Spring rates

[Colin]

I installed a winch on the front of my tj and now the front suspension is now significantly lower, where can I get stiffer springs or spacers installed for a good price, or should I just not worry it?

[Hypoid]

This would be a breeze for Brody!

Send him a PM, he'll help you figure out if you need new springs, or if spacers will be enough.

[Brody]

Thanks Mike!

OK, here is what you are looking at:

Simple coil spacers are easy to install and relatively cheap. If you have some basic tools, plus a floor jack and a jack stand, you really don't need to pay anyone for the install. All you have to do is to disconnect the sway bar, jack the rig up until the coil spring is totally decompressed (it will be loose) slide the spacer in, relocate the coil and ease the rig back down. Then reinstall the sway bar. Worse case scenario, you may have to rent some coil spring compressors, but you will be dealing with a 1" spacer, so this should work without the compressors.

If you get new coil springs, then look around and get a set of 'progressive rate' coils that will let you keep your stock ride. Expect to pay some bucks for these.

Now, what you may be facing, either with the coil spacers or the new coils, is that adding the 70-90 pounds of the winch isn't enough to balance the rig out and the front end now sits higher than the rear, putting you in the same position that you were with the front springs.

If it were my rig, unless the front end really sagged with the under additional poundage of the winch, like 2" or more, (which would indicate that your coils are trashed out to begin with) I would do either of two things. Try the spacers as they are pretty easy to install or take out and see what happens or simply leave it as is until the front coils are really toast.

My two cents....