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4.5" and control arm drop needed?
- Thread starter CarbonXJ
- Start date
They help out quite a bit. Highly recommend something like that.
xjbrian219
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- planet earth
^ what they said.
Don't need em. I ran 4.5" without em....but they greatly will help handling and flex
The ride is so much better when you correct the angles.
I have a set and was amazed at how much they helped. I have some from Rocky Road outfitters. RC wasn't making them when I bought them but, I still like them better. They look more beefy and go back to the transfer case bolts.
I have a set and was amazed at how much they helped. I have some from Rocky Road outfitters. RC wasn't making them when I bought them but, I still like them better. They look more beefy and go back to the transfer case bolts.
Dozer11B
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Ft Polk, LA
-When I bought my truck it was lifted 4.5 inches on a Rusty's lift without drop bracket and had fixed control arms. The geometry actually drew the entire front axle towards the rear of the wheel well and sucked up any slack in the front driveshaft.
I replaced the entire lift with a RC 4.5 in X series and I installed the drop brackets as a band-aid for future lift plans. Eventually I will go with a longarm upgrade and will remove the drops to try and sell them. If you plan on keeping them I would have them welded in due to clearance issues. They are very exposed. I can't imagine taking a hard hit on the drop bracket without paying for it...
I love Rough Country for the price and for the customer service. I had a buddy who had his lift installed for him and the shop somehow screwed up the joints in the control arms. RC sent him new joints even though the install was botched.
I could not afford the long arm kit with the SYE/DS options that I thought were more important at the time. With the long arm upgrade available I opted for the SYE and double cardan tom woods DS. Still need to install the sye and DS (after regear and axle swap)!
Hope my ramblings helped...
I replaced the entire lift with a RC 4.5 in X series and I installed the drop brackets as a band-aid for future lift plans. Eventually I will go with a longarm upgrade and will remove the drops to try and sell them. If you plan on keeping them I would have them welded in due to clearance issues. They are very exposed. I can't imagine taking a hard hit on the drop bracket without paying for it...
I love Rough Country for the price and for the customer service. I had a buddy who had his lift installed for him and the shop somehow screwed up the joints in the control arms. RC sent him new joints even though the install was botched.
I could not afford the long arm kit with the SYE/DS options that I thought were more important at the time. With the long arm upgrade available I opted for the SYE and double cardan tom woods DS. Still need to install the sye and DS (after regear and axle swap)!
Hope my ramblings helped...
If they really help out the quality of the ride and lift, I might as well add them while I'm under there. This will be a driver and ride is important. I am seriously worried about a hard hit to the bracket, those things are beefy and I would sure pay for it. Ouch...
BoringDave
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Boring
What do all you guys do about castor angle?
Why I ask is. I have RC drops and don't much like them. I have a pieced together 4.5" lift with BDS coils don't recall brand lowers that are I think 16 1/4" on center long that was part of the original lift. It rode crappy darted back and forth and was basically un-align able. I bought the drop brackets thinking that they would fix everything but they didn't. I installed them as per the instructions putting my stock lowers back on and everything looked good. I adjusted the lowers all the way forward to gain at much castor as I could and it drove like crap! I messed with it every nite after work for a week moving and recording my adjustments and i was using an angle finder couldn't get any castor just 0 or -. I finally gave up and took it to a shop for an alignment. They did it and told me there was not enough adjustment in the brackets that if I wanted to get it better I would have to use some offset lower ball joints. (I didn't like this idea) so with there print out that told me I had 1* of castor and my magnetic base angle finder. I re-installed my longer then stock after market lowers to find I get 4.5* with the adjustment maxed out and a longer wheel base and still drives like crap. Also my coils catch on my sway bar end links at times. The only way I can figure for them to work properly is to have adjustable uppers and lowers. But by the time you spend money on those and the drop brackets you can buy a long arm kit.
Dave
Why I ask is. I have RC drops and don't much like them. I have a pieced together 4.5" lift with BDS coils don't recall brand lowers that are I think 16 1/4" on center long that was part of the original lift. It rode crappy darted back and forth and was basically un-align able. I bought the drop brackets thinking that they would fix everything but they didn't. I installed them as per the instructions putting my stock lowers back on and everything looked good. I adjusted the lowers all the way forward to gain at much castor as I could and it drove like crap! I messed with it every nite after work for a week moving and recording my adjustments and i was using an angle finder couldn't get any castor just 0 or -. I finally gave up and took it to a shop for an alignment. They did it and told me there was not enough adjustment in the brackets that if I wanted to get it better I would have to use some offset lower ball joints. (I didn't like this idea) so with there print out that told me I had 1* of castor and my magnetic base angle finder. I re-installed my longer then stock after market lowers to find I get 4.5* with the adjustment maxed out and a longer wheel base and still drives like crap. Also my coils catch on my sway bar end links at times. The only way I can figure for them to work properly is to have adjustable uppers and lowers. But by the time you spend money on those and the drop brackets you can buy a long arm kit.
Dave
BoringDave
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Boring
Check out danman2k06 post in this section.
Dozer11B
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Ft Polk, LA
Dave I just started over with a full RC lift and what I did was installed the drop brackets and matched my RC adjustable LCAs bolt to bolt with the fixed Rusty's LCAs that were in there and cranked them down- thought it would throw the alignment guy for a loop and he would have to adjust them, but he said me and my buddy did good and I haven't had an issue.
With the rusty's lift I used to get bad drag to the left when braking hard- not anymore- worst I can say is I sometimes get "tracked" by grooves in the road/differences in pavings, but I attribute this to 31x11.50 TSLs...
With the rusty's lift I used to get bad drag to the left when braking hard- not anymore- worst I can say is I sometimes get "tracked" by grooves in the road/differences in pavings, but I attribute this to 31x11.50 TSLs...
Dozer11B
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Ft Polk, LA
Mine wasn't. All I did was adjust the uppers and lowers to match my fixed uppers and lowers and hoped for the best. Guess I got lucky...:greensmok I probably could have saved the adjustables and sold them to help fund a LA upgrade. This has me thinking...
DanMan2k06
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Damascus, MD
After browsing the interwebs extensively on the caster subject, I've come to the conclusion that 99% of people who lift their junk are either unaware of the effect of poor castor, or don't give a hoot to begin with.
And I've found that those who are interested enough to look into correcting them don't have a set method of madness on how to do it. It all comes down to: Run as much positive caster as you can until you get vibes, then back off just enough until they disappear.
I'm either going to have to have custom adjustable upper arms made (currently Rokmen adjustables), or re-drill the mount in the drop brackets for the upper arms (currently researching lol). If I get adjustable lowers, it's going to shove my axle right into my front bumper. If I hadn't trimmed already, the tires would be touching the front endcaps.
And I've found that those who are interested enough to look into correcting them don't have a set method of madness on how to do it. It all comes down to: Run as much positive caster as you can until you get vibes, then back off just enough until they disappear.
I'm either going to have to have custom adjustable upper arms made (currently Rokmen adjustables), or re-drill the mount in the drop brackets for the upper arms (currently researching lol). If I get adjustable lowers, it's going to shove my axle right into my front bumper. If I hadn't trimmed already, the tires would be touching the front endcaps.
Oatmeal
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Cedar City, UT
I would go with drop brackets.
I was in Moab (in my Toyota) watching a buddy's 4 1/2"-5" lifted Cherokee trying to go through the Golden Crack and instead of his front end pulling him through, the angle of his lower control arms were causing the axle to try and roll under his rig (would have torn the brackets to hell) and he was running a front Truetrac so it wasn't a traction issue......he needed a strap.
Now I know that Rocky Road has gotten a kind of a bad rep on here but, their drop brackets are really nice......and cheaper than both, RE and RC : http://www.rocky-road.com/xjcad.html
I lucked out and found a set of Trail Master brackets at the JY for $15 and bought a set of RE braces off of a member on here for $65
Hans
I was in Moab (in my Toyota) watching a buddy's 4 1/2"-5" lifted Cherokee trying to go through the Golden Crack and instead of his front end pulling him through, the angle of his lower control arms were causing the axle to try and roll under his rig (would have torn the brackets to hell) and he was running a front Truetrac so it wasn't a traction issue......he needed a strap.
Now I know that Rocky Road has gotten a kind of a bad rep on here but, their drop brackets are really nice......and cheaper than both, RE and RC : http://www.rocky-road.com/xjcad.html
I lucked out and found a set of Trail Master brackets at the JY for $15 and bought a set of RE braces off of a member on here for $65
Hans
Well, we will see about the bad rap that Rocky Road Outfitters gets. I ordered their bar pin eliminators for the back of the XJ a few weeks ago and got them in @ 5 days. So far so good. I orderd the control arm drop kit today, by phone, checked to make sure they had it in stock. The salesman checked and stated they had "plenty on the shelf" and that it would ship tomorrow. He also had my email address and said that shipping/tracking information would automatically be sent. I will post back regarding my experience. I sure agree that the RRO CAD systom looks well built and braced, and the BPEs were well built (not hard to do). I hope this all goes well!
Yes and yes. I have a Rubicon 4.5" and had to install a drop kit for it to ride better. The LCAs angle (downwards) made a lot of the road bump energy go into the body, instead of being absorbed by the suspension.
I used the RC kit, which is plenty beefy for this purpose. I compared it side by side with the Rubicon kit. They are the same design. The Rubicon has longer stops, which can be a pain with the skid plate. If in doubt regarding the mounting, just weld it.. :yap:.
I also used adjustable LCAs and UCAs (IRO) to position the axle and wheels where I wanted them and provide a proper angle for alignment.
Rides much better, tracks much better - really no question about it...
I used the RC kit, which is plenty beefy for this purpose. I compared it side by side with the Rubicon kit. They are the same design. The Rubicon has longer stops, which can be a pain with the skid plate. If in doubt regarding the mounting, just weld it.. :yap:.
I also used adjustable LCAs and UCAs (IRO) to position the axle and wheels where I wanted them and provide a proper angle for alignment.
Rides much better, tracks much better - really no question about it...
