opinions on earlier model liberty kj's?

[JBurns]

what axles do they have? has anyone wheeled with them? thinking about getting one. i don't want to get a grand cherokee or cherokee, trying to stay away from getting another wrangler but an unlimited is starting to look promising.

i was just wondering about the older models of the liberty? been looking them up and it looks like 2.5 is about the most you can do without really having to modify them?

i was trying to find bumpers for them and it looks like arb is about the only thing out there?

do they make a body lift for them? thinking maybe a 2.5 lift and a 1 body lift oughta do the trick?

as far as room is concerned is there any noticeable differance between them and an xj? other than body style?

[coachchuck]

I saw one wheeling at Tuttle last year.
It was a Renegade model. Came with a little lift from the factory. I talked to the owner. He got it to go camping and not hard wheeling.
I am thinking it has IFS axle which is not the best for hard wheeling.
I have only seen a couple with aftermarket bumpers.
Don't know if this helps any. I like the body style. Personally I don't think it has as much room as a xj, but I could be wrong.

[cgmrdc]

I think they have the 29 spline 8.25 but i think it is narrower than the XJ counterpart. They also have IFS, but I read a neat write up a while back where a guy had 35s on it and i think he swapped in rubi 44s front and rear... cant remember... long time ago...

[jagular7]

There are specific KJ forums out there in the web.

Yes, the front is a IFS with a wishbone style coil-over strut. The rear will be 8.25 but will have discs. Here is a lift install on one. Another link to a discussion. Lots of links in the discussion to other forums. I looked at them before I bought my XL7 back in 03.

[Grumpy Dwarf]

They are comparable to the XJ when it comes to passenger space, maybe a little more head room but when it comes to cargo space behind the back seat they have a little less. The rear axle is a chrysler 8.25 (at least it was in the limited we had) and the front is IFS. Like Coach Chuck said the IFS will not stand up to hard core wheeling. I don't believe they make a body lift for it as it has a unibody and therefore no real frame.

Go to this site http://www.lostkjs.com/ there should be lots of information about them on it.

[Guest]

We had an '03 Limited for a few years. It was really a nice vehicle, and my wife liked it a lot. It is small. So much so that when we started thinking about kids we tried to put a car seat in the back and realized it sucked big time. It actually felt much smaller than an XJ to me, which is odd since it was intended to replace the XJ.

Ours had a D35 rear axle, but didn't have the tow package so that may be the reason.

BL is not possible since it's uni-body construction.

Fitting anything larger than 30" tires requires extensive trimming and lots of lift as the fender openings are very small.

The 3.7L engine was nice though. Plenty of power for that little vehicle. Economy was around 17-18 with mixed city/hwy driving.

I briefly considered getting one and wheeling it after I sold the CJ, but the limitations stated above were just too much.

[WillyNilly]

search youtube they get wheeled and seem to do well...