Jeep suspension upgrades are big business in ‘The States with so many options available; Rugged Ridge, Iron Rock, Rough Country, just to mention a few. In fact it was hard to try and select what would be required, the choice was so great.
In the end we emailed two to three places giving details of our Project Cherokee and what our plans were in regards to tyres etc and asked for their recommendations and who their New Zealand agents were.
Of the replies we got back, Zack from Iron Rock Off Road made some meaningful suggestions. He also had taken the time to check out our NZ4WD website to see what type of four wheeling we do and came back with his recommended option which met our requirement and budget.
That option was their Iron Rock Premium Short Arm kit with the upgrade to the 3.5” (88.9mm) leaf packs. This is a complete kit that comes with better springs and shocks; it also comes with IRO Heavy Duty adjustable upper and lower control arms for easier camber adjustment, a double shear track bar, again adjustable, and new suspension bushes.
The IRO short arm suspension kit came with options as to the type of shock absorbers and even the colour of the shock boots. Bilstein shocks were the top of the range but our budget would not allow us to opt for them however the optional Doetsch shock 8000 seemed a good choice.
Doetsch Tech shocks are a progressive twin-tube design based on many years of off-road racing and testing at actual off-road racing events, such as the Baja 1000 and include their own bump stop.
Whilst we had no plans to be doing the Baja 1000 or the NZ equivalent, the NZ1000, they would certainly help transform the on and off-road ability of Project 12K for only an extra US$70.00.
All up the suspension has cost us slightly more than we budgeted for but we consider the resulting benefits on and off road have been well worth it.
Next up is fitting the new tyres.
To read the full story in the November 2015 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (on sale October 19) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.
