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MFC off road lift installed

92K views 66 replies 26 participants last post by  gravitywell 
#1 ·
I just had my MFC off road lift installed yesterday and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to lift their KL. The parts are quality, you can easily do it yourself and the guys are very knowledgable and helpful.

Here is a couple of pics.
 

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#5 ·
Looks nice. I have the MFC lift as well. Its very good on the trails!
 
#8 ·
Got any dirt on your Trailhawk yet?
 
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#10 · (Edited)
The bad news to me is I am ready to pull the trigger and do the exact same setup as you have but the tires rubbing has me rethinking doing this.
Also, what about any issues with alignment going with the 1.5" lift?



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#12 ·
At 1.5 you will just get the front camber in spec on most vehicles, some won't quite make it but wont be far off though. Rears should be OK.

The only reason he is having tyre rubbing issues in 245/70 tyres is he has wheel spacers as well. Without the spacers they do not rub. Larger tyres such as 255/70 will start to rub and this is where you start to need to do the pinch weld mods.

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#11 ·
Any way you could post some more photos?
Maybe front and back shots...


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#13 ·
@TopGunKovac, I have no issues at all with the alignment. i did take the spacers off for now and am not sure if i want to cut the wheel well, it would kill me to cut away at it since its brand new. The rubbing wasn't horrible but was just enough to make uncomfortable.

If i was running bigger tires the rubbing would be even worse. I ordered the spacers thinking i wasn't going to have an issue, they were a little espensive ( I think $70 each) and i waited weeks for them.
 
#16 · (Edited)
You hear a lot of rumors about the dangers of wheel spacers. But how many people do you personally know who have actually experienced a problem with them? Wheel spacers are used when the offset of the wheel is not ideal for the end package that you want. Whether it's because of too narrow of axles or not enough wheel offset, wheel spacers can put your tires and wheels where you want them to be under your fender.

So, are they dangerous to use? In a one-word summation, no.

Do they have the potential to offer more problems than a package without wheel spacers? Yes.

Here's the deal: High-quality wheel spacers are made of a billet aluminum that is just as strong, if not stronger than the wheels they attach to. They bolt onto the studs of an axle in place of the wheel, and have studs (themselves) for the wheels to attach to. Wheel spacers can be used to change wheel bolt patterns and to widen the offset of the wheel.

By increasing the offset of the wheel, you place more stress on the axles studs, and in a front axle application on the unit bearings (or spindles) and ball joints of the axle. You also increase the tire scrub radius, changing the way the vehicle handles and increasing the difficulty of slow-speed turning.

Also, by adding wheel spacers you are adding more components, and the more components, the more potential for failure. Make sure to properly tighten and torque all of the spacer bolts and nuts, and you should never have an issue.

All that being said, wheel spacers are a cost-effective way to keep the wheels you have (or adapt a different lug pattern wheel) while increasing your track width. They work successfully on race trucks countless times, and several people use them in rear axle applications to increase the track width of a stock rear axle to match a custom front axle.
 
#15 ·
Would a smaller spacer fix the rubbing?
And being that some vehicles won't be able to get front camber in spec, I think I'm going to pass lifting the TH...


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#17 ·
my brother had problems with spacers on is S10 and got tired fixing it because of them and just end up taking them off and he worked for Firestone in 3 different states and he said he seen lost of cars and trucks that had problems because of spaces. I think TH look a lot better with spaces and like to but them on but I don't really want the problems
 
#18 ·
The Jeep Cherokee KL Trailhawk is a proven off-road vehicle; however, its independent suspension has some limitations. If you want to go fast, independent almost always trumps solid, but when going slow over really rough ground with big tires, solid axles are king.

The truth is both types of suspensions can be built to excel in almost any off-road environment, but not all suspension/axle types are necessarily easy or inexpensive to build.

Sand cars and desert racers have embraced independent suspension for a long, long time. Many cars and trucks that go fast off-road have independent suspension front and rear. Most are fully custom so you won?t find inexpensive swappable parts in the junkyard, but the aftermarket has embraced several independent front suspension (IFS) designs found in trucks and SUVs and support them with long-travel or heavy-duty parts. Independent rear suspension (IRS) designs are also very tractable for high-speed off-road use, but few OEM production designs are up to the task of heavy off-road use. We're still waiting for the market to offer something for the Cherokee KL platform.

What is independent suspension?

Each wheel and tire per axle is attached directly to the frame using one, two, or more control arms. The axle?s differential housing, containing the axle gears, bearings, oil, and differential are also affixed directly to the frame. This design allows each tire to move independently from the chassis and the other tire on that axle.

Independent suspension systems generally offer lower overall weight and less unsprung weight. Unsprung weight is weight that moves with the tires/wheels rather than with the chassis of a vehicle. Moving weight requires energy and controlling weight is difficult as that weight increases. Therefore, suspensions that have to react quickly to surface changes do better with less unsprung weight. This is true both on- and off-road.

Independent suspensions also allow for more control over the suspension geometry as the suspension cycles. Changing arm length ratios can help keep the tires of a vehicle parallel with the ground as the suspension cycles and or help impart a steering input as the suspension droops or compresses. Therefore, you generally see independent suspensions favored in motorsports where the suspension and axles move up and down rapidly and control of the axle movement is critical. Shocks control compression and rebound, and the lighter the load, the more effect a shock has over the control. This is also a good reason to upgrade to a coil over shock IFS compared to the OEM strut design.

One drawback of independent suspension is that when it comes time to add suspension lift, many mounting points on the frame need to be lowered to maintain factory suspension geometry. That means you may need large brackets that hang down and the points for failure increase rapidly.

The Aussie lift (and the commercial version by Hazzard Sky) work within factory IFS limits to provide a modest 1.25-1.5" increase in front end clearance at a rock bottom price. The recent Dobinson lift doesn't provide more clearance; however, it does provide more wheel travel, which would translate into more articulation if the sway bar links were not limiting movement.

Independent suspensions are inherently more complex and, therefore, push the KISS rule to the side. That?s not to say that they are weaker. More that there is added potential for wear points and failure points. Most independent suspensions require at least two axle joints per side where the direction of power from the engine has to be changed, and that has to occur in multiple planes for steering axles. More pivot points allow for more points of wear and potential damage that can stop a rig in its tracks.

In attempts to keep things light weight, most axle housings in modern independent suspension systems use cast aluminum for their differential housings instead of cast iron. It is hard to definitively say that aluminum is not as strong when it comes to serving as a differential housing, but it can said that the anecdotal evidence exists. It could be that these housings are optimized for weight and lack the necessary metal to keep them together, but it seems to be an issue. Several IFS aluminum front differential housings from a number of manufacturers fail when the going gets tough. This is especially true when larger tires are added and/or traction improving devices are added, but the same failures have been seen in stock 4x4s.

Locking differentials, lower gearing, and larger-than-stock tires increase loads that can contribute to a catastrophic failure in the differential housing. Toyota switched back to an iron diff after a few years of using an aluminum housing, and the Hummer H3 used an iron version of a previously aluminum front differential housing.

Conclusion: pay attention to the materials used and the reputation of any drive train and suspension components you plan on using and abusing off-road.

Happy trails,
Snowhawk
 
#22 · (Edited)
Excellent input, it drives me batty every time someone says "oh IS won't ever work for a real Jeep". I wonder how long it would take some people to sing a different tune if they drove a KL on and off road, or if the Jeep developed FIS for the wrangler ever goes into production? (Frankly I think that's a when, not an if; the road manners it would give while not killing the legendary abilities of the Wrangler is undeniable. )
 
#24 ·
And I completely quoted the wrong post. *headdesk* I was running on about 4 hours of sleep yesterday after a six-hour emergency dash back to the GTA for work. Let's see if I can edit that.
 
#26 ·
Can confirm with HazardSky AD1 lift it's definitely not necessary. I would wager it wouldn't be necessary even with the AD2 lift (although this would be a funny-looking thing to do anyway). Same goes for MFC. Maybe someone else can positively confirm.

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#28 ·
Is there any way to cover up the hole cut in the wheel wells after grinding down the pinch welds?


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