Starting Strong and Upgrading: Suspenion Over Time, your advice?

[Rocksalty]

Hi everyone! First thanks for clicking on the post, any and all advice is absolutely welcome and appreciated!!!

Goal: 37's, Med-High Difficulty trials, Overlanding (weight in the back) all West Coast (Wash to Arizona)

Getting there: We want to start with a suspension upgrade around 3 inches and we started researching and noticed there are a A LOT of kits out there, with all variable setups and all variable pricing naturally. It was easy to get a little lost.

The Question: Would it make more sense to buy a "Stage 1" or "Entry Kit (something like the ICON kit or BDS)" (uses stock shocks and other parts) and upgrade over time? Or pay the initial cost upfront for a for example for something like a Rock Krawler Stage 1 or JKS plus extras? (which includes all the arms and bars)

The motivation is really the budget, which also has to include wheels and tires, air compressor, and bed rack, the rest like camping gear we already have or get second hand so the suspension is the biggest "adjustable" cost.

Thanks again for stopping by!

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[sass JT]

IMO... over time you will waste more money on buying something, putting it on then realizing it’s not what you wanted, selling it for less money and buying upgrade. Buy once cry once... enjoy for a long time. IMO

 

[Rocksalty]

Buy once cry once... enjoy for a long time. IMO

THIS Is what I ask myself every time I get frustrated with looking at all the options.

 

[RH 67]

You have to figure in time and expense of replacing a starter kit. Do it once but do it right, buy a complete kit.

 

[Renegade]

If you can afford it, do it right the first time. If you can’t, just upgrade over time. You can do quite a bit of off roading on a budget if you need to.

 

[Clayton Off Road]

Hi everyone! First thanks for clicking on the post, any and all advice is absolutely welcome and appreciated!!!

Goal: 37's, Med-High Difficulty trials, Overlanding (weight in the back) all West Coast (Wash to Arizona)

Getting there: We want to start with a suspension upgrade around 3 inches and we started researching and noticed there are a A LOT of kits out there, with all variable setups and all variable pricing naturally. It was easy to get a little lost.

The Question: Would it make more sense to buy a "Stage 1" or "Entry Kit (something like the ICON kit or BDS)" (uses stock shocks and other parts) and upgrade over time? Or pay the initial cost upfront for a for example for something like a Rock Krawler Stage 1 or JKS plus extras? (which includes all the arms and bars)

The motivation is really the budget, which also has to include wheels and tires, air compressor, and bed rack, the rest like camping gear we already have or get second hand so the suspension is the biggest "adjustable" cost.

Thanks again for stopping by!

I think if you're going to be attempting medium to hard difficulty trails plus doing some overlanding and carrying extra weight on the bed, you would need the benefit of having all 8 fully adjustable control arms and track bars in order to get the best performance possible.

For example, we carry an entry level kit with just a few control arm upgrades plus track bars, springs, and new end links for somebody that just wants to get started with a lift and add the other components over time. However, this is not the kit I would recommend to somebody like yourself who is actually going to be using it for some more advanced wheeling and overlanding as all of your angles and geometry would eventually become terribly off due to not having all arms adjusted accordingly, especially if you're going to be carrying a lot of extra weight in the back.

Just looking out to make sure you have the best experience possible with your Jeep no matter what brand lift you're looking at. - James

 

[WhiteJT8541]

I have to concur with others. On my JKU I went with a cheap 2.5” lift and started to upgrade over time. It was costly and painful in multiple ways. Research all you can to include what accessories you may end up with for the bed rack to determine which lift you may choose.

 

[Rocksalty]

After the advice here and from others we are putting the lift off at least until round 3 or so of upgrades mostly because the cost of a lift is high and just as high as a bed rack and its accessories plus a RTT (which makes me laugh/cry).

So its going to be more about a solid foundation first (wheels/tires, onboard air, rescue equip),and with some mild trips, we will let our choices in lifts develop organically as we shed light on our needs.

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