JKS JSPEC suspension kit

bobthetj03

bobthetj03

Daily driver
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Joined
Feb 3, 2017
Messages
15,190
Location
Clearlake Ca.
As we all know here, OME and Currie seem to be the gold standard for our TJ's lift needs. I'd like to know if anyone has any experience with JKS's offering. I have a few JKS products on my rig, and they seem to be a solid product. The 2" kit they offer appears priced competively with the other higher end offerings on the market. As a comparison, it looks like you get a adjustable front track bar, and quicker discos with their kit vs. just springs and shocks with OME's offering. Curious to know who's making their shocks too.

And.....discuss.
 
The shocks are made by Fox racing. They are the aluminum body shocks, which I've personally had. They ride good. I think my Bilstein's ride a little better, but not by much. My issue with the Fox shocks comes from a conversation Blaine and I had on the phone about a year ago. He was telling me that their aluminum body shocks are basically pop can metal and are very poorly made. I can't remember if that's what he said verbatim, but it was something along those lines. Maybe @mrblaine will chime in, but I think he's on hiatus (he does that from time-to-time).

Anyways, JKS is a seemingly reputable brand. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about them. However, I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay the same amount for a JKS lift that I would for a Currie / Savvy, which seem to be the gold standard (well, amongst a lot of us).
 
  • Like
Reactions: MaloStapalo
I looked at it as well, as a possibility. Looks like a well thought out kit. Not sure that the shocks are made by Fox racing though. When I looked, the kit came with two options, JKS shocks and Fox. Seems like they would have a different option if the Fox and JKS shocks were the same.
 
Ranger_b0b said:
I looked at it as well, as a possibility. Looks like a well thought out kit. Not sure that the shocks are made by Fox racing though. When I looked, the kit came with two options, JKS shocks and Fox. Seems like they would have a different option if the Fox and JKS shocks were the same.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I didn't see that:

http://jksmfg.com/i-13464144-jspec-3-5-suspension-system-2007-2017-jeep-wrangler-jk-4-door.html

Looks like you can choose Fox shocks or JKS shocks. No idea who makes the JKS shocks, but they don't make them themselves, I can guarantee that. They're rebranded shocks from someone, just not sure who.
 
I was going to go JKS 2" before I decided to do my own thing with the H&R / Bilstein setup. They have a very good reputation around the web, and seem to put a fair amount of engineering and effort into the kit. Their control arms are an interesting design, and a couple of members have had issues with another companies arms of a very similar design though. Blaine was discussing the JKS arms in one of my earlier suspension threads...maybe I can find it and post a link. Worth reading his comments. Jerry is one of the people who have run a similar design and lost CA mounts over it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chris
Bringing an old thread back. Anyone have experience with the JKS JSPEC setup? I’m upgrading to LJ rubicon and was between OME and BDS until I saw the JKS lift.
 
You should buy it, you can be the first to tell us how you like it (which would be nice to have a review). JKS seems to build good stuff, so I don’t think I would worry about it as far as quality goes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bobthetj03
I wish I knew why no one has this kit on their TJ. Like previously mentioned, they make a solid product. Guess they are just more focused on the JK, and soon to come JL crowd. Surprised they even have an offering for our TJ's.
 
Camdenst said:
From what I’m seeing the jk guys are into it. Jks makes a great product and the price seems very fair for a complete lift with arms.
Click to expand...
It doesn't include all of the arms, just front lowers & rear uppers. It also only has a rear relocation bracket and no rear adjustable trackbar (IMO you really want one). So to add those to the kit it becomes $2300.00. The same price as DPG's Super Ultimate OME lift which includes all the of the JKS suspension components + OME Lift kit.
 
bobthetj03 said:
I wish I knew why no one has this kit on their TJ. Like previously mentioned, they make a solid product. Guess they are just more focused on the JK, and soon to come JL crowd. Surprised they even have an offering for our TJ's.
Click to expand...
I mean its $2300 for the whole kit. They are competing against MetalCloak/Currie/Savvy/OME/Rancho/Fox. I mean I can see exactly why one market has an advantage over the other.

I mean even metalcloak's complete lift is in the same price range with their RockSport shocks. The MC OME lift is in the $2400 market.
 
JamesAndTheSahara said:
I mean its $2300 for the whole kit. They are competing against MetalCloak/Currie/Savvy/OME/Rancho/Fox. I mean I can see exactly why one market has an advantage over the other.

I mean even metalcloak's complete lift is in the same price range with their RockSport shocks. The MC OME lift is in the $2400 market.
Click to expand...

Well, if we are comparing a 3" lift, the difference between the DPG Ultimate lift and the JSPEC 3" lift, the price isn't too far off. DPG gives you an adjustable rear TB, a 1" body lift/MML. JSPEC gives you adjustable adjustable lower fronts and rear uppers and TB relocation bracket. Toss up comparatively.
 
I'm reviving this old thread again. Surely by now someone has the JKS kit. I have been looking at JKS coils for over a year already. (My Re-build keeps getting pushed back by more important financial decisions).

In my research I have looked at OME, Savvy and even Nth Degree (Which I personally think is the real gold standard). Unfortunately, now that I am finally ready to spend my money, and I have made a firm decision to go with Nth Degree. They appear to be out of business... again. This appears to be something that has just happened in the past couple of months. So I am really hoping its just some kind of reorganizing, but we'll see.

So now I am back to looking at JKS again. (along with Synergy, Rock Krawler, and the above mentioned) What sold me on the Nth was that they had LJ specific progressive coils. (Well that and I have become a big fan of the whole approach that Jim Frens took in designing the Nth stuff) OME offers LJ linear coils, but no one other than Nth offers LJ progressives. This is important to me because of how much my weight load varies and how much I carry when I am loaded down. From I have read, the Savvy are a very soft progressive coil and I don't think they carry a load well. Others like Synergy and Metal Cloak appear to have dual rate coils that are designed simply to keep the spring in the perch when at full droop. They are not designed to carry additional load. So that brings me back to JKS again.

From my reading, the JKS springs have been designed for overlandering and those who occasionally load down their Jeeps. My research indicates that they ride at a weight range of 150lbs in front and 190lbs in the rear. They have a 2nd firmer rate of 220 front and 240 rear. It seems to me this might be a nice range to carry the extra weight of a loaded LJ. So they really sound like a nice spring. I think JKS has done some innovovative engineering in the past and they are a reliable company, even if all their products don't catch on. So it seems like we have a reliable company that produces reliable products. So, where are the reviews for the JKS suspensions?
 
Fargo said:
I'm reviving this old thread again. Surely by now someone has the JKS kit. I have been looking at JKS coils for over a year already. (My Re-build keeps getting pushed back by more important financial decisions).

In my research I have looked at OME, Savvy and even Nth Degree (Which I personally think is the real gold standard). Unfortunately, now that I am finally ready to spend my money, and I have made a firm decision to go with Nth Degree. They appear to be out of business... again. This appears to be something that has just happened in the past couple of months. So I am really hoping its just some kind of reorganizing, but we'll see.

So now I am back to looking at JKS again. (along with Synergy, Rock Krawler, and the above mentioned) What sold me on the Nth was that they had LJ specific progressive coils. (Well that and I have become a big fan of the whole approach that Jim Frens took in designing the Nth stuff) OME offers LJ linear coils, but no one other than Nth offers LJ progressives. This is important to me because of how much my weight load varies and how much I carry when I am loaded down. From I have read, the Savvy are a very soft progressive coil and I don't think they carry a load well. Others like Synergy and Metal Cloak appear to have dual rate coils that are designed simply to keep the spring in the perch when at full droop. They are not designed to carry additional load. So that brings me back to JKS again.

From my reading, the JKS springs have been designed for overlandering and those who occasionally load down their Jeeps. My research indicates that they ride at a weight range of 150lbs in front and 190lbs in the rear. They have a 2nd firmer rate of 220 front and 240 rear. It seems to me this might be a nice range to carry the extra weight of a loaded LJ. So they really sound like a nice spring. I think JKS has done some innovovative engineering in the past and they are a reliable company, even if all their products don't catch on. So it seems like we have a reliable company that produces reliable products. So, where are the reviews for the JKS suspensions?
Click to expand...

Nth Degree can't be trusted, those guys are ripping people off from what I hear. Lots of bad experiences is what I've been hearing the past few months.

I still have yet to find anyone running the JKS JSPEC suspension. I'm sure it's decent since it's from JKS, but I don't know much beyond that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MaloStapalo
Chris said:
Nth Degree can't be trusted, those guys are ripping people off from what I hear. Lots of bad experiences is what I've been hearing the past few months.
Click to expand...

I know that the original Nth degree got into financial trouble before they sold out to AEV, but I had never heard anything like that since KnowWhere2Jeep became the owner of the rights a few years ago. But now it seems they have just closed their doors. The website for KnowWhere2Jeep doesn't even work anymore. The Nth Degree website is still running, but they are one in the same company at this point. I still hope that KNowWhere2Jeep has sold the rights to Nth Degree. I have only seen one bad review of the products. But in some old threads I saw that Northridge got burned in the bankruptcy deal years ago. I think some bad internet rumors got started from that deal.
 
Fargo said:
I know that the original Nth degree got into financial trouble before they sold out to AEV, but I had never heard anything like that since KnowWhere2Jeep became the owner of the rights a few years ago. But now it seems they have just closed their doors. The website for KnowWhere2Jeep doesn't even work anymore. The Nth Degree website is still running, but they are one in the same company at this point. I still hope that KNowWhere2Jeep has sold the rights to Nth Degree. I have only seen one bad review of the products. But in some old threads I saw that Northridge got burned in the bankruptcy deal years ago. I think some bad internet rumors got started from that deal.
Click to expand...

I know that @Rob5589 has had a less than Stella experience with Nth Degree lately. Not sure if it got resolved or not. I also saw another guy a few weeks ago who said he can’t get ahold of them and they won’t respond to any of his communications.
 
  • Like
Reactions: skrelnik
Top Bottom
Back