I am new to the jeep world and just recently purchased my 09' jk rubicon 4dr. I hate the stock look and purchased it only to lift it and make it a trail beast.
My first problem I have ran into is what kit I should go with? I have been researching and browsing the web now for a couple weeks. I have been trying to get people's opinions on suspension. It is my daily driver as well so I would like to keep the quality ride. I want to at least do a 4" kit and run 37's. These are two kits I have narrowed it down to I think. Now which one is better? Can I get away with the suspension lift shocks or should I go with fox racing shocks?
I want something that will be great on the trail but my daily drive to work will not leave me hurting.
After all that J.E. Reel shafts or Tom Woods shafts?
Thanks.

Personally, it is up to you. make sure you do all of your research first. I am in looking at 2 diff kits myself. im looking at Poly's III 4.5" kit and BDS's 4.5" kit. Teraflex is also another good lift system and i have heard good things about them as well. For me it will come down to cost more than likely.

just my 2c.

09' jk rubicon unlimited

Hey I'll tell you what, get the lift you want and I'll sell my fox shocks w/ cd for about 700-750.

Sir

Are you looking for a long arm or short arm system? Like these guys said, there are alot of great products out there. Make sure to do your homework before you buy! Choose the system that best fits you, your budget, your habits, and your installation ability!

A few things about Rock Krawler you may not know!

1) Rock Krawler is the only company to offer high clearance control arms in every system it offers for the JK! Wether it be our mid arm systems or long arm systems we have high clearance down to a science!

2) Rock Krawler is the home of the independent three link design and we also offer 4 link systems with out Triple Threat Series!

3) Rock Krawler is the only company on the market to offer full length upper control arms with all of our long arm systems!

4) All of our hard parts come with an industry leading abuse proof lifetime warranty!

Our designs are revolutioninzing to the industry! Our quality is excellent! Our customer service is top notch!


Good Luck in choosing a product that is best for you!

Rock Krawler

You need to decide if you want a short arm or long arm. I think the JK's do very well with short arm kits up to 4.5" of lift, any higher and I would go with a long arm, but you can easily run 37's with 4.5" lift. Long arms do work a bit better over 4" but you need to decide if its worth the extra work and money. The short arm suspension kits use the factory control arm mounts on the frame and are mostly bolt on. The long arm kits require you to cut off most of the factory control arm mounts on the frame and many require welding the new brackets to the frame.

The Poly long arm or Stage 4 will be available in few months, it features bent "high clearance" arms, and full length upper arms front and rear. It is all bolt on with no welding, just cutting of the factory control arm mounts.

The short arm poly control arms are also bent "high clearance" design and all of the suspenion parts are bolt-on

Btw, I wouldn't spend the money on the fox shocks, I prefer the Poly monotube synergy shocks. The are digressive valved which work much better on the street and trail than the Fox linear vavled shocks.

Thanks on the shocks. I really want to keep the street quality ride close to stock. And the poly's will save me some cash because the fox ones are about double the price.

I weld at work all the time so the welding part of a kit wouldn't be a problem, but as far as the install I think there would be a lot more to it and once you start cutting and welding there is no turning back. Thats the only thing I'm worried about. I'm leaning towards the poly stageIII synergy 4.5".

I just installed a Tereflex 4" LCG lift and I will tell you that the arms are VERY beefy!!! The new brackets for the control arms are top notch as well!

I don't have any seat time as I just finished up installing the rear ProRock and 3/4 way complete with installing the front ProRock...

The worst part of the install was the removal of the stock brackets, what a freaking pain in the butt!!!! I hated the front lowers the most. the driver side front lower is by far near impossible to get completly clean as you have the exhaust manifold, the bend in the frame, and the crossmember all in your way while trying to grind it smooth...

If I had it to do over again i would most certainly buy the Tereflex 4" again based off the beef and design of their arms. I can give an update in a few weeks once I get some wheeling time with the new setup

>"After all that J.E. Reel shafts or Tom Woods shafts?"
I've had both over the years and they are both VERY good and pretty much = in quality.

This build I went with J.E. Reel simply because they had the lengths that I needed already built and on the shelf. TW builds upon order. So I saved a couple of days renta car fees by going JER.

Oh hellyes! I can attest to that. Check out the link below to see my RK build. Great stuff and I'm 1000% happy with it.

Can you post up some pics of your arms and the clearance they offer for both the short arm and long arms? I would like to see if they offer more than my RK stuff. I am always in the market.

This is the JK longarm kit.

LINK



Installed on 37's

Thanks for the pictures, but I just really like the way the RK one's do not hang down below the frame at all where they mount. How well do you think those bent tubing arms are going to hold up?

They hold up great. How many competition vehicles have you seen with solid steel arms?

IN RC Rocks at Rausch Creek and WE Rock, almost all full bodied rigs are running either Rock Krawler or Clayton kits. The only rig I have personally seen running tubing was an FT kit in a TJ and the arms got bent. I believe there's is 2" O.D. 1/4" DOM according to their website. Alot of buggies and light rigs run tube arms, but to me, they are much lighter than full bodied rigs, especially a 4 Door JK.

The brackets do hang down a little, but that is to get the geometry right. Any higher and you may as well keep your short arm.

Forgive my ignorance, as I can't say that I've followed those classes enough. We've had a lot of good luck with 2"x.250 wall DOM lowers in our link kits, but nothing is unbreakable I guess, haha. Our Comp JK, as well as every other vehicle we've put together, runs tube with good luck as well. Overkill always has a place in this industry, but if solid material had that significant of a strength or performance advantage we'd definitely be running it.

Running tube here, straignt 1.75x.375, it's a short arm so with Ballistic joints on both ends the longest tube is 20". It would be one hell of a hit if you bent it.

I've got the Poly stage III 4.5" rolling on 37's and love it!!

Not to high jack this post, but Goat1, I do give you some respect for your talent and building abilities, however, your comment on getting the geometry right if you move the arms up is certainly off base. You made a engineering compromise to not mess with the exhaust which is fine and is your choice. Just like you chose to make it a bolt in system and orient your front upper joints with the hardware running vertical not horizontal. Those are engineerng compromises and we all make them to achieve our end goals. This is not to say Poly makes bad product because they don't and Drew has some talents for this industry.

We, at Rock Krawler chose to move the resonoator so we could push the upper control arms up as well as the lowers. This allows us to offer the best ground clearance and cross over angles in the industry as well as proper suspension geometry. We did not make any comprises on our suspension geometry to make a bolt in system or to go around the OEM exhaust routing. That was our choice. However, that choice comes with consequences as ell. The installation center must be able to weld and do a very minor exhaust modification for it to be complete. We just feel that welded in long arm mounts are a better way structuraly. We chose to use our independent three link design and offer it with a 4 link option as well.

As far as the construction of our arms, we feel they are some of the strongest, most durable arms in the industry if not the strongest. I am sure if Goat wants to post up the math for bending cross section of their 2" 0.D. 1/4 wall 1026 DOM versus our 2" solid 1020 CR he certainly can. Obviously you will want to take into account arm length as well. Our JK lowers are running 34 1/2 inches for the entire assembled length. A big part of our arms and what we do is the simplicity of them. We are a machine shop by nature. We make all of our hard parts in house as well as powder coat. We feel it is a sounder part to simply drill and tap the treads into the arm and weld on the bushing tube versus having to rely on a threaded bung, weld in the threaded, then weld on what ever is being used on the other end. To us, it just makes sense, but not alot of companies have the type of equipment we have in order to pull this off. For the do it yourselfer, welding in threaded bungs and cutting tube to length is certainly the easiest way. Most people are capable or know someone who is capable of that.

There is always a choice that has to be made when it comes to designing products. If you are going to go out there and say yours is the best, then the next question is the best for what? There is alot of good products out there as well as alot of intellegent people in the industy now. OK, well some companies are going back ward while others are moving forward, but this always happens. That is the nature of any industry.

Sorry about the high jacking of the thread, but to see people simply come on and post about their company just being the best blindly is kind of crazy. But then again, there are some ego's out there too.

Jeremy

In my experience with all 3 companies I would go for the RK or the Poly. Although I hear TF has a great product for the JK I have had bad experiences with their customer service. It was 2 years ago but non the less it was not fun and even with the support of the local 4x4 shop where I bought the defective TF product I got the big finger from Tera.. It was for a TJ not a JK but customer service is a big deal to me. Just my .02 have fun figuring out the rest as both companies have a lot to offer I would go with what you figure for the best bang for the buck as both products are good for what you plan to use your jeep for.
I don't know the answer to this without looking. I would look into what kit has more parts for the money. I.E I think with some of the RK lifts you get more steering upgrades. After installing the full RK steering with Co4Lo I would highly recommend the product.

Wow.....care to explain further? (maybe not in this thread, if it doesn't apply....)

RK has some of the best customer service in the market. We just installed a 5.5 LA and I highly recommend their product.