Different Lift Methodology = Different Results?

[Free2roam]

You all obviously know much more about lifts than I do. Deep reading. Good info even if I can't quite process it all in one sitting. Clayton does keep popping up. But I still wonder if anyone has a JKS lift on here. Why JKS is not even mentioned at all on this forum. What I'm looking for is 2.5-3.5 inch lift. 35s set up with full overland gear. Rack, gear, bumpers, winch, fridge, RTT, etc. etc. So if anyone has any info on JKS vs Clayton. School me please. Thanks

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[bring44]

Keep in mind Clayton is really going to give you more than 3 inches of lift. This may or may not be what your goals are. They measure lift at the rear not the front and are conservative on advertised lift height because they have found many of their customers add heavy accessories....they dont want the kit to provide less than what customer paid for.

but dont take my word for it, ask them yourself, I found their sales and service team to be very responsive. I’m really happy with ride quality and parts quality on my 3.5 inch lift, which really gave me a tad over 2 inches over the mopar kit we had originally.

This might be a dumb question, but what do you mean that Clatyon measures their lift height based on the rear dimensions of the truck? Since the truck has a factory rake (i.e., the rear of the truck sits higher than the front), does this mean that the 2.5" lift, for example, is 2.5" in addition to the factory difference between the front and the rear of the truck? FWIW, when installing my 2.5" Overland plus kit from Clayton, the front springs were labeled 3.5" and the rear 2.5". I was concerned about this because I went with the Falcon SP2 3.3 shocks for 2"-3" of lift...no problems that I've notice thus far...but it does kind of bother me.

 

[XJADDICTION]

After lifting vehicles for more than 20 years I can say that drop brackets do not get in the way of off roading. Your larger diameter tire at 35”es or greater, covers the drop brackets. The tires hit the obstacle first before the drop bracket has a chance to hit same obstacle. Maybe in some heavy rock crawling situations where you are trying to slip a rock between the differential and the tire, you might hit the drop brackets. After years of wheeling with drop brackets I’ve never had an issue with them. In fact the drop brackets offered ridiculous articulation off road with sway bars DC’ed.

Drop brackets are the way to go IMOP or a long arm set up for taller lifts(again clearance for long arms is more of an issue, but you see them slide over obstacles on many dedicated rock crawling rigs).

DEATH WOBBLE, everyone has heard about this by now, but back in ‘97 when I lifted a ‘96 XJ 4.5”es with Tereflex no one really knew what it was in the off road community.

There were no drop brackets on my Terrflex set up and all 8 arms were adjustable. On the ride home from a very reputable off road shop I experienced DW for the first time.

The shop kept telling me it was my steering stabilizer, the alignment, my 15x10” rims, or the angles of the drag link and track bar. Side note: If the track bar is loose, that can also cause DW as well. Always check there first.

After a ton of research over one year, a friend figured the DW issue out. He was a Jeep dealer mechanic for 15 Yrs back then with a lot of built Jeeps in his yard.

He came to the conclusion that the steepened angle of the control arms caused the harsh ride as well as DW.

When you unload the front end and roll the pinion angle up on a bridge expansion joint for example at interstate speeds, the dreaded oscillating effect (DW) Occurs. It does not matter if you have adjusted control arms, what maters is the caster angle affected by those short arms allows the axle to oscillate once the pinion is allowed to rotate up effectively throwing the caster to hell.

At the time around ‘98 ( yes I dealt with DW for a year) Rubicon Express came out with drop brackets for the XJ. I overnighted them and they were installed the next day. The ride was better by far and the DW was gone.

So... NO drop brackets are the way to go and why AEV probably uses them. For the 2”s of lift you want, keep the stock control arms and you keep the factory pinion angle and caster. Later if you go with a taller lift or if you just want the added flexibility in an adjustable CA, you can add them and still use the drop brackets.

PS the arms that have a flattened angle to them as they reach the axle also do a great job of keeping the caster in check at highway speeds. I think RK and MK have these type of lower front CA’s.

 

[kelkolb]

This might be a dumb question, but what do you mean that Clatyon measures their lift height based on the rear dimensions of the truck? Since the truck has a factory rake (i.e., the rear of the truck sits higher than the front), does this mean that the 2.5" lift, for example, is 2.5" in addition to the factory difference between the front and the rear of the truck? FWIW, when installing my 2.5" Overland plus kit from Clayton, the front springs were labeled 3.5" and the rear 2.5". I was concerned about this because I went with the Falcon SP2 3.3 shocks for 2"-3" of lift...no problems that I've notice thus far...but it does kind of bother me.

I believe they're labeled 3.5" because they are a 3.5" lift spring for certain Wranglers, but they are 2.5" lift springs for the JT.

 

[bring44]

I believe they're labeled 3.5" because they are a 3.5" lift spring for certain Wranglers, but they are 2.5" lift springs for the JT.

This is correct...the plastic bag said 2.5" and 3.5" Wrangler front and rear respectively.

 

[jc1986]

I'm bringing this back up to answer my own question: I went with a MOPAR frankenlift.

MOPAR 2" lift
1" Teraflex spacer
JKS swaybar discos
Teraflex adj front trackbar
EVO adj rear trackbar
AEV geo correction brackets (stock control arms)
Rockjock rear carrier bearing
AEV salta xr wheels w/ 35/11.5r17 no rub yet

...and added a Fox TS steering stab

I'm happy with the ride. Angles are all in check, tracks well, handles well.

This is slick. Quick question for you, why did you stick with the stock lower control arms up front? Did you try the mopar lift lowers first and not like the angle? I only ask because I’m interested in the aev kit, since arb doesn’t seem to want to release their kit any time soon, and I currently am running the teraflex spacer and the mopar lower control arms.

 

[Silvertruck]

Clayton makes good stuff. The 3.5 inch, is actually more.

 

[RodRecket]

This is slick. Quick question for you, why did you stick with the stock lower control arms up front? Did you try the mopar lift lowers first and not like the angle?

Thanks

You are correct, I first tried the Mopar LCAs and had too much caster 7.3°

Getting an alignment Monday and anticipate something around 5.5° with the stock LCAs and AEV brackets.

Drove on the freeway tonight and hit expansion joints at 72mph with hands off the wheel and no darting around. Happy with the set up

 

[jc1986]

Thanks

You are correct, I first tried the Mopar LCAs and had too much caster 7.3°

Getting an alignment Monday and anticipate something around 5.5° with the stock LCAs and AEV brackets.

Drove on the freeway tonight and hit expansion joints at 72mph with hands off the wheel and no darting around. Happy with the set up

Thanks for the quick response. What rear bumper is that by the way?

 

[RodRecket]

Thanks for the quick response. What rear bumper is that by the way?

JCR I think its called the vanguard. Looks good, wrap around protection, and moves the hitch reciever into the bumper.

 

[cgflyer]

You need a new Circle-- Clayton is brought up all the time in every top lift company conversation that I hear...

Like I said, I was commenting on conversations back in 2012...Clayton has come a long way since then and are all over this forum. I ended up talking to them and reading all of their posts, but still went Metal Cloak. To each their own. I like the gold and I like Metal Cloak's joints.

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