Cyatt,

have you adjusted the steering box yet? My 04 used to be where the steering was a recommendation to the vehicle rather than a command. I adjusted the steering box and it took all the play out of it. Now it tracks better than my wife’s 20 Rubicon

 

@Micmac Do you have info on adjusting the steering box?

 

Basically followed what this video did.

You Tube

The rave manual has you jack the front off the ground and center the steering and remove the drag link arm. I just centered the steering. Made a couple adjustments and test drives until I was happy with it. IN other words I didn’t try to adjust it all at once if that makes sense. Also my adjustment screw was torqx head not allen keyed

 

This x 100. FWIW, Get your engine, cooling, drivetrain and suspension components, in that order, squared away first. The diverted money otherwise spent on tires, bumpers, lift etc can go a long ways towards future reliability. Not the sexy thing to spend money on but much wiser. Once that’s done, go nuts!!!

 

It's also a million times easier to work on the engine when it's not lifted and with an aftermarket bumper hanging off it...

 

@cvhyatt That's strange. I too just added 1" blocks to my 2" lift. I didn't notice a difference at all. I do have my front and rear sway bars connected. Just did an 800 mille highway trip and it felt great. I do have to address my crossmember and brake lines before going off road though.

 

Man, my head is exploding. I've read so many threads on different lifts in the past few days just trying to wrap my head around what to order. It seems like the consensus in this thread is to do the Terrafirma 2" lift (TF042 Front MD Springs, TF023V Rear MD Springs, TF118 Front Shocks, TF119 Rear Shocks), with 1" aluminum blocks in the back. My main purpose is to have a car I can go camping with. Little bit of overlanding / trail riding. I currently don't have plans (can't afford) to wheel hard in this rig. Going fully loaded with a roof top tent, steel bumpers, winch + extras is out of my budget for now (allocating money towards an LS swap). I'll mainly be driving this on the highway for a few hours to get to some camp spots that are a bit off road. Is this a good plan? Or, if it's worth it to get those things down the line and spring for the 3" lift, I can do that instead.

And from what I can tell given the mixed messages on what needs to be swapped out for a 3" lift, I should be able to leave everything stock with the 2". I think people who go higher have to deal with brake lines, swaybars, panhard bar, radius arms, watts linkage?, the crossmember, and probably other things I'm forgetting. If I have everything right going with the 2" lift, should be able to just order this kit from Lucky8, and these spacers.

Can someone give me a sanity check please? This forum is such an amazing resource with everyone sharing their knowledge and experience, it's insane. Definitely makes me feel like a little child trying to learn in school though! Appreciate you all.

 

I'm running a TF 2 inch lift with 265/65/18 with slight rubbing at full lock when articulating. With stock bumpers, I rubbed fender liners at full lock which didn't bother me. I'm prob more fussy when it comes to suspension as well coming from a primarily sports car / circuit racing background so I found that even with a 2 inch lift, I needed an adjustable panhard bar and I'd also recommend caster arms in front to get the caster angle back into a reasonable spec. There's plenty of guys that run a 3" without caster correction and panhard bar so its certainly possible. But I find even with a 2" lift, the caster is around 1 degree which is pretty low for highway driving (a lot of micro adjustments needed). Again, this is likely my fussiness around steering feeling due to my background so YMMV. I'd say the 2" MD is the way to go for light wheeling and lowest barrier of entry.

If I were to do it over, I'd probably go to a 3" lift just because I ended up replacing or will replace all the arms I was trying to avoid by doing a 2" lift. I will likely end up going to a 3" at some point after I wheel the truck more and when it comes time to get new tires. 31.5" is pretty capable but all my friends are running 35+ on their rigs and I'm feeling a little size envy LOL.

 

It's easy to start obsessing over lifts and tires. I know because I've done it. Here's the thing. These trucks are not Jeeps. You simply don't need a huge lift with giant tires to get a better break over angle because the wheel base is great from the start.

My '03 had 3 inches of lift and 285/75 r16's on it. It looked really cool, but there are a lot of sacrifices involved and it's not really worth it. A D2 with 2 inches of lift and 32 inch tires is extremely capable and more importantly, drivable.

I actually downsized my lift and tires and it's the best thing I've done to my D2. I made a video about it. Just some things to consider while you ponder lifts and tires.

 

donnie, isn't wrong especially if you live at elevation. A good set of tires, armor, and a rear locker you can get just about anywhere within reason. Yes the TC is good and a CDL is still necessary but a selectable rear locker is a true game changer.

Now if only tire manufacturers made skinnier 33/35 tire options for 16" wheels. My RRC has 315s and they are freaking huge even compared to my 285s.