Jeep lift comparison

[DAgostino480]

I have been in the market to upgrade my lift kit. I have a 3.5/ 4 in lift kit and would like to upgrade due to the on road ride performance. I take my jeep on light offroad trails not doing any rock crawling or crazy stuff. I like to go fast down dirt roads not go slow over rocks (thats just my style though). So I have been looking at all different options trying to stay within the $1500 range (excluding shocks). I know everyone is going to say currie and savvy but it is out of my price range currently for the full kit. I have thought about building a kit with their arms but that is still in the works. I have always considered the following brands and would like to know which one I should go with for my purpose.

First is the Rubicon Express Superflex 4.5 kit w/o shocks. Priced at $1400 ish I could pair it with some Fox 2.0 or some king shocks and have a pretty smooth ride. This also will allow me to hit up the scratch and dent piles at king and also I can get 10% off because I am military.

https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/2002-...ogle_1749763888_65275301221__pla-670217928415
Second is the Iron Rock Offroad premium short arm kit. Made in the USA I can pick this kit up for $1200 w/o shocks and can add high quality shocks after. I have heard the build quality is heavy duty and the Trail recon youtube channel had great praises about his kit on the JK build.

https://www.ironrockoffroad.com/product/tj-4-premium-short-arm-lift-kit.html

Third would be the metal cloak suspension system. This is top end of my price range and metal cloak also offers a military discount. If I pick it up on a free shipping deal I should be able to get in around 1700-1800. I have heard great stuff about this kit and the only negative was about a bushing that was covered under warranty immediately.

https://metalcloak.com/jeep-tj-lj-w...n/tj-lj-wrangler-duroflex-suspension-3-5.html

I have looked into BDS and it seems like the price of the kit with adjustable stuff would be over $2,000. Currie and Savvy would be $2700 plus. I still need SYE and drive shaft. Along with all the other things I need to do on the jeep I would like to stay under $2,000 for the lift plus sye. Which would you choose?

 

[DAgostino480]

Fourth Rock Krawler 3.5 X Factor lift. USA Made around $2,000 and seems like good stuff.
https://www.4wheelparts.com/p/rock-...hort-arm-system-tj35xfpsa/_/R-ROCKK-TJ35XFPSA

 

[Rob5589]

I would first take a look at what shocks you have. Shocks will generally determine ride quality along with tire pressure.

 

[Goatman]

Upgrading for what? Do you want to go long arm? Do you want to go 6" springs? If you just want to go faster on a dirt road then you could skip springs and arms and just get shocks that can keep up with you. OME and several others are now putting out fully adjustable remote res. shocks that should keep you under $2k.

 

[DAgostino480]

My jeep has some sort of cheap no name lift on it with bilstein shocks. I am wanting to upgrade everything and I have my own hook ups on different high end shocks so the kit just needs to include everything else.

I want to stay short arm for now and have knowledge in what shocks to get. Besides the reasons of why I am looking to upgrade I am just seeing if people have experience with these brands for what my purpose is.

 

[ErikOffroad]

U should not need a entire kit. There’s probably nothing wrong with some of the parts that you already have. I started with a 600 dollar zone lift. After that I jazzed it up with jks track bars and Currie control arms. If the springs give u the ride hight that you require then you are good with the coil springs that you have. If you need more lift maybe consider a body lift and a motor mount lift. The factory control arms are actually pretty good. You should be able to have 22 inches of articulation out of the factory arms. If that’s not enough then maybe look at going to some adjustable arms like Currie has. When I went that route I picked up 7 inches of articulation.
The issue with ride quality is probably from the tires and shocks. Check the load range on the tires, tire pressure, then possibly change out shocks for rancho rs5000 shocks

 

[DAgostino480]

I looked at zone and saw their kit! I will check them out again. My main reason for trying to go new with everything (besides quality) is that its all beat up. The springs in order to be on my level of cleanliness would need to come off and be re-powdercoated which coming from experience working in the pc industry is not good for the spring. I would just like to know if there is a lot of differences between the kits I listed in ride quality.

 

[astjp2]

Core 4x4 also has a fairly good selection, they custom built me a set of control arms that I put in Synergy DDB's, I temporarly installed a pair of Rancho RS5000x shocks in the rear and a pair of JK rubicon front shock. I have a set of 12" stroke fox shocks that I will install later. I also installed asjustable track bars and the ZJ tie rod. Springs are set of rubicon express springs. I wanted a custom setup, which I have, I just need to figure out my problems and get the frame straightened after the wreck. Tim

 

[Goatman]

If you just want a pretty looking spring then paint what you have. Be prepared tho, springs by their design flex and bend. This will force cracks and chips in any hard coating you put on them. If just pretty get some "flex seal" type of product for your springs. New springs will flex and bend too. The powder coat on them will crack and flex too.