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Thinking about this lift, questions..

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bastage

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Dude that's the dumbest analogy I've ever heard in my life. Just stop bad-mouthing people's products.
You cam think it dumb all you want. The point is that just because something works for one person doesn't make it the right way of doing things.

RC does not currently offer a complete proper lift for the JT. For the JL it looks like they do offer a couple of mostly complete lift's, but nothing for the JT's that have the control arms & track bars. Not saying that the incomplete lifts they offer wont get you some lift & be fine for street driving, just saying that they aren't a proper complete lift. That said neither is the Mopar Lift.
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Mine came with an adjustable track bar so it is more complete than some of these other lifts. When you say "never buy RC" you are completely writing off someone's company. That's not fair.
 

bastage

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Mine came with an adjustable track bar . When you say "never buy RC you are completely writing off someone's company. That's not fair
I never said that though. Not would I. Its a budget product & for a lot of people it will suit their needs just fine. I just pointed out that what works for you or I doesn't make it the proper way of doing things. I agree with the person who said it though. RC is a budget brand & I would never consider them for a proper lift. Even for a JL the mostly complete lift kits are slightly more expensive then the more complete & better MetalCloak kits.
 

kelkolb

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You cam think it dumb all you want. The point is that just because something works for one person doesn't make it the right way of doing things.

RC does not currently offer a complete proper lift for the JT. For the JL it looks like they do offer a couple of mostly complete lift's, but nothing for the JT's that have the control arms & track bars. Not saying that the incomplete lifts they offer wont get you some lift & be fine for street driving, just saying that they aren't a proper complete lift. That said neither is the Mopar Lift.
What do you consider a “proper lift”??
 

bastage

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What do you consider a “proper lift”??
First & foremost. All the control arm's & track bars (or proper way to eliminate them such as the RockKrawler Pro-X rear end).

Again through this is not to say that what I consider to be an improper lift is the wrong product for everyone. What I consider proper is overkill for some purposes which is why I wouldn't ever say not to buy a incomplete lift if that's what fits your needs.
 

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kelkolb

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First & foremost. All the control arm's & track bars (or proper way to eliminate them such as the RockKrawler Pro-X rear end).

Again through this is not to say that what I consider to be an improper lift is the wrong product for everyone. What I consider proper is overkill for some purposes which is why I wouldn't ever say not to buy a incomplete lift if that's what fits your needs.
Ya I guess I don’t agree with that at all. Proper to me would mean that all geometry is within the manufacturers spec. Not everything has to be adjustable to do that. Completely depends on height.

I also think proper means not having shock extensions or brackets to adjust geometry.
 

bastage

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Ya I guess I don’t agree with that at all. Proper to me would mean that all geometry is within the manufacturers spec. Not everything has to be adjustable to do that. Completely depends on height.
Thing is that if the control arms and track bars arent replaced you can not be the same geometry as OEM. When you make the springs taller you change the angle of the upper control arms & location of the axle so you cant just replace the lowers with slightly longer ones & have everything else the same original location & geometry. The track bars that also keep everything centered cant do that without compensating for the new height as they would need to be longer or have some sort of a bracket to relocate them & that in its own would compromise strength with the new geometry.

Notice how I don't mention "adjustable", as the adjustable arms & track bars is literally to compensate for not being engineered for the specific height. The OEM parts are engineered for the OEM height where as aftermarket adjustable ones can be changed to compensate for a range of different spring heights.

For OEM purposes where there is a limited number of height's its cheaper to make non adjustable parts, but for aftermarket where there are a lot more variables & being made in much smaller quantities its much cheaper to make a quality adjustable part rather then 2 or 3 or more non adjustable parts.

Now with all that said its just a matter of how good/strong you want it. If your Ok with it being almost OEM to save cash then more power to you. Personally I feel like the stock steering/road manners is one of the deficiencies. I am willing to pay to improve on this instead of take a hit regardless of how minor it is.
 

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Ya I guess I don’t agree with that at all. Proper to me would mean that all geometry is within the manufacturers spec. Not everything has to be adjustable to do that. Completely depends on height.
Thing is that if the control arms and track bars arent replaced you can not be the same geometry as OEM. When you make the springs taller you change the angle of the upper control arms & location of the axle so you cant just replace the lowers with slightly longer ones & have everything else the same original location & geometry. The track bars that also keep everything centered cant do that without compensating for the new height as they would need to be longer or have some sort of a bracket to relocate them & that in its own would compromise strength with the new geometry.

Notice how I don't mention "adjustable", as the adjustable arms & track bars is literally to compensate for not being engineered for the specific height. The OEM parts are engineered for the OEM height where as aftermarket adjustable ones can be changed to compensate for a range of different spring heights.

For OEM purposes where there is a limited number of height's its cheaper to make non adjustable parts, but for aftermarket where there are a lot more variables & being made in much smaller quantities its much cheaper to make a quality adjustable part rather then 2 or 3 or more non adjustable parts.

Now with all that said its just a matter of how good/strong you want it. If your Ok with it being almost OEM to save cash then more power to you. Personally I feel like the stock steering/road manners is one of the deficiencies. I am willing to pay to improve on this instead of take a hit regardless of how minor it is.
I specifically used the phrase “within manufacturers spec” because that’s ultimately all that matters. Getting it back to exactly the same as OEM doesn’t necessarily mean that’s “better”. The Mopar kit I have comes with the longer LCA’s as I’m sure you know. That gets the caster back correctly while also re centering the axle front to back. Now as far as track bars being needed, my front is about 3/16” off center and the rear is an 1/8” or less out of center. Clearly Mopar didn’t think that was enough to warrant track bars being needed.

I had my alignment done to correct the toe and the thing drives straight as an arrow on flat ground with my hand off the wheel. Tires are wearing really evenly as well. I guess I don’t see what’s“improper” about that. Anything strength related is only relevant to how hard you’re going to wheel it, not to the general safety and drive ability. Now the brackets to correct geometry I think are potentially risky no matter what the scenario.
 

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I specifically used the phrase “within manufacturers spec” because that’s ultimately all that matters. Getting it back to exactly the same as OEM doesn’t necessarily mean that’s “better”. The Mopar kit I have comes with the longer LCA’s as I’m sure you know. That gets the caster back correctly while also re centering the axle front to back. Now as far as track bars being needed, my front is about 3/16” off center and the rear is an 1/8” or less out of center. Clearly Mopar didn’t think that was enough to warrant track bars being needed.

I had my alignment done to correct the toe and the thing drives straight as an arrow on flat ground with my hand off the wheel. Tires are wearing really evenly as well. I guess I don’t see what’s“improper” about that. Anything strength related is only relevant to how hard you’re going to wheel it, not to the general safety and drive ability. Now the brackets to correct geometry I think are potentially risky no matter what the scenario.
To your point your happy with what you have and I applaud you for it. But that doesn’t change my stance on the mopar lift being incomplete. You said it yourself that your axles aren’t centered but good enough.. with the components you have you can’t get it all the way because they weren’t engineered for those springs, but if that’s not important to you then no harm no foul.

I keep saying it, just because it’s not a proper complete lift didn’t mean It doesn’t have its place.
 
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If that’s all you want then I’d stick around the 1.5” range. The 285/70-18 is a perfect size for that while keeping the stock wheel.
Is the 285/70-18 going to fill the wheel well and look nice?
 

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kelkolb

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Is the 285/70-18 going to fill the wheel well and look nice?
That’s 1.5” in diameter larger than your stock size. So if you do a 1.5” level, you’ll be gaining 0.75” of wheel well overall.

If you want a better size for looks, the 285/75-18 is 2.7” bigger than stock. Approximately a 34.8” tire. That would probably work the best but it’ll also be worse gas mileage.
 
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That’s 1.5” in diameter larger than your stock size. So if you do a 1.5” level, you’ll be gaining 0.75” of wheel well overall.

If you want a better size for looks, the 285/75-18 is 2.7” bigger than stock. Approximately a 34.8” tire. That would probably work the best but it’ll also be worse gas mileage.
Gotcha - I just ordered the TeraFlex 1.5” leveling kit. It will be here Monday.

looking at the 275/70/18 tires - mostly due to price.
 
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I never said that though. Not would I. Its a budget product & for a lot of people it will suit their needs just fine. I just pointed out that what works for you or I doesn't make it the proper way of doing things. I agree with the person who said it though. RC is a budget brand & I would never consider them for a proper lift. Even for a JL the mostly complete lift kits are slightly more expensive then the more complete & better MetalCloak kits.
Same here. Even when I was on a heavy budget, when I first got my JTR, I looked at the RC stuff, just to get the Jeep in the air for 37's... But decided to splurge what little extra I could at that time, and get a nicer spacer kit, like the Skyjacker G250MSB, that I ended up going with. I have never been a RC fan, and never will run anything they make on my vehicles. It's just a matter of personal preference. I'm not badmouthing Rough Country, but in my area, honest-to-God, the only people you see running RC products are broke rednecks, mall-crawlers, pavement queens, and high school/college age kids. In 20 years of building trucks, nobody I have ever known, that seriously off-roaded, or planned to seriously offroad their rig (including salesmen who sold the living crap out of RC products to customers) has ever considered RC as a viable solution for their own vehicles.

Like I said, I'm not bashing on RC, and I'm not hating on them, or writing-off a complete company. But in my 20 years of doing this type of stuff, this is what I have seen and experienced. I hope their QC/QA issues they had for many years has gotten corrected.
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