Installation Time
(approx) 4 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Light to Moderate mechanical skill required.
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Justin: The Skyjacker Dual Rate Long Travel Suspension Lift Kit that we have here today will be an affordable way for all 2018 and newer 4-door JL owners looking to lift their rigs anywhere from 2 to 2.5 inches, comfortably making room for a set of 35 or even a set of 37-inch tires. Now, this kit will include brand new dual-rate springs and matching long-travel shocks, along with all of the corresponding hardware, bump, and end link extenders needed for the install, for right around that high $500 price point. So if you guys didn't know, Skyjacker has been around ever since the mid-1970s, if you can believe it, and those guys continue to crank out affordable yet high-quality components for a wide variety of vehicles, including just about every generation Jeep you can think of.Now, they've continued that tradition here with their latest kits for the JL Wrangler, including this one that we have on the table today, so let's break it down a little further. Now, right up front, what you guys need to know is that this option will only apply to the 4-door non-Rubicon JL owners out there. So, with that said, if you have a 2-door or maybe a Rubi, well, you can always find other options on the site to deliver a similar lift that this one delivers.Now, this kit, again, will lift your 4-door roughly 2 to 2.5 inches, and that will be enough to make room, comfortably, for a set of 35s, for that full off-road articulation, or even a set of 37s, but that's gonna be geared more towards a little bit more of a street-driven rig, with limited articulation without rubbing, so, occasional trail riders out there, something like that. Thirty-sevens, you can certainly get them on there, but if you're really gonna be flexing that thing, you might want to stick to a 35, just to be on the safe side.Now, that extra altitude, in this case, is made possible thanks to Skyjacker's new dual-rate springs here, which I really dig because they tend to deliver the best of both worlds in regards to on-road comfort and off-road performance. Now, this is actually something you see a lot of times in aftermarket sports car springs, and for good reason. It works very well, kind of delivers on both fronts on the road. Now, in this case, it's gonna be a little bit different, right? Because we're talking about a Jeep here, and what's gonna happen is you're going to basically initially engage these tightly-wound coils. That's your first, or initial rate. And that's gonna deliver that slightly softer ride, more comfortable ride on the road, and, at the same time, will also help keep the tires on the ground in full droop-type scenarios. Certainly worth pointing out.Now, once you start getting into that secondary rate here, basically, the more widespread coils, that's when the spring will really start firming up and offering a little bit more stability in those more high-speed off-road situations. Now, of course, you can't have that stability without having a high-quality damper to keep everything in control, and that task is gonna be handled in this case by the matching Skyjacker Black MAX here, which is the company's long-travel twin-tube offering. Now, Skyjacker actually incorporates a foam cell insert within the shock itself, and that's just there to help compensate for any oil expansion, help prevent that cavitation, and just ultimately make for a more consistent performance no matter what the situation.Now, because these guys can be mounted basically upside down, any direction, it's gonna give you a little added flexibility when it comes time to talk about clearance as well. One other thing I'd like to point out with the shocks, and basically the entire kit, for that matter, I love how everything is just nice and black, low-key... They do come with some stickers for the dampers here, or the shocks, if you did want to kind of jazz things up a little bit, but I'm a big fan of that stealthy all-black finish here. It's gonna flow well with any color rig out there. And of course, they also kick in four dust boots for the shocks themselves.But, outside of the springs, and of course, your shocks, which we've already covered, Skyjacker does also include some pretty clutch supporting mods in the form of your extended front and rear sway bar end links, as well as your front and rear bump stop extensions as well. Now, the extended end links will be vital for allowing that full droop and full travel of your suspension, while the extended bump stops will ensure that no tire-to-suspension contact is gonna happen at full bump.But because this kit requires no modification to get installed, the site's gonna go strong two out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter here, and about four hours to complete from start to finish, depending on your setup, and just how fast you like to work. Now, as far as tools are concerned, guys, we're gonna need a good bit of the toolbox here today, as expected. Some of these include a number of wrenches, sockets, and an impact, 3/8 or half-inch, whatever you got, a few flathead screwdrivers, a hammer, some Allen keys, pair of scissors, and a can of your favorite penetrating spray, PB B'last, whatever you got laying around the garage.But to give you a better idea of just how things will go down on your 4-door at home, here's an XT customer to walk you through it now. Check it out.Man: We just got our 2018 Jeep Skyjacker 2.5-inch lift. What we're gonna do here is we wanna make sure that we have everything in the box, make sure everything's here that we need. We have the front springs and the rear. Now, with the rear, you're gonna wanna pay attention. They're different lengths. The longer one is gonna go on the side with your gas tank. We also have our sway bar end links, our front bump stops, and our rear bump stops. And of course, we got our Skyjacker shocks. Wanna make sure that we're using the same shocks that came in the kit, because they match the spring rate.So, the first thing we're gonna need to do is get the Jeep up in the air. [inaudible 00:05:39] the body up. So, we're just gonna start with the jack and a jack stand. You always wanna use jack stands. It's way safer...We'll lift the front of the vehicle up, then [inaudible 00:05:51] shouldn't go anywhere if it's in park, but you wanna make sure you set the park brake. Gonna take the front wheels off. These [inaudible 00:06:03] You have two 5-millimeter Allen head bolts right here, and then once you pop this cover off, there's a special tool that you need to remove for your lug nuts.Now that we have the wheels off, the first thing that we're gonna get into is take this splash guard off. On the front, there's eight of these clips. If you don't have access, or have clip tool, it's easy enough with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.The next thing we're gonna take off is this guard here. Just two 16-millimeter bolts. Now that we have the guards out of the way, we can access our track bar and our drag link. You're gonna need a 21-millimeter wrench and a 20-millimeter socket. At this point, you're also going to wanna have your axle supported by a jack stand.Now we need to separate this ball joint. You can either use a ball joint fork, or you're gonna use what we do, is we're just gonna take a hammer and gonna put some shock into this so it releases that shaft. Once you have this ball joint loose, you're just gonna take your nut off, let it hang down for now.Now that we have these links out of the way, what we're gonna do now is we're gonna take our sway bar end links off. It's the same process for both sides. You're gonna need a 6-millimeter Allen for the top one, and an 18-millimeter wrench. Use the Allen to hold the shaft steady while you break the nut loose. Once you take that nut off, you're going to then take the bottom one off for that one. You need an 18-millimeter wrench and an 18-millimeter socket.Now, on the passenger side of the vehicle, this one has a flag nut on the opposite side of the bolt, so you do not need the wrench, just the ratchet.So now what we need to do is we're gonna take our shocks out. What we're gonna start with in an 18-millimeter ratchet. You also want a wrench for the lower bolt. You could take this fender liner out if you need to, but it's simple enough. You can just pull it out, and set on your bolt, and loosen it.Now that we have the top bolt out, set it down, take out the [inaudible 00:10:52]. Now you can just set the pulled shock down. While you're here, you also wanna disconnect your brake line bracket. When we drop this axle down later, you don't wanna break your lines, so just take the bracket off of both sides. 15-millimeter.The next step is going to be to disconnect your four-well drive actuator. It's on the passenger side of the vehicle. It's pretty simple. You'll see here there's a white locking tab. You just have to pop that tab out. It only pops out a few millimeters. Then you just press down on the tab, and it releases. Once you do that, you'll see over here, there's two push clips you need to pull out of the housing, and then out of the sway bar.Once you're ready to remove the driveshaft, you're gonna need a pry bar and a 15-millimeter ratchet. You're gonna use the pry bar to hold your driveshaft in place, since it's free-spinning. Just gonna break them loose. Take them off. You wanna do this. That way, when it drops down, doesn't drop down and over-extend your CV joint. Now that's hanging loose. You can see right here on the driver's side, above the [inaudible 00:13:55] and there's gonna be a breather tube. You're just gonna need a pair of pliers.Now we're gonna check that everything is free, we don't have any more wiring, all our brake lines are loose. Okay, everything's good. Now we can drop our axle down and take our springs out. Now we're gonna drop our axle down. We wanna be really careful, and just keep an eye on everything, make sure everything comes down real nice and easy, and doesn't bind.Now that we have the axle down, gonna take our springs out. Get your spring out and make sure that you don't lose that piece there. Now that we have the old spring out, we're gonna have to drop the axle down a little more, to get the new springs in. Make sure your top perch is in. I'm gonna slide it over. We're gonna stick the new bumper inside. We're good now. We just need to rotate the spring until it meets, right here, you can see where it locks in. Make sure that's nice and good. Everything's good up here. Now, for these new bumpers, we're gonna need a 7/32 Allen wrench for up top, and a 9/16 socket for the bottom. And this hardware comes in the kit. And usually, from the front of the vehicle, you slide your hands in, get your washer and your nut on.So, on the passenger side, what I've found is it's a lot easier if you take this bracket off. You have a 10-millimeter bolt here, on the right side. Take that out to pull your bracket out, and it's got a tongue that fits into a groove over here. Pull it out of the way, and then you can access that Allen and nut easier. Now, when you're tightening these down, you don't have to make them too tight. They just have to be snug enough to hold your bump stop in place. Seeing how this is a plastic, you can draw bolt down through it. And it's good there, you can see that the bump stop's in place, everything's tight. So then our next step will to...need to put the new shocks on.So now we're gonna lift our axle back up so we can attach our driveshaft. Again, you wanna be careful. As you're compressing your springs up, you don't wanna lift your vehicle up off the jack stands. And also, be wary of pinching your wiring and brake lines. Okay, now that we have that high enough, we can connect the driveshaft. Remember to line up your mark that you made earlier. And also, we can see that these bolts had blue Loctite on them before, so we're gonna put fresh Loctite back on. Now that we have those in, gonna take a torque wrench, and we're gonna set it to 89 foot-pounds. And again, you'll need a pry bar to hold these.Now that we have the driveshaft on, we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna lift our axle up, and install our drag link. So, to install your drag link, what you're gonna wanna do is lift your axle up till it slides in there nicely, and you're gonna wanna gonna have a 21-millimeter wrench and a 7-millimeter Allen. You gotta insert the Allen from the top of the ball joint, keep it from rotating. Once you have that tightened up, we're just gonna go through and we're gonna reconnect our breather tube, our brackets on our sway bars, and our 4-wheel drive wiring.So now we're gonna prep our shocks for installation. As you can see here, you have two different sets of shocks. Look close and you can see that there's a longer body and a shorter body. Part number for the shorter body is B8386. The longer body is B8388. Now, you're gonna take the shorter...shorter one's first, because that's gonna be for the front. Now, what we need to do is we need to install rubber grommets and the spacers. The gold spacers are for the top, and the silver ones go on the bottom. So, we're gonna take some PB B'laster or WD-40, and we're just gonna lube up these grommets.Now, for these, they also come with these dust boots. You're gonna wanna put them on before you stick your gold tube on. Now that we have our dust cover on and our rubber grommet in, we can install the gold spacer. It's gonna be even on either side. And [inaudible 00:21:49] provided rubber bushings. So, now that we have our bushings all installed, top and bottom, gonna repeat the process for all four shocks.So now, we're gonna put our shocks on now. Remember, you're gonna wanna use the shorter-bodied shocks that you have. We're gonna re-use the factory hardware. We're gonna start with the top first. Okay, once you have [inaudible 00:22:57] tight, you wanna switch to the bottom. You can just pull the shock down to where you need it. We're gonna make sure that we insert the bolt the same way that it came out. You wanna have the nut on the inside, next to the sway bar. Once you have it installed [inaudible 00:23:29], switch to the other side and do the same thing.So now, we're gonna do our sway bar end links. Skyjacker provides you with new hardware. You're gonna start with the 19-millimeter hex head, put a washer on it, put it through. Now, you can see here, it doesn't line quite up, so we're gonna use our jack, just to lower the axle until we get our bolt holes to line up. Now, on the passenger side, we're still gonna use the factory hardware with this flag nut. So, the top hardware that Skyjacker provides is 19-millimeter for the nut and the bolt.So, to get the drag bar link back and installed, as you put it up, it's not gonna line up right. So what we have to do is we have to put both tires back on, set the Jeep on the ground, and use the steering wheel to line that drag bar link back up.Okay, to get the drag bar link back installed, what you're gonna have to do is you're gonna have to have an assistant turn the wheel while you line it all up, and then just install it. 21-millimeter for the nut and the bolt. So, now that you've got everything on and installed, you just give everything a quick once-over, make sure all your bolts, nothing's loose. Your wiring, make sure it's tight, clipped in. Your brake lines, make sure they're on your control arms. And then, looks good. All right, so now we're gonna put our shield back on. These clips that go in the front splash guard, I find it's easier to separate the locking pin with the actual clip. So, you're gonna push it in, and then realign the tabs.All right. Now that we have the front done, we're gonna switch to the back. So, we're gonna do these [inaudible 00:27:01] sway bar links here, 18-millimeter socket and wrench. Same thing with the ball joint up front. Put your wrench on first, and then you'll need a 6-millimeter Allen key to hold that in place. So, on the passenger side of the vehicle, we're gonna take the rear track bar link off. It's just 21-millimeter socket and ratchet. Once you have out, the next step's gonna be to remove the rear shocks. To do that, we're gonna have to take off the rear mud flap and this guard here. For the mud flap, there is four just push pin clips, and for the guard, there is three 8-millimeter bolts.Now, at this point you also wanna have your axle supported before you pull these off. While we have the rear shocks off, we're gonna go through and we're gonna take these brackets, take them loose off the frame, and we're going to release the clip on the axle breather tube. We're also gonna take a bracket loose on the axle itself, with just a 13-millimeter.So, now that we have everything disconnected, and our breather lines and our brake lines loosened up, [inaudible 00:30:07] we're gonna drop our axle down, take the old springs out. You wanna be careful not to take them down too far, because your park brake cable's over here. Now, you do wanna be aware that these springs are side-specific. The longer one will go on the right side, behind the gas tank. And you also wanna make sure that your spring perch matches up whenever you install a new spring. Now, when you install the new springs, you wanna make sure that this tab meets up with the new spring, and also, these little teats need to line up inside the spring shackle.So, I found that I couldn't get the springs in, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna loosen up the brake cable, up here. There is a 13-millimeter bolt holding a clamp. Once we get that off, it should give us room to drop the axle down and install the springs.Once you have your axle low enough, make sure you set your set your spring in the perch correct, and put the perch up in the housing, and just press up. And slide your spring home. Make sure it looks seated nicely.Next, we're gonna install our bump stops for the rear. These here have a long side and a short side. You wanna make sure that your long side is facing towards the back. Skyjacker also provides nuts and bolts for them. Now that we have our bump stops installed, we're gonna put our shocks in. And just pull your shock down to the lower mount. May have to raise your axle.Now that we have that installed, we can go ahead and put our sway bar links back in. Now, Skyjacker doesn't install these already. Little guides. They just slide right in. On the bottom, I'm gonna use the factory hardware. Slide the bolt in from the shock side. Thread your nut on. And then, for the top, Skyjacker includes new hardware. It's a 5/16 Allen head. Comes with washers as well, and a locking nut. The nut on the back side is a 3/4-inch.Now that we got our lift kit done on our Jeep, we're gonna go around and we're gonna torque all of our lug nuts to 130 foot-pounds. And also, since we messed with the suspension, we need to go get a alignment done.Justin: So, wrapping this one up, you guys, if you are looking for an affordable suspension lift kit from a very trusted name, to fit a 35 or even a 37-inch tire, be sure to consider the Long Travel Kit from Skyjacker for your JL, right here at extremeterrain.com.
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Features, Description, Reviews, Q&A, Specs & Installation
Improved Stance. Upgrade your 2018-2023 Jeep Wrangler JL's stance with SkyJacker's 2-2.50 Inch Dual Rate-Long Travel Lift Kit with Black MAX Shocks. This impressive lift kit boasts an ideal design which effectively lifts your Jeep 2-2.50 inches, creating an aggressive stance that will put you firmly above the rest, while simultaneously improving your ground clearance for the trickiest terrains. The kit even comes with front and rear extended sway bar end links to allow for proper droop and long travel as well as front and rear bump stop extensions that help the suspension clear the tires at bump.
Black MAX Shocks. Featuring long travel front and rear Black MAX shocks that are length fitted to provide maximum extension, this kit has everything you'll need to take on the most challenging adventures. In fact, the shocks manage to offer unbeatable articulation, which is perfect when taking on demanding trails and off road obstacles.
Coil Springs. This kit also boasts coil springs that feature 1 spring rate that is ideal for highway rides as well as perfectly handles when the suspension is at full droop. Meanwhile, the springs also have a second rate that allows for superior control and stability during those off road drives when suspension movement is needed so you can get the best ride possible at all times.
Installation. Using the included hardware and instructions, those with moderate mechanical skills will be able to secure this lift kit. Just set aside about 4 hours for the installation.
Warranty. This lift kit is backed by a limited lifetime warranty for protection against defects in materials and craftsmanship. Some limitations apply, so see the full warranty for details.
Application. SkyJacker's 2-2.50 inch Dual Rate-Long Travel Lift Kit with Black MAX Shocks is built for all 2018-2023 Jeep Wrangler JLs with 4 doors, excluding Rubicons.
Fitment:
SkyJacker JL25BPBLT
CA Residents: WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm - www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Installation Info
Installation Time
(approx) 4 Hours
Difficulty Level:
Light to Moderate mechanical skill required.
What's in the Box
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