Hi everyone! I was wondering about this. I have a 3.5" Tuff Country lift and 31"s right now. I was thinking about making room for 33's!! I was thinking that a 1.5" spacer would do it? That would get me 5" total lift. Also I already have a factory SYE but would I need a CV shaft as well?or just a Tcase drop? Also longer swaybar endlinks? I'm planning on a Rustys HD ajust front trac bar real soon anyways so thats ok but will I need a new one for the rear? I want to do this right the first time!! thx for the replys in advance.  

remember with a tranfere case drop you help rear shaft angles, but hurt front shaft angles. I'm guessing you have one of the full time cases, so you definatly don't want to bind up the front  

No I donot have a full time case.  

You have 31's on a 3.5" lift? I have 31's on a 1.5" spacer and i only rub on the front bumper at full turn, wich is now cut off and rear has never hit and i have come close to full stuff. I would think you would be able to put those 33's on with out any extra lift. But If needed, you should check out Tom Woods Drive shafts and see what they have for you. Dont forget the longer brake lines and if in doubt, just change all that you have. If you think it should be longer, then it probably will need to be longer.  Thats just my advise...

Thanks for lettin me post it too.

I have a '98 ZJ with bout 5.5" of lift. I started with 3.5" front coils and later added a Budget Boost to gain the total of 5.5" of lift. I am not all that familiar with the tough country kit you have, but if it came with new lower control arms, then you will need to check for clearance from the shock towers above the arms. I had only a little trouble running the lift on my ZJ.... but mine is NOT your normal 4wd ZJ. It is converted to 4wd with a mismatch of parts. You must have aftermarket LCAs (adj are prefered), adj front trackbar, longer shocks and longer front brake lines. If you can locate OEM YJ front brake lines, they will accomodate the lift with a teensie bit of slack. The rears rewuire no mods. You can get by with the OEM rear trackbar, but you should locate and install a rear trackbar relocation bracket for the rear. A TJ model will go on with a little persuasion. New swaybar links may be needed. Again, hit the TJ market. I found a set of Tera discos for next-to-nothing.

I dont know what "factory SYE" you are running.... doesn't sound right unless you aquired a NV241 or something. The CV shaft will soften the rear drive angles and help eliminate any vibrations you get.

I run a transfercase drop of about 3/4". Works for me. You should also consider adjustable rear control arms. Upper and Lower. 33's get rreeeaaal close to the lower front of the body... right in front of the rear tires, below the door. You can look at my website for more info:

http://www.geocities.com/b1pig

Hey thx to everyone for replying. As for fitting 33's with a 3.5 inch lift I'd have to do a fender hack job and I donot want to ruin the good looks of the ZJ, also I plan on taking it offroad and want some room to flex. I do have longer lower control arms that came with the kit. I'm planning on a 1.5" or 2" spacers and I may run 32x11.5 just to make sure I have lots of room. I'm getting a front Ajustable track bar from rusty's offroad.  

Let me add another tip or two.

You may want to remove the plastic inner fender liner. To run 33-12.50's you really should have at least a 15x8 with 3.75" back spacing. This helps keep the tires off of the suspension components. If you add longer swaybar links to the rear, they get nervously close to the tires on OEM wheels. I ran 31's on my OEM Canyon wheels. With ProComp M/Ts, the side lugs rapped on the LCAs. BFG A/Ts didn't rub. I can't imagine running anything larger than a 32 on a stock wheel. A 33-10.50 may fit okay on stock wheels. Otherwise, you may need spacers or new wheels.

Whatever you do, DONT FORGET TO ADD BUMPSTOP SPACERS. They will limit the up-travel, but they prevent your fenders from chewing up the tires. The only triming I have had to do was on the very bottom inside of the plastic front bumper (before I installed an ARB). Nothing that detracted from the ZJ. You couldnt even see it.

I know what you mean by you dont want to ruin the good looks of the ZJ. I didnt have to cut my fenders at all, though i am thinking about it as due to other reasons. As far as my tires and rims, i do run a set of 31x10.5R15's on American Racing steel rims. I dont know the backspacing at all as these came on my jeep. I also have the BFG A/Ts as my tires. I have removed both my front and rear inner plastics. Rear was removed mainly to ease mud removal. I know my tires are close to rubbing at times, so maybe where you are at, you do have bigger rocks then i have here in the Pacific Northwest area. Most rocks i have come across are not more then half my tire size. So maybe you do need all the room you can get. Also factors like cargo and how many people are in the Jeep will affect your ride height. Most my times out have been with just me and a passenger maybe, and I carry limited gear, just a shovel, highlift and some straps and a spare tire(not smart, but im a college student with limited funds). So if possible, take all the gear out of yours and see how much it goes up so you know what it will ride at loaded and unloaded. Hope you have a lot of info to make the best choice, and as they say, what works for one person, wont always work for some one else. Happy wheeling and keep it rubber side down.  

Ya I am planning on getting new wheels if I lift the truck, They are not stock now I have blk rockcrawlers but only 7" wide. My main conserns are with the suspension parts that I may need if I add another inch or so......  

well if you go wider, just keep the offset the same and you should be fine with the suspension parts. on the flip side though is will a wider tire with the offset you have now rub the fenders at all? thats another question. I feel that some times if you lift it high enough so that it dont rub, it can look a little funny and you can possible lose the look of the grand then. I have seen a ZJ with a 4" lift and 32's and it looked kinda funny, the tires just looked too small for it. One thing i did, to help make sure i didnt rub on my fenders is that i took a hammer and i flattend the inside lip close to the fender, of course my inner plastic tubs dont fit now but with them out, its easier to remove mud...but more mud comes into the door jamb also. so hammering the lips flat dont take too much effort...Just dont slip and hit the fender, and if ya take them off the Jeep to do so, make sure they are well padded if you dont want to scratch them. The rear are harder to flaten out as they are double wall. I will try to see if i can post a picture of what mine looks like now, but not totally sure how to post a pic here.  

Well thx for the reply...so you are saying not to go 4.5 lift with 32's? I just am wondering if 33's will fit. I could maybe go with 33x11.5 instead of 12.5........wht do you think? most of my wheeling will be down old woods roads and alot of mud, no rocks.......  

If you go with a 4.5" lift, go with 33's. will look a bit better. If you were in rocks all the time, then yea i might say go with the 32's. If it was me, i would be doing like 34's or 35's with a 4.5" lift...but thats me and my jeep has a few dents on the fenders already. Another thing you can do is install the lift you want and then take it to a tire shop and talk to them and have them put up a couple differnt sizes of tires, so you can get the look you want. I like a bit bigger wheel and less lift, since i am more of the logging roads and mud holes then rock crawling stuff. Since most logging roads and other "easy" roads seem to have a lotta woops around here, thats why i go a bit bigger tire and smaller lift, to help absorb some of the bumps. When i saw the ZJ on 32's it looked like some one lifted it 2" and then went a size smaller then stock for the tires. it had a lotta fender clearance. Im still trying to figure out how to post a pic of my Jeep so i can show what my 31's with the spacers looks like as a referance.

Well thx for the help everyone, I would like to with 33 for sure that'd look cool and more ground clearance..... I am just over worried I guess. I get alot of ppl looking at my truck as is... I'm going to stay with my 3.5" lift and 31's at least for now. I'm going offroad for the frist time very soon so i'll see how that goes. I'm getting Rusty's offroad front tow hooks and maybe trackbar very soon...............

If any of you want me to email u a pic of my lifted truck just email me.

jason.roberts@ns.sympatico.ca

Well good luck with it out 4x4in. Keep it wheels down. You will be happy with how it does, and flexs. I know im happy with how mine flexes. so you should be too. let us know how it goes and take some pics. and remember, chicks dig scars. Scars = body damage, and my gf loves it when i dent and ding the body on mine. means a good time =)  

Well I'm planning on repainting it down the road so for now a few minor scratches is ok....... I still want my rig to look good on the street i'm building it up as a good looking street truck that also can do some basic wheeling........ So ok anyone know about lifts 4.5" or higher? i want to know if i'm going to need a new driveshaft etc. It seems fine right now at 3.5" of lift but at 4.5" I donot know.......