Help me Decide - DIY Mopar Lift or AEV Dualsport

[Vtur]

Newer Mopar kit now comes with Bilstein shocks. If it's anything like my 5160s than it's no longer soft and floating like my previous mopar lift Fox shocks.

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My Jeep: 2021 Sport S w/ max tow. 285/70/17 Wrangler Rubicon take off wheels and tires. Fab Fours Overland rack, ARB classic deluxe front bumper, mopar performance rock rails with step assist (the larger rock rails that double as steps).

How I use it: Daily Driver, errands for the house, family camping, light wheeling on forest service roads or trails. Nothing Extreme. I will never have a need for max articulation, and never have a desire to go above 35" tires and admittedly that will just be next time I need tires and mostly for looks. Nothing I do requires even more than the current 33" tires.

Goals: Best possible ride and handling for daily driver driver, while adequately supporting the additional weight of the roof rack, arb front bumper, rock rails, an occasional full load of camping gear, bikes, firewood and a family of four....while trying to work this into my budget. Note - I know a spacer lift is an option but I really want to be able to properly handle the constant load of the rack, side steps, front bumper and family of four with the best possible ride and handling. The original max tow suspension already seems to be struggling with the constant load as it is....and that is without the front bumper even installed yet. The Fab fours rack is heavy and really made a huge difference in handling when I added it. I really wasn't planning on going that route, but found a deal locally that was too good to pass up on a used one.


Option 1: DIY Mopar Lift (buy all the parts separately) with Standard Bilstein 5100s, steer smarts front and rear track bars, and rear driveshaft spacer added. Total cost to me estimated at right about $1,640 if I shop carefully.

Option 2: AEV Dualsport 2.5" with a Steer Smarts front trackbar added since the AEV kit does not address the front trackbar. Total cost to me estimated at about $2,075


The AEV kit of course has the geo brackets which I know improve ride and handling....but is the difference that much? The AEV kit would also have the specifically tuned Bilstein shocks versus the "untuned" Bilsteins if I went the "DIY Mopar" route. The AEV kit also has the triple rate springs and I don't believe the Mopar kit does. The AEV kit includes the jack base (not a big deal to me) and the procal snap (also not a concern to me since I have Jscan and an obd adapter already). Thoughts? Is the AEV kit with the tuined shocks and the geo brackets worth the ~$400 difference?

I did your option 1 MOPAR plus Bilsteins almost to the tee (different trackbar) on my Sport S and was at about that total cost. Knowing what I know today, I would have just gone with the AEV lift.

I ended up adding drop brackets with Stock LCA's because the MOPAR LCA's only got me around 4.9 degrees of caster. The brackets got me to around 6.5 degrees caster. Before the brackets the ride was really rough ride and a ton of bump steer with full wobble a couple of times. The stock MOPAR ride, at least for me, was harsh without the drop brackets.

I think the wobble was caused by the RC trackbar I had on there initially. I replaced it with a MetalCloak front track bar and it disappeared.