Looking for a little info on Blazer/Jimmys

Friday I am going to seal the deal on a 97 Jimmy 4wd with only 50k miles on it! I was looking for a little info on these trucks. Please dont be to harsh, I am VERY new to the offroad scene. I have been offroading a few times in my Bronco II but never had any upgrades.
 Now, What is the best/cheapest suspension upgrade for these? I was thinking 3" coils for the front, and I havent decided for the back yet. Mabey 2" blocks????
 Also, When putting these in 4wd, should I just put it in neutral then press the 4wd-lo button? Is this the safest way for the trans or does it really not matter?
 Last, What is a comfortable tire size for there stock gears and not beating up the axles?
 Anything else I need to know, just let me know!

Couple problems with your ideas:

4wd blazers/jimmys use a torsion bar suspension system for the front end...meaning no coils to upgrade.   As for blocks, the rear leaf springs are below the axle, so if you did add a block, you would be lowering the back end.  Spring over axle flips are do-able, but that gives you ~5'' of lift back there.

As for the 4wd, if you have the electronic push button switch on the dash, you can put it into 4hi at any speed, but I always keep it under 10 mph before I switch it.  4lo you need to be stopped in neutral.

So for a 3 inch lift, I could get the torsion keys on ebay, and what would you recommend for 3" in the back? Also, With a three inch lift, could you keep the stock shocks on it or would you have to upgrade to longer ones?

the torsion bars should only give you 2''.  If you go with new keys to get 3'', you'll be looking at a very harsh riding blazer.  Also the CVs, ball joints, etc....

The $450 kits for 2'' give you entirely new upper control arms to try and help with the balljoints, but your CVs are still pretty steep.  

As for rear end lift, you're going to need shackles to get the lift, or Add-a-leaf kits...or a combination of the two. 

So if you were trying to go the cheapest route possible, what would you get for the front to get 2-3 inches out of it? and with a 2-3" lift, would the stock shocks work?

for chepest i would go with a torsion bar crank and shackles in the rear. that will get you around 2" of lift. if you want more you could get a 2" body lift. with that you could fit 31" tires. anything bigger and your gonna do lots and lots of trimming or your gonna need a 5" bds or 6" superlift which in my opionion is a waste of money if your going to do much hard off roading. you will tear the front end out of your rig very fast with anything over 33's offroad.

Go with the 2'' tbar lift and 2'' shackles in the rear, then you can clear 31s, which give you another inch of clearence from the tires.  That's your cheap 3''.  Other option is a 2'' body lift ($220) and 1'' shackles ($60) and 1'' up on the t-bar. 

Would I have to upgrade the shocks to compensate for the 2" lift or would the stock ones work?

You don't need new shocks for 2'', but part of the driveability issues from going 2'' up on the tbars is that the actual 'lift' obtained from the tbars is in the suspension flex.  You essentially put the front suspension in a flexed state, so you risk topping out the suspension going over bumps (I top out dropping off nastier speed bumps with my 1.5'').  Longer shocks can help with driveability, but you still risk ball joints and CVs as any search on this matter will prove 

i need new rear shocks with my add a leaf and 1.5" shackles. mine work but they are completely topped out and have about a half inch of up travel. if i hit a pot hole my whole shock vavling is gonna just blow out haha

Haha...mount a camera outside the fender....and hit a large speed bump.  Please.

When I replace my shocks in the upcoming weeks I'll be putting in +2's....but you can do whatever you think is best for your truck!

What type of 2" lift wont put strain on the cvs and ball joint? Should I go with a body lift? It sounds like its a better decision....

Body lifts are great for clearing bigger tires, and getting the lifted look, but you of course gain no ground clearance.  The only problem with body lifts are exposed frame, the gap between the bumper then exhaust pipe, if you have a trailer hitch it'll gap...etc

Are you going more for appearance or to clear better tires (mild offroading), or looking for function, and you need the ground clearence (rock crawling, advanced offroading)

haha i should do that.. maybe when i get my new shocks i will! yea im gonna put atleast 2"+ longer shocks in the rear.

I like Jigg's setup with air shocks in the back...that would help quite a bit with towing...but I dunno what all is involved with running air for the shocks.

yea i think those are what im gonna end up getting. the shocks have all the air in the you just air them up or air them down with a valve just like a tire valve stem

Im going for mild offroad and performance. Mabey 31" tires. I dont want a horrible ride, frame gap, or worse flex. However, I really dont want to pay the outragious price for a really fancy kit. I have air shocks on the back of my Bronco II and when air'ed up, it adds another 3 inches of lift. Could I just through some air shocks on the back? If so, What could I do for the front with maxing out the flex with 3 inch keys?

I just google air shocks and all Im getting are bags. This is not what im talking about. Im talking about shocks that I use my air compressor to fill up.

Blazer front ends can handle 33s just fine. :)

I dont want to go that big. 31x 10.50 mabey, I might go with some serious tread 30's. I would like a little more clearence without a body frame gap. Im probably going with 2" shackles for the back and I want 3" in the front. What would you recommend without thoughs keys, they sound like to much stress on the front end. Could I just through some longer shocks on the front and call it quits or would it serve the same purpose as the keys?

quote:

ORIGINAL: GeorgesBlazah

Blazer front ends can handle 33s just fine. :)

 
yea for mild offroading and mall crawling. however if you offroad a lot and do it pretty hard it will start to eat your ball joints cv's ect. im just waitin to do a solid axle swa and put some 35's or 37's under mine. the front end on any ifs rig is not really built to handle big tires in offroad conditions

quote:

ORIGINAL: kankoon52

quote:

ORIGINAL: GeorgesBlazah

Blazer front ends can handle 33s just fine. :)

yea for mild offroading and mall crawling. however if you offroad a lot and do it pretty hard it will start to eat your ball joints cv's ect. im just waitin to do a solid axle swa and put some 35's or 37's under mine. the front end on any ifs rig is not really built to handle big tires in offroad conditions

 
As long as you know your limits IFS is fine. Mine has held up fine over the years and you can ask anyone thats been out with me, that I have a heavy foot. That being said IFS is not going to be good at rockcrawling or anything of that nature, so as long as you steer clear from that I think IFS deos just fine. Most of the people I see that do a SAS are playing on rocks. Now im not saying all of them, just that most do and IFS will not handle that well.