After driving it almost 400 miles with the new suspension and tires, I'm still pretty happy with how it all turned out. However, even after setting the tire pressure to 30 psi, the BFGoodrich All-Terrains feel hard-as-rock compared to the soft little Goodyear passenger tires that came on the vehicle. My cushy Cherokee Limited is still comfortable, but ride quality is definately a little bit rougher around the edges. This was expected, and there is still tweaking to be done - but I secretly hoped for better results.
The tire size increase seemed to hinder acceleration more than I anticipated. The decrease in performance is tolerable, but it is enough that I will probably switch from 3.55 gears to 4.10:1 gears when I eventually have lockers installed. In the meantime, I'm sure I'll get used to it.
To my surprise, there is very little tire rubbing when I turn the wheel left and right to full lock. It only occurred once when I was turning around in my parents' driveway this evening. The shoulder lugs on the ATs lightly grazed my suspension control arms. I could still benefit by adjusting the steering stops, but it won't take much.
I know I wanted to hold off on a winch bumper until our checking account healed, but there was an ARB Bull Bar for 97+ Cherokees (3450080) in stock so I grabbed it. I didn't want to miss the opportunity and end up having to wait a long time for a stocking order,
or pay an exhorbitant shipping fee. The winch bumper will be sent to the body shop to be painted Silverstone Metallic, the same color as my Cherokee. The only problem is, absolutely
no cash left for a winch, so my nice bumper is going to do some garage time before I install it.
