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"Lift less...cut more" You may have heard that said before. Lately it seems to be finding it's way into more and more internet sites, home garages, and fab shops and we wanted to take a look at what might be a good idea for your next mod as well.

As tire sizes climb to where 35s are pretty normal and 37s to 40s are da' kine for more serious rockcrawer/trail rigs, the lift required to run this size tire and avoid sheetmetal contact would get monster truck. So, enter the 'cut more' part of the saying. By careful (or not so careful) use of a sawzall to trim sheetmetal and creative use of bumpstops, Jeeps are running around with 40" tires on 2" of lift. "Crazy", you say? "Cutting edge", I say.

But why go to so much trouble to stay low? By keeping the center of gravity low, side hills become less scary. Steep climbs feel better from the drivers seat. Driveline angles place less stress on u-joints and shorter driveshafts become more tolerable. Can you go too low? Probably. At some point you can only trim so much sheetmetal before you have no body left to speak of and that can be a real issue if you need to stay street legal in some states. Also, the lower you are the less belly pan clearance you have so keeping transfer cases tucked up out of the way is a good thing.

Now once you start cutting, it can open up all kinds of possibilties. Some smart guy, after trimming things a bit, decided to replicate the old flat fender Jeep look by eliminating the fender flares altogether and leaving only a vestigial fender in place. Then, tube fenders came around. Folks took steel tubing, usually 1.25" diameter or so, and formed new fenders in the flat fender style that not only made for more uptravel, they were tough enough to ward off rock hits as well. As you can see from the above pics off their site, Poison Spider Customs has taken the tube fender look to an art, but many others have jumped in to the market. Some require welding and cutting and some just bolt on. The Poison Spider guys even offer a rear tube flare to match the front.

Take a look at the next set of pics above. Tube fenders allow for a bit more uptravel and a larger tire, but when you figure in the diameter of the tubing used, it really only gives a couple of inches more room. If you really want to get things out of the way, the hood becomes the limiting factor, so now there are hood and fender setups that do just that. Notice the three pics showing how this is accomplished. The one on the left looks clean and you can plainly see how the 'cut' line continues up into the hood. The middle pic of the AEV Jeep shows this in greater detail. This blue Tj has the Highline Fender AEV offers that completely replaces the stock Jeep parts. See how the top of the fender is above the top of the headlight? On a stock TJ it is more like the middle of the headlight as far as fender placement. That is a bunch more room! The pic on the right shows a red Jeep driven by Chris Durham. They offer a hood and fender setup like this as well. If I have my facts right, those are 40" tires on less than 2" of lift. It might look a bit odd, but I have heard it worked really well on trail.

What else can you do to stay low? One other factor is getting the wheels out of the wheelwells with a wider stance. This can be as simple as aftermarket wheels with less backspacing or as complicated as wider axles. Full width axles from a 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton, or 1 ton truck can really open up some room between fenders and tires but often the extra width places the tires too far outside of the fenders to avoid the stern warning from the state or local constabulary. Most full width axles run about 67" wide and a newer Jeep YJ/TJ is 61" wide, CJs being even narrower depending on the model year. Take a look at the next set of pics I have collected as examples of keeping a lower and or wider look.

Take a look at the happy little YJ next door here (courtesy of Skyjacker.com). Compared to the CJ, the YJ was lowered to make it more palatable to the safety folks who make it their life's passion to keep us safe despite ourselves. The lower stance and relatively small fender openings (in the rear) means it will need a fair amount of lift to fit larger tires under there. Let us take a look at what Skyjacker recommends for lift vs. tire fitment on this Jeep.

2" lift = 31" tire

4" lift = 33" tire

6" lift = 35" tire

So, if you wish to run a 33" tire, it looks like a 4" lift is mandatory, but remember that any manufacturer needs to take into account a stock vehicle with no fender or body trimming. Now consider that typically a spring rated for less lift will ride better and require less driveline angle changes. So, how can we run 33's on only 2" of lift? Well how about adding a 1" body lift? A 1" body lift will not require any significant changes in shifter or radiator location and will give you just a bit more room before things go crunch. A longer than stock shackle can give you some lift as well, but be very careful. A shackle only gives half the lift over the increased length compared to stock. In other words a 2" longer than stock shackle will give 1" of lift since it only lifts one end of the spring. Long shackles, especially in a shackle forward set up on the front axle can reduce the amount of caster in a front end resulting in nervous steering, add leverage on frame shackle mounts and hang down enough to be nice rock magnets reducing approach angle.

So, the 2" springs, one inch body lift and moderate lift shackles (like 3/8" to 1" over stock) may get it done if you are not looking for a lot of off road axle travel. Remember, you can always place the axle bumpstops lower to keep tires out of sheetmetal although you reduce uptravel as a result. On a YJ, going to TJ rear fender flares and doing some modest sheetmetal trimming will really open up the rear wheelwell openings for larger tires. See the idea? It is more work this way, but many feel the benefits of a more stable Jeep and better ride are worth it. There are a lot of variables here, so ask other Jeepers and do some research before you buy springs and start cutting stuff.

Inspiring is it not? I am sold for Project Blue Oval YJ. I am staying SUA on Skyjacker Rock Ready 4" lift military wrapped springs, adding a 1" M.O.R.E body lift, moving my axles till I have 100" of wheelbase, going slightly wider with a Waggy front D44 with Ford outers to get 5 on 5.5 bolt circle pattern, a Ford 8.8 rear axle with a 1" spacer to get to around 62" wide front and rear and using a aftermarket wheel with 3.75" of wheel backspacing. On this, I will trim and tube the fenders till I have room for 37" Goodyear MTR tires and move the bumpstops till it all fits. I may even do my own cut-the-hood dealie...not sure yet.

So, unless you are a mug bogger or swamp guy or you run deep snow all year, consider how you can keep it low!