Effect of lift kit on gas mileage

[JRMichler]

Here's a guy that lifted his Jeep Cherokee and compared gas mileage before and after:

I regret lifting my daily driver Jeep

His mileage dropped from 19 highway down to 14-15 MPG. Ride quality dropped, handling got worse, braking got worse, suspension wear increased, he does not use it off road, and performance decreased. But it looks cool.

[LeanBurn]

No matter how high you lift...still drags the diffs and axles in the mud, rocks and air apparently.

I never understood this practice.

[niky]

Originally Posted by LeanBurn

No matter how high you lift...still drags the diffs and axles in the mud, rocks and air apparently.

I never understood this practice.

Lifting still helps.

Axles are movable. Articulated. The body isn't. Lifting it means less chance of getting high-centered on some random obstacle.

But it's a terrible idea for a road-going vehicle.

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by JRMichler

But it looks cool.

And that excuses everything.

Since it's his truck it's his choice of course, but it's another example of how people - myself included - can do dumb things in the name of vanity, and then pay for them. In Tracy's case, every time he rolls up at the pumps.

In his defense, Tracy is an avid Jeep guy and wrenches even the apparently rotten corpses of dead ones back to life and goes offroading with them. Putting extra headroom under a Jeep is kind of what everyone expects of him.

Now, however, since we're talking about his DD, is asking whether he will put it back the way it was, and apply those offroading bits to a dedicated offroader instead.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by niky

Lifting still helps.

Axles are movable. Articulated. The body isn't. Lifting it means less chance of getting high-centered on some random obstacle.

But it's a terrible idea for a road-going vehicle.

It also allows you to use taller tires, which gets the axles higher. Lifting can make a lot of sense for offroading, but like the article says, there are consequences that make it terrible to daily drive.

[s_t]

And really, it doesn't look any better either

I understand the need/desire in the right circumstances - my Subaru Forester has a 2" strut top lift, which transforms it from being borderline in soft sand, to being able to easily drive around Fraser Island and other similar off-road locations.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Originally Posted by LeanBurn

No matter how high you lift...still drags the diffs and axles in the mud, rocks and air apparently.

I never understood this practice.

It's pretty simple, you fit bigger tyres to make room under the axles. You lift the body/ suspension to make room for the bigger tyres.


It's worth keeping in mind the usual caveat of not putting too much stock into the MPG claims of the non-hypermiler.

I have a TJ that runs the same engine/ drive train. I did the same basic swap from 225's to 31" tyres and I'm running ~15% over EPA. Brakes are fine although the stock parts only lasted around 20K miles. It will still pretty much pull there rear tyres off the ground in an emergency stop. You need to use more pedal pressure, that doesn't mean the brakes are poor, if you can still lock your wheels on coarse chip, you're fine.

I get the same 18+ MPG he did stock, but with a much less aerodynamic vehicle. Mine is for off road use only.

The gearing thing is also non-sense, you only loose acceleration in first and top gears, there are a stack of gears in between (yes there's added inertia but the 4.0 should be grunty enough for most everyone). In my six speed, first is still very low and top basically idles along at 30mph.

I'm guessing his is an auto and the higher rollout is causing more slippage at lower speeds and possibly not engaging the TC lock as much. Of course you don't buy an auto for MPG.

You can feel the bigger tyres beneath you, but a lot of that I put down to the front and rear live axles. You'll never get 'car like' ride and handling from a live front axle.

My next tyres will be at least 32's or possibly 33's.

[Baltothewolf]

I'll be lifting my 4Runner 2 inches sooner or later (when I have 1000$)with an old man emu kit. I'll report mpg numbers after. I have the 3.sl0, so I'm only getting like 17 anyway right now.

Lmfao. So I just read the article. What a joke. Of COURSE he lost mileage, he went to 31" TIRES. The lift had nothing to do with the MPG drop, going to massive 31" tires did.

[Ecky]

I'm sure the lift didn't help - it increases frontal area. I know it's not apples to oranges, but driving around with the hatch wide open in my Insight causes my mileage to drop by half at 50mph.

Seems to me that stock ride height is probably ideal in most cases. Going the other way presents its own challenges.




Been there with my last car. Scrape scrape scrape, and good luck taking a drink in the car without a lid.

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I'm sure the lift didn't help - it increases frontal area. I know it's not apples to oranges, but driving around with the hatch wide open in my Insight causes my mileage to drop by half at 50mph.

Seems to me that stock ride height is probably ideal in most cases. Going the other way presents its own challenges.




Been there with my last car. Scrape scrape scrape, and good luck taking a drink in the car without a lid.

You get less aero drag, but actual DRAG drag becomes an issue...