Feedback on 2-2.5” mild lifts

[Bacon]

My requirements are for same or better road manners and to comfortably stuff 35” when disconnected.

Should I be concerned about the lack of CAs or trackbars on some of these kits? Given that most vendors are advertising an average height increase across the front and rear and that the rear is already higher due to rake, most of the lift is in the front. Lifting a vehicle 3” up front is definitely going to change your caster for the worse. I guess I can live with a bit of uncentering of the axle(TB), but I don’t want to change the steering stability.


I’m considering the following lifts:
A. Icon 2.5” - $1000-$1300
-Two springs, four shocks, swaybar links, no track bar or CAs
B. Metalcloak 2.5 leveling kit - $900
- CAs, trackbar, sway links
C. Mopar 2” - $1400-1600
-four springs, four shocks, two non adjustable CAs (are they really dialed in to the correct length?), no trackbar

I would love to hear feedback from owners of the above systems.

Thanks,

Mike

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[WXman]

I'll chime in. I did 2.5" spacers on my JLU with factory CAs and it rode like crap. Also introduced a lot of yawl due to the way the track bars run different directions front and rear. Curves and changing crown in the roadways felt like being on an airplane in light turbulence. I wasn't a fan.

The proper way to do this would be to use geometry correction brackets. The caster is only one part of the equation. The angle of the CAs is a bigger deal. That's what alters your ride quality by directing more energy into the frame. If you truly want a stock ride, you need to keep those CAs parallel to the ground or as close to it as possible and you can't do that by simply changing the length of them.

 

[jrf]

My requirements are for same or better road manners and to comfortably stuff 35” when disconnected.

If you can wait for the AEV kit I think that's what you are looking for. Problem is...when? They DO sell their control arm relocation brackets for the JL that will work on the JT so you could use those with some of the other kits/solutions. Not a bad route would be to get a spacer lift, say 2" up front and 1" in the back (if you want to level) then use AEVs brackets to correct the factory control arms. Lots of routes to go here.

I ended up with the Mopar 2" lift...but very well may swap for the AEV when available.

 

[Bacon]

It’s amazing to me that it’s not available, but If the AEV lift isn’t installable in January, I think I’m going with MetalCloak.

 

[canyonrat]

I have a new Gladiator on 2" Mopar lift. Coming off of driving a JKUR with the AEV 2.5" dualsport the last 4 years.

The Gladiator feels softer, and a little more boat-ish, some of that is the wheelbase and some of it the nature of the lift. I actually enjoy the slightly cushy nature after the borderline harshness of the AEV JK lift. Some of that is the spring/shock tuning and some of the difference is the wheelbase.

I only have a few hundred miles of street driving in so far, but it tracks straight and true at all speeds up to 75 - 80mph. It does NOT have the violent side-to-side sway my stock JK suspension had when going over the sidewalk bump at the bottom of my driveway. So I think the Fox shock damping is superior to the previous generations of default mopar suspensions on jeeps. The front end handling feels no different from my Rubicon stock test drives. My tires are BFG KO2's C-load range, same as the last tires on my JK I traded in.

Theres a video floating around with info about how Mopar tests and engineers the performance and lifespan of their suspensions for Gladiator. It's pretty extensive and honestly I can't believe that any aftermarket companies have that high dollar level of resources available for validating their work. AEV may do interviews claiming they "fixed issues" with the Mopar suspension but I would not be too surprised if that is just sour grapes over them not being more involved with the engineering of this truck, given their Brute efforts. I'm pretty happy with the Mopar 2" so far and the truck is sitting pretty level, will be interesting to see how much rake I regain with steel bumper and winch added.

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