The XJ Cherokee has gained popularity in off road circles over the past few years. As the pool of affordable XJs increases more and more four wheelers are turning their eyes to these capable 4x4 wagons. Though they often get branded as grocery getters or mall crawlers the XJ enthusiasts are die hard fans and this fanaticism has drawn the attention of aftermarket companies. The end result has been a huge increase in the parts available for XJs from lift kits to armor and bumpers. In this article we'll address the installation of the Rock Krawler XJ Super 8 Plus long arm w/ rear coil over conversion lift kit. The Rock Krawler kit contains the arms, brackets, front coils, and rear coil over shocks. This Cherokee was already running the Rock Krawler long arm upgrade with a Rusty's lift kit. Rock Krawler sent their new bent lower control arms (more on those later) and their complete rear triangulated 4-link setup with coil over shocks.

First we'll start with the front: Previously Rock Krawler used their solid Krawler Joint at both ends of their straight lower control arms. The ride was good, but it wasn't the greatest on small bumps. Without a bushing at one end to absorb some of that shock all of the vibration and jolting gets transferred into the unibody. Their new arms now have a rubber bushing at the frame end which makes for a great ride both on and off road! They also are bent for high clearance (no more using the arms as rock sliders). The kit still uses a single upper control arm. This allows for amazing flex without affecting the ride on the street.

Now for the fun part: the rear 4-link with coil overs. The rear uses the same bent arms as the front (shown with straight arms, bent arms were not ready at time of installation) and Rock Krawler Racing Development coil over racing shocks. The rear does require the new brackets and truss be welded on. After that, it's just a matter of bolting the arms and coil overs on. The production version of this kit will be shipping with the updated bent lower control arms for additional clearance.

The rear control arm brackets line up with a stock hole on the frame rail, and then are bolted into place using 3 bolts through the frame.

The upper truss / control arm mount is centered on the rear axle and welded on. The lower control arm / coil over mount is welded below the stock leaf spring perch, it's located with a supplied jig, and then welded.

The upper coil over mounts bolt on with the stock bump stop bolts for proper placement, and are welded on.

On road: The On road ride is improved over the previous arms that were used, due to the new bushings to absorb all of the bumps. The coil overs are a huge improvement over the old leaf springs. With a normal XJ setup (coils and leafs), the rear would bounce over stuff and ride like a truck. With the rear 4-link and coil overs the Jeep just glides over everything, giving the XJ a more car-like ride on road.

Off road: The first thing I noticed offroad was all of the old noises from the unibody flexing on the trails was GONE! Before the unibody was very noisy and didn't seem to like getting twisted up on the trails. Now with the coil overs no more noises, it was like driving down a paved road! Just like the old setups, the front flex is amazing. The big difference now is clearance under the front arms. The old straight arms that I removed where very beat up from being used as rock sliders in the rocks. The new arms are up out of the way, which allows the tires to stay on the ground when breaking over ledges and not lifting up from resting on the rocks.

All hard parts come with Rock Krawler's exclusive abuse proof lifetime guarantee!

As noted earlier installation of this kit requires welding of the new control arm brackets to the frame and removal of the OEM lower control arm brackets. Also the new upper and lower coil over mounts as well as the axle truss require welding. All brackets requiring welding bolt into place using factory fasteners and locations and can be welded prior to disassembling the vehicle and completing the installation. This allows all the welding to be done at a welding shop and then driven home for the rest of the install if you don't have access to a welder. As a final note this setup requires modifications or a custom exhaust system to be installed to clear the new rear control arms.

For more information on Rock Krawler Suspensions click on the link below: