The "Mopar lift" - an honest curiosity...

[Greg_L]

....and my curiosity is....WHY?

Seems to me it's awfully expensive for what it is, what you get, and you could do much better and get way more value with other aftermarket kits.

So why do people even bother with this thing? No judgement, genuine curiosity. I'm new to this and don't understand the appeal beyond brand loyalty.

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[DailyMoparGuy]

Warranty fears would be my best guess. Also some people prefer to work with dealers which likely limits them to what Mopar offers.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if good shops are hard to find some places, so the dealer may be the only option for some people.

 

[Silverator]

IMO, the main reason is warranty or extended warranty with MOPAR saying that you will void your warranty with any other lift. Their lift doesn't even address all the "issues" it creates. I considered it, talked to the local dealership, and ended up with a Clayton lift instead.

 

[Jeepdoggydog]

....and my curiosity is....WHY?

Seems to me it's awfully expensive for what it is, what you get, and you could do much better and get way more value with other aftermarket kits.

So why do people even bother with this thing? No judgement, genuine curiosity. I'm new to this and don't understand the appeal beyond brand loyalty.

I have a 2023 Gladiator with the Diesel. When I installed a winch, I noticed the springs were bottoming out and the drive quality was not as good before the winch. After some research, the Mopar lift would accomplish 3 things for me. The steering is completely back to normal, its covered under the MOPAR warranty, and it cost $3,200 installed at the dealer.

 

[Reddout99]

Depending on your intended use, for me, mine is a daily driver and the ride is great. I test drove one with this lift in the past and was really surprised at the ride quality. A year or so later, I was lucky to find another 80th Anniversary with the Mopar lift already installed. Took a trip from Nebraska to San Diego a few months ago with zero issues. Smooth ride.
So, for me, and my intended use, this lift gives me everything I was looking for.

 

[Jefe1018]

I think the price went up a lot since I picked up my JT on 2021 (not sure by how much, but I was like $2,000 all in for parts and labor - picked it up with the lift, 37’s and wheels of my choice.

Never drove the truck without the lift, so not sure if it was better or worse.

For the same money today, you’d probably be better off with a Clayton lift I agree. However, outside of getting a track bar, nothing really bad or poor quality with the mopar lift for me in 35k miles.

 

[Gizmo]

Your money could be better spent for a more complete and better quality parts . Although I could never buy a complete kit from any company . I prefer certain brands for certain parts. I guess one of the big factors is I have always did the install myself . 1, for financial reasons and 2, I like understanding why certain parts are better than others and their effect . I understand for some its the time involved or a place to do it . Of course that easy for me to say after doing these kind of things since the 60's

 

[jywolfe]

I just installed the Mopar 2" lift on a 23 MY Gladiator Willys with the Ecodiesel. The total lift right after install and for a couple weeks after was 2.5" but eventually settled at just over 2". Front and rear axles were off by 7/8" and 3/8" respectively. It drove excellent after the lift and looked better with the taller stance. No bowed coils and the upgraded shocks definitely tightened up the ride. It's not harsh, just more firm. I consider it an improvement in ride quality (except long sweeping turns) and appearance.


I knew I would not be comfortable with the off-set axles and I had plans to upgrade the tires, so I bought a JKS front adjustable track bar $230, a Terraflex rear adjustable track bar $315, a Metal Cloak rear track bar relocation bracket, $140, and a RockJock driveshaft carrier bearing drop kit $60 to go with the kit. That's roughly $740 in additional components that I think in my personal opinion are needed for this kit to be complete and restore the geometries of the axle to frame alignment, rear track bar drop, and drive shaft component angles.

I installed larger Toyo Open Country A/T III tires and then paid a local alignment shop to check all of my measurements. I spent two weeks prior to the alignment getting the axles aligned and took over 50 measurements in flat parking areas where I normally would be driving and plugged the numbers into an Excel spreadsheet, averaged everything and made adjustments. My front axle alignment is near zero at +.0156" on passenger side with the last 10 measurement samples and the rear was zero 0" with a nearly full tank, but varies because of the variation in fuel and bed cargo. I should also note, I have a Decked system that is ~320 pounds including the tools and gear in the drawers. I would have likely gotten more total total lift without this added weight. The rear was much easier to get aligned due to the Terraflex track bar, which allows adjustments while it's installed with the simple turn of a large adjustment nut.

Considerations:

1. I would not buy another adjustable track bar that could not be adjusted while installed. The rear adjustable track bar from Terraflex was a breeze to adjust while I had to take the front off several times to get it just right. The quality of the JKS (front) is excellent, but I would explore other options next go around.

2. I checked the toe measurements in my garage using the straight edge method and verified it was 1/16" toed in after the lift and additional components had been installed. I still decided to have all of my measurements taken by an alignment shop and they found the toe in was not sufficient and adjusted it as part of the alignment check. It drove noticeably better with much more stability after the toe was properly set. I ended up with 5.1 and 5.0 Caster left to right. Toe ended up .09 and .08 degrees left and right respectively. Thrust angle was surprising good at .05 degrees. Interestingly, both my left and right Camber was outside the specification. (not adjustable) Front left was -1.2 and 0.5 right. In my opinion, it's better knowing what my alignment numbers are and can now use that as a baseline if I make future upgrades or if tire wear is significantly impacted by the Camber.

3. The Metal Cloak rear track bar relocation bracket was purchased after a lot of research and realizing the other options may have a clearance problem with the rear axle vent tube (Diesel)because the other options use a u-clamp around the axle. The rear axle vent tube is on the left of the pumpkin on both the JT and JL with Diesel engines. While the Metal Cloak required drilling, the end result is a super stout unit that is likely more rigid than the factory set-up. I highly recommend.

4. I have previous experience with the AEV 2.5 Dualsport kit on a JK and the AEV from my research is the closest comparison to the Mopar kit. I was very impressed with the engineering of the AEV kit. I also opted for the AEV geo location brackets on that install. When I was considering lifting the Gladiator I was torn because I had such a good impression of the AEV kit on my JK. However, after a lot of deliberation, I decided on the Mopar based on my needs and desired outcomes (higher stance, clearance for larger tires, reservoir shocks) with respect to price. The Mopar kit cost was $1600 delivered, with the additional components listed above the total cost was $2340. The AEV 2.5 DualSport RT kit is $1919 and includes the rear track bar relocation bracket, carrier bearing drop kit and ProCal SNAP, but no adjustable track bars. This kit also doesn't come with reservoir shocks. Apples to apples the two kits cost roughly the same with the Mopar being $179 less expensive when you add the cost of rear track bar relocation bracket to the Mopar kit. $1740 Mopar/$1919 AEV RT. (AEV does come with ProCal Snap $225, but I use JSCAN) The XP kit from AEV, which comes with the Reservoir shocks similar to the Mopar kit is $3600 and also does not include adjustable track bars. I think if I was overlanding or was going to ride with more cargo on a regular basis, I would have opted for the high capacity AEV 2.5 Dualsport XP, which would have been around $4100 with the extra components (front and rear adjustable track bar).

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

I can relate to your thinking. I ended up choosing the Clayton 2.5” Ride Right because I thought it was the best value in that price range.

 

[Greg_L]

I can relate to your thinking. I ended up choosing the Clayton 2.5” Ride Right because I thought it was the best value in that price range.

Again I'm still very new at this but my own research agrees. The offerings from Clayton and MetalCloak seem to be a way better value currently for similar lifts.

 

[Escape.idiocracy]

I think the price went up a lot since I picked up my JT on 2021 (not sure by how much, but I was like $2,000 all in for parts and labor - picked it up with the lift, 37’s and wheels of my choice.

Never drove the truck without the lift, so not sure if it was better or worse.

For the same money today, you’d probably be better off with a Clayton lift I agree. However, outside of getting a track bar, nothing really bad or poor quality with the mopar lift for me in 35k miles.

I picked up springs for $300 front lower control arms for $80… metal cloak front sway bar links for another $80….
seemed cheap enough to me- and gave the diesel the weight height it needed.

The “kit” is kind of a joke… (@$2k!!)

The springs were a bandaid fix for me. Quality wise the seem “ok” but adding weight seems to stress even the diesel springs a bit…

 

[Jefe1018]

I picked up springs for $300 front lower control arms for $80… metal cloak front sway bar links for another $80….
seemed cheap enough to me- and gave the diesel the weight height it needed.

The “kit” is kind of a joke…

The springs were a bandaid fix for me. Quality wise the seem “ok” but adding weight seems to stress even the diesel springs a bit…

Ok.

At the time, it contained 4 springs, lower control arms, 4 new fox shocks valved like the Rubicon already came with and I forget what else... something like sway bar end links and maybe bump stop extensions?

It was like $900 for the kit and was turn-key and extended to the vehicle's warranty. My plan was to upgrade as things broke. Nothing ever did though.. so I guess joke's on me?

 

[Escape.idiocracy]

Ok.

At the time, it contained 4 springs, lower control arms, 4 new fox shocks valved like the Rubicon already came with and I forget what else... something like sway bar end links and maybe bump stop extensions?

It was like $900 for the kit and was turn-key and extended to the vehicle's warranty. My plan was to upgrade as things broke. Nothing ever did though.. so I guess joke's on me?

I’ll edit- my the kit is a joke is in reference to the new $2k price tag. Was in agreement to what you were saying.

 

[Jefe1018]

I’ll edit- my the kit is a joke is in reference to the new $2k price tag.

I figured.

In 2021 it was a bargain... for $2k they can get wrecked mate.

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

Again I'm still very new at this but my own research agrees. The offerings from Clayton and MetalCloak seem to be a way better value currently for similar lifts.

EVO and Rock Krawler are a couple others to consider. They both have some entry level kits with nice parts.

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