Comments like this are exactly why I do what I do! Glad the video helped! Make sure you thoroughly inspect the frame on the LJ you plan to buy, inside and out. Stick your finger inside the holes of the frame to see if you feel any rot/rust on the lower inside. If it feel nasty in there, walk away.
yaaaas finally!! I commented on your IG, been waiting for this video 🙂 🙂 this is epic. great walk through, really appreciate the detail and close ups. that looks like a solid kit, I hate when long arms aren't bent out of the way like this, they just look gaudy. and I agree with IROC 4" is perfect for the TJ/LJ imo. your stance is looking 🔥
Ryan, thanks for the video, it definitely pushed me to order this kit. Yours is just about the only video for the LJ with this kit, but it was so thorough I went for it. I wish there were some install videos out there for the LJ, but I can't find any (I like watching all the videos I can when I spend money 😄). One thing I don't recall you talking about was how much better the ride got at highway speed, and maybe faster trails? That's one thing I'm hoping to gain going from short arm to long arm. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting mine soon. Thanks!
Glad I could help steer you in the right direction! I don't do much high speed trailing, but yes, definitely a very noticeable difference on and off road with this long arm kit. The angles and geometry are so much better with long arms on a lifted vehicle. I'm used to long arms now as I've been running them for over 10 years on different vehicles, but I still remember the first time I went from short to long - what a difference!! If you have any questions before/during install, call and talk to Josh or any of the helpful staff at IRO.
Another jeep video at long last,tell the corona copter ur essential staff providing important jeep videos for those at home 😁, that being said that's a really nice rig Ryan,very very very clean and the shocks I did copy it from ur zj and ran it on my zj. Oh and if ur gonna part with this one dibs 🤓. Again nice jeep 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
Hahaha appreciate the kind words!! If you think she's clean now though, wait till I get all the rusty old stuff cleaned up n painted. Should really freshen her up! Hopefully I'll be able to knock that out pretty soon. I made another video for you guys about the other mods recently done, but the wind noise ruined it. Gonna have to shoot it again and should have it uploaded within a few days.
I'm planning to push the rear axle back a bit more. When I do that I'll be doing custom Tom Woods shafts front and rear. I'm switching a few things up such as u joint size, going to a flange setup, etc. I'll do another video when I get to that point, but you're absolutely right, not necessary at the moment.
RYANVISION when you push the rear axle back you can get away with out because you or only push it a 1 of 2. Everybody was telling me i need it a longer driveshaft for rear and i no problem with it.
Great vid Ryan! I am currently building an 06 LJR and watched your Bestop video a while back. It helped me decide and I bought the top. Now I stumbled across another one of your videos when looking at the iron Rock off-road lift kits. They are known for having great kids and definitely one of the top but the only thing I'm concerned with is they don't have progressive rate coils. Thoughts? BTW, I live in Fair Oaks so we are very close! See you on the trails!
Small world!! My advice would be to get the IRO kit, try the included coils out and see how you like them. If you don't like them, you can always just swap the coils out in a matter of minutes. As long as the lift height is similar, you shouldn't have to change anything else.
With sway bars it would be just fine. I didn't run sway bars front or rear and it was still very stable at 80+ but definitely had body roll as any rig would without sways.
Love the flex. Any chance you did a comparison? Before and after? I have just a 2.5" spring lift. Waiting to get some funds for long arm. This kit seems to be best bang for your buck.
I didn't make any videos comparing but I can tell you without a doubt the performance on and off road has been drastically increased. It all comes down to geometry and these longer arms give wider radius for increased down travel without too much axle steer. So much adjustability and very strong too. You will be very happy with this kit no matter what kind of driving or wheeling you do. Highly recommend the 4" kit if you plan to run 35 or 37 tires.
Ryan I want to thank you for putting this video out I have been waiting for awhile for this one. My tj kit is sitting in my house as we speak waiting for me to install. Couple questions.... 1) I see you have frame safety caps does that mess with any of the install ? 2) how much adjustability do you have length wise. 3)noise wise I run metal cloak duraflex joints now with no squeak how is the noise on the iro joints and what grease do you use on them. Also just a suggestions because I have a zj and a tj. I wouldn't dump the exhaust out at the transfers case skid not because of noise but mainly because the fumes do come up in the cab when you have the top down or even depending on what soft top you run ....
Thanks for the comment and glad the video is helpful. Hopefully these answer will help a bit more: These frame caps are by Pocono so please note that my comment will be specific to that product. Yes, it did impact the install just a bit. Because the new frame sections were thicker steel and wider to overlap the existing frame, we had to relocate the 3 nuts welded to the inside of the new frame sections. We had to shift them side to side just a bit to get everything to line up. The thicker/wider frame sections also caused rear lower arm to frame clearances to be much tighter, but so far no issues. On your second question, you have quite a bit of adjustability in the arms. The threaded portion is very long. You can see how the front arms are threaded out quite a bit more than the rear arms. I still have a lot of room to push the rear back. Third, IRO joints are very quiet. On my ZJ I never had joint noise in several years. Noises drive me nuts. People often comments on how quiet and smooth my suspension was. I just use normal grease in a typical grease gun, nothing special. I like to grease the joints during assembly then maintain them using the zirc fitting.
@@ryan.vision thanks for the reply ! The info is some major help I have the same Pocono frame safety caps. I also have a genright rear stretch tank so thats why I was asking about the length of the arms and how far you can move them. Again I appreciate it and I will be following along as you post more !
Nice rig. I love the LJs for their ride and the fact that they have much more usable space in the back but I hate the way they look with the top on, love the way yours looks without it! I just finished my LS swap on my TJ, you should do it! Also, I just painted my fender flares and wish I would have done that the day I bought it, you need to paint those dull grey flares. How much was this lift and did you install yourself or have a shop do it?
Unfortunately in CA it's very tricky and expensive to do an LS or Hemi swap. We have strict smog laws and I plan to keep this rig street legal daily drivable so I have to follow all the regulations. Yes, I hate my rear fender flares haha going to replace them with some black ones that match the front for now. Eventually I'll have full rear quarter armor with flares. This lift kit runs around $3k and my buddy handled the install for me. He's a welder fabricator so I needed him to do the rear truss install. This kit can be installed by anyone with basic tools though and on the ground without a lift or anything. I installed the IRO ZJ kit and it was a bit more involved because you had to fish nut plates into the unibody. Pretty straight forward install other than the truss welding which is easy for any experienced welder.
Me an my son ordered our 4.5 inch lift kits from Iron Rock Offroad for our 1996 Jeep ZJ's. As far as extending the brake lines go, all they included was a self tapping screw to relocate the front brake line brackets. I was kind of disappointed. Did they include the lines when you ordered your kit for the old ZJ? Looking at their web site, they don't even offer the extended brake lines on their 4.5 inch premium kit. The only way to get them is to go with a long arm kit.
I had the long arm kit on the ZJ and I believe it came with extended stainless steel brake lines. The ZJ had a short arm kit prior to the long arm install, but it was a different brand. If you give IRO a call maybe they have lines available by themselves.
How did your TJ install go with this IRO long arm? Do you like it? There is not much I can find with this long arm kit on a TJ. It looks like a great kit and am seriously looking into it.
@ryan.vision Wait, the stock cat fits right where it was from the factory? Man, if I knew that was the case, I never would have cut the damn thing off of the y-pipe! 😆 I was just about to message you to ask as well when I saw this comment. So, can I just weld it back on where it was stock, and then put the rest of their exhaust kit on after it?
Hello there. What is the rule of thumb for when you would need to relocate the upper rear coil buckets? I'm installing this kit with 4.5" coils, and wondering what I need to consider or look for to know if the buckets need to be relocated.
Changing coil location is optional. You can go ahead and do the lift then take a look to see how badly your coils are bowed. If it's not too bad and rides OK you don't have to mess with them. If they're really bowed and you feel like the rear rides differently than the front you can adjust the upper location to line up with the bottom better. Also flex the Jeep out so you can see how the coils look in the rear when one side is fully compressed. That will tell you if the coils are too bowed and if the bump stop will contact the axle mount in the right spot.
In a 3 link setup like this one, there are only left/right lowers and driver side upper. No passenger side upper on this setup. Ran a similar setup on a ZJ and it performed very well.
When we dropped the factory skid plate the nuts in the frame just spun due to rust on that lower section where it attaches. We removed the rust, coated the inside, added frame reinforcements, and painted the outside. With a $3000 long arm kit going on I wanted to make sure that frame was going to be solid forever. The body mount brackets weren't touched at all, but I did install a 1" body and motor lift.
Hard to tell in the video but there's a separate cross member just above the skid plate which holds the trans. You're able to drop the skid and still have the trans held securely in place.
Yeah I'm sure it can handle whatever you want to attach it to. The links are 5/16" wall DOM and all the plate steel is super thick as well. One way you could make it even stronger is bolt it to the frame then weld it too. Mine is just bolted.
No, you can run it without relocating the rear coils but you will notice a bow in the coils depending how far back you push the rear axle. The relocation is something I planned to do even before the kit and it does make a difference.
This video is extremely helpful. Buying an LJ this fall and this video has made a lot of decisions for me, great work
Comments like this are exactly why I do what I do! Glad the video helped! Make sure you thoroughly inspect the frame on the LJ you plan to buy, inside and out. Stick your finger inside the holes of the frame to see if you feel any rot/rust on the lower inside. If it feel nasty in there, walk away.
Dayum that IronRock Long Arm kit is SO SWEET!! Mahaloz! Ryan!!
Actual wheeling footage coming soon bro!!
LJ's are so fun! Great video Ryan!
yaaaas finally!! I commented on your IG, been waiting for this video 🙂 🙂 this is epic. great walk through, really appreciate the detail and close ups. that looks like a solid kit, I hate when long arms aren't bent out of the way like this, they just look gaudy. and I agree with IROC 4" is perfect for the TJ/LJ imo. your stance is looking 🔥
Thanks for the comment and yeah I think this stance is pretty cool. Can't wait to see it with some different wheels!!
Ryan, thanks for the video, it definitely pushed me to order this kit. Yours is just about the only video for the LJ with this kit, but it was so thorough I went for it. I wish there were some install videos out there for the LJ, but I can't find any (I like watching all the videos I can when I spend money 😄). One thing I don't recall you talking about was how much better the ride got at highway speed, and maybe faster trails? That's one thing I'm hoping to gain going from short arm to long arm. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting mine soon. Thanks!
Glad I could help steer you in the right direction! I don't do much high speed trailing, but yes, definitely a very noticeable difference on and off road with this long arm kit. The angles and geometry are so much better with long arms on a lifted vehicle. I'm used to long arms now as I've been running them for over 10 years on different vehicles, but I still remember the first time I went from short to long - what a difference!! If you have any questions before/during install, call and talk to Josh or any of the helpful staff at IRO.
@@ryan.vision thanks!
Love the LJ. How bout a 1 year review?
Great idea! The LJ has been running ranch duty lately so I'll have to pull her out and show you guys the latest
Another jeep video at long last,tell the corona copter ur essential staff providing important jeep videos for those at home 😁, that being said that's a really nice rig Ryan,very very very clean and the shocks I did copy it from ur zj and ran it on my zj.
Oh and if ur gonna part with this one dibs 🤓.
Again nice jeep 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
Hahaha appreciate the kind words!! If you think she's clean now though, wait till I get all the rusty old stuff cleaned up n painted. Should really freshen her up! Hopefully I'll be able to knock that out pretty soon. I made another video for you guys about the other mods recently done, but the wind noise ruined it. Gonna have to shoot it again and should have it uploaded within a few days.
@@ryan.vision ok cool can't wait
You already have a sye kit in your transfer case so you don’t need a rear driveshaft.
I'm planning to push the rear axle back a bit more. When I do that I'll be doing custom Tom Woods shafts front and rear. I'm switching a few things up such as u joint size, going to a flange setup, etc. I'll do another video when I get to that point, but you're absolutely right, not necessary at the moment.
RYANVISION when you push the rear axle back you can get away with out because you or only push it a 1 of 2.
Everybody was telling me i need it a longer driveshaft for rear and i no problem with it.
@@200Johnnyboy you can do that but you will lose travel out of the driveshaft since it is being stretched/reduced when you move the axle
I miss my TJ
Get an LJ!
Great vid Ryan! I am currently building an 06 LJR and watched your Bestop video a while back. It helped me decide and I bought the top. Now I stumbled across another one of your videos when looking at the iron Rock off-road lift kits. They are known for having great kids and definitely one of the top but the only thing I'm concerned with is they don't have progressive rate coils. Thoughts? BTW, I live in Fair Oaks so we are very close! See you on the trails!
Small world!! My advice would be to get the IRO kit, try the included coils out and see how you like them. If you don't like them, you can always just swap the coils out in a matter of minutes. As long as the lift height is similar, you shouldn't have to change anything else.
How's this kit do at say 80 on the highway and under quick side to side steering and braking?
With sway bars it would be just fine. I didn't run sway bars front or rear and it was still very stable at 80+ but definitely had body roll as any rig would without sways.
Love the flex. Any chance you did a comparison? Before and after? I have just a 2.5" spring lift. Waiting to get some funds for long arm. This kit seems to be best bang for your buck.
I didn't make any videos comparing but I can tell you without a doubt the performance on and off road has been drastically increased. It all comes down to geometry and these longer arms give wider radius for increased down travel without too much axle steer. So much adjustability and very strong too. You will be very happy with this kit no matter what kind of driving or wheeling you do. Highly recommend the 4" kit if you plan to run 35 or 37 tires.
Ryan I want to thank you for putting this video out I have been waiting for awhile for this one. My tj kit is sitting in my house as we speak waiting for me to install.
Couple questions....
1) I see you have frame safety caps does that mess with any of the install ?
2) how much adjustability do you have length wise.
3)noise wise I run metal cloak duraflex joints now with no squeak how is the noise on the iro joints and what grease do you use on them.
Also just a suggestions because I have a zj and a tj. I wouldn't dump the exhaust out at the transfers case skid not because of noise but mainly because the fumes do come up in the cab when you have the top down or even depending on what soft top you run ....
Thanks for the comment and glad the video is helpful. Hopefully these answer will help a bit more: These frame caps are by Pocono so please note that my comment will be specific to that product. Yes, it did impact the install just a bit. Because the new frame sections were thicker steel and wider to overlap the existing frame, we had to relocate the 3 nuts welded to the inside of the new frame sections. We had to shift them side to side just a bit to get everything to line up. The thicker/wider frame sections also caused rear lower arm to frame clearances to be much tighter, but so far no issues. On your second question, you have quite a bit of adjustability in the arms. The threaded portion is very long. You can see how the front arms are threaded out quite a bit more than the rear arms. I still have a lot of room to push the rear back. Third, IRO joints are very quiet. On my ZJ I never had joint noise in several years. Noises drive me nuts. People often comments on how quiet and smooth my suspension was. I just use normal grease in a typical grease gun, nothing special. I like to grease the joints during assembly then maintain them using the zirc fitting.
@@ryan.vision thanks for the reply ! The info is some major help I have the same Pocono frame safety caps. I also have a genright rear stretch tank so thats why I was asking about the length of the arms and how far you can move them. Again I appreciate it and I will be following along as you post more !
Nice rig. I love the LJs for their ride and the fact that they have much more usable space in the back but I hate the way they look with the top on, love the way yours looks without it! I just finished my LS swap on my TJ, you should do it! Also, I just painted my fender flares and wish I would have done that the day I bought it, you need to paint those dull grey flares. How much was this lift and did you install yourself or have a shop do it?
Unfortunately in CA it's very tricky and expensive to do an LS or Hemi swap. We have strict smog laws and I plan to keep this rig street legal daily drivable so I have to follow all the regulations. Yes, I hate my rear fender flares haha going to replace them with some black ones that match the front for now. Eventually I'll have full rear quarter armor with flares. This lift kit runs around $3k and my buddy handled the install for me. He's a welder fabricator so I needed him to do the rear truss install. This kit can be installed by anyone with basic tools though and on the ground without a lift or anything. I installed the IRO ZJ kit and it was a bit more involved because you had to fish nut plates into the unibody. Pretty straight forward install other than the truss welding which is easy for any experienced welder.
I have the Spin Tech 9000 muffler on my ZJ its small and loud.
Me an my son ordered our 4.5 inch lift kits from Iron Rock Offroad for our 1996 Jeep ZJ's. As far as extending the brake lines go, all they included was a self tapping screw to relocate the front brake line brackets. I was kind of disappointed. Did they include the lines when you ordered your kit for the old ZJ? Looking at their web site, they don't even offer the extended brake lines on their 4.5 inch premium kit. The only way to get them is to go with a long arm kit.
I had the long arm kit on the ZJ and I believe it came with extended stainless steel brake lines. The ZJ had a short arm kit prior to the long arm install, but it was a different brand. If you give IRO a call maybe they have lines available by themselves.
I’m in the process of installing this kit on my TJ. What did you end up doing with the exhaust?
I just cut if off after the cat and put a chrome tip but there was room to run the muffler if wanted
How’d it turn out? I’ve got a 6” kit from iron rock in my garage waiting for a few more parts.
How did your TJ install go with this IRO long arm? Do you like it? There is not much I can find with this long arm kit on a TJ. It looks like a great kit and am seriously looking into it.
@ryan.vision Wait, the stock cat fits right where it was from the factory? Man, if I knew that was the case, I never would have cut the damn thing off of the y-pipe! 😆
I was just about to message you to ask as well when I saw this comment. So, can I just weld it back on where it was stock, and then put the rest of their exhaust kit on after it?
Hello there. What is the rule of thumb for when you would need to relocate the upper rear coil buckets? I'm installing this kit with 4.5" coils, and wondering what I need to consider or look for to know if the buckets need to be relocated.
Changing coil location is optional. You can go ahead and do the lift then take a look to see how badly your coils are bowed. If it's not too bad and rides OK you don't have to mess with them. If they're really bowed and you feel like the rear rides differently than the front you can adjust the upper location to line up with the bottom better. Also flex the Jeep out so you can see how the coils look in the rear when one side is fully compressed. That will tell you if the coils are too bowed and if the bump stop will contact the axle mount in the right spot.
so did you not need to weld the long arm kit? was it a bolt in?
It's mostly bolt in but the truss does have to be welded to the rear axle for the 4 link setup.
Just wondering what the part number on the rear shock is. I have IRO springs and was wanting the length they use.
I'd check for ya but sold the LJ a few months back. Give IRO a call, they'll be able to dial you in. Josh and his crew are very helpful.
also, how is there no front passenger side upper CA? did I miss that explanation?
In a 3 link setup like this one, there are only left/right lowers and driver side upper. No passenger side upper on this setup. Ran a similar setup on a ZJ and it performed very well.
You don’t need the pass upper link. I remove them and install a beefier upper driver side link on all my TJ/XJ/MJ/ZJ’s
What frame repair / strengthening kit did you use?
I believe they are called Safe T Cap
What's up with the frame? Was it boxed? And were the body mount brackets raised up?
When we dropped the factory skid plate the nuts in the frame just spun due to rust on that lower section where it attaches. We removed the rust, coated the inside, added frame reinforcements, and painted the outside. With a $3000 long arm kit going on I wanted to make sure that frame was going to be solid forever. The body mount brackets weren't touched at all, but I did install a 1" body and motor lift.
What frame repair kit did you use?
what cartridge style joints does IRO use?
You can see more details about the IRO control arm joints here: www.ironrockoffroad.com/product/2-38-weld-on-flex-joint.html
RYANVISION that’s actually pretty cool. No special tools and a pretty simple design.
Does the skid plate hold up the transmission 23:00?
Hard to tell in the video but there's a separate cross member just above the skid plate which holds the trans. You're able to drop the skid and still have the trans held securely in place.
@ryan.vision yep, one of the cool and unique parts about this kit, in my opinion.
Do you think this kit is beefy enough for a 1 ton setup??
Yeah I'm sure it can handle whatever you want to attach it to. The links are 5/16" wall DOM and all the plate steel is super thick as well. One way you could make it even stronger is bolt it to the frame then weld it too. Mine is just bolted.
@@ryan.vision thanks buddy
So the kit won't come with relocation for coils
No, you can run it without relocating the rear coils but you will notice a bow in the coils depending how far back you push the rear axle. The relocation is something I planned to do even before the kit and it does make a difference.
Lower spring retainers are nice for piece of mind
What is the tire/wheel set up on this
Not sure on the exact wheel specs as I got rid of those but the tires are 35x12.50x15. I'm currently running 15x8 Methods with 3.5 backspacing
Very good. I got the same size and 35x12.5r15 3.75 in backspacing. No body lift on this set up right