told me. He said expect to get about 30 percent of lift out of the size spacer you purchase. If you want 1/2 inch, go with 1.5 inch spacer. His Jeep proved to fairly close to that.

    I'm not trying to start a lift war with anybody, your experience is your experience, I haven't used a spacer before.....just letting Prerunner know how I was coming to the conclusion because he did express some doubt as to how I got to a half inch out of a 1.75 inch spacer. LOL
     
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  15. Jun 8, 2019 at 8:47 PM
    #15
    Prerunner1982

    Prerunner1982 Well-Known Member

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    Once you get them installed let us know how it turns out.
     
  16. Jun 10, 2019 at 12:18 PM
    #16
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Will do. If I get all 1.75 inches of additional space from them, I'll just burn that bridge when I get there. It wouldn't hurt my feelings at all whether its .5 or 1.75. Since you've posted your experience with them, curiosity is killing me as to how much I wind up with. Will post the pics afterwards.
     
  17. Jun 17, 2019 at 5:38 PM
    #17
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Got the coilspring spacers in from Rusty's offroad. Now waiting on the adjustable sway bar end links and front lower control arms.
     
  18. Jun 17, 2019 at 6:56 PM
    #18
    aggrex

    aggrex Well-Known Member

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    What brand adjustable sway bar end links? I'm leaning towards JKS end link kit.
     
  19. Jun 18, 2019 at 5:31 AM
    #19
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Definitely liked the JKS ones. I went with Steinjager quick disconnects. They were reasonable at $160.00 for all 4. I imagine the JKS ones were probably built better, and I also would think that their control arms are probably superior to a lot of others as well. Reviews were good on both brands, and if I were a hard wheeler, Id have went with JKS.
     
  20. Jun 26, 2019 at 3:12 PM
    #20
    jeepavalanche

    jeepavalanche [OP] Well-Known Member

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    Well, went to get the coil spacers put on and realized that my coil springs have decayed at the bottom. So.....now I'm looking at coil springs. The ones I had were Teraflex 3 inch coils, and really don't know how the heck they managed to get to this point. As I was looking at coil springs I noticed that many manufacturers were listing them as coil "ranges". 2.5 to 4, 3 to 4, 6-7 and so on. Is that because of weight, accessory weight factors? I want 4 inches of lift, but not sure what to get due to the fact that I have aftermarket front and rear bumbers, spare tire carrier with spare tire. Help wanted.....LOL
     

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