i was wondering if anyone has had experience with the JKS control arms? any input would be appreciated. thanks

Me too, I'm thinking of getting them also.

I have their rear uppers.

They are very nice.

I just don't know if they are worth the premium price.

When I needed front lowers and rear lowers I bought Currie arms for a lot less $.

Any of you tried these http://www.quadratec.com/products/16502_4300.htm. or know anybody that has? Trying to put a bullet in this DW! everything is tight alignment is in check... just cannot just the caster after the 4in lift with the stocks. Thanks

Some great choices for arms out there but if you want the very best and are willing to pay for it go with JKS. JKS arms freely rotate to prevent undue stress on the frame/axle brackets and you dont have to rebuild them like other makers arms and they use OEM rubber bushings. They have been building them without failures since 1998. They are made in the U.S.A. too...

JKS without failures? I have replaced the bushings in them twice since 2006 on a Cherokee. Took them off and replaced with Rubicon Express. RE bushings fail too, but take about 1/4 the time to replace. The JKS are nice units, but I'm not fond of the performance of the OE bushings, at least from a XJ standpoint.

I've heard those are nice, and they now come in the AEV 4.5" kit. I think the idea here was to gain a little castor, and decrease brake dive, etc. I don't necessarily think they will fix a DW case. That is usually trackbar, tire, toe related.

[QUOTE=localsprink669;496589]Any of you tried these http://www.quadratec.com/products/16502_4300.htm. or know anybody that has? Trying to put a bullet in this DW! everything is tight alignment is in check... just cannot just the caster after the 4in lift with the stocks. Thanks[/QUOTE.

Sorry I just realized I posted in the wrong area last night. Damn those blue moons!

I installed a set of the "AEV / Nth Degree Geometry Correction Front Control Arm Brackets" on Tuesday night and have been very happy with the feel. I have the SkyJacker 4" lift and the RE Adj trackbars, and when I hit bumps front end was all over the place. This kit made all the difference in the world, and for $99 I wish I did this a year+ ago.

Saving now for adjustable control arms...

Adjustable control arms are definitely the way to go. Why would you want to pay that much for brackets that merely reduce your ground clearance and offer a little bit of caster correction? You are more than half way home on buying a set of adjustable control arms.

Rock Krawler

OE bushings take years to wear out so if you truly have replaced them twice then you may be chasing an issue that you are having but don’t know where or what is causing it. Don’t know...I know someone that can replace a set of bushings in 10 minutes if he had too.

JKS is the only manufacturer in the USA that is approved to use OE bushings directly from Clevite who supplies Jeep.

Ultimately people have to make their own decision because it’s their money. If they buy one of the competitors that’s fine but most will be back to purchase JKS arms at a later date.

Are you a vendor, or just uninformed. The OE bushings suck balls. I like JKS products, but advertising that they use OE bushings as a selling point is not going to get too many takers on this site. You want to do the following:

1) Go to jk-forum.com
2) Pay $2500 to advertise there, and tell everyone that OE bushings are superior to other products.
3) Eddie will ban everyone who doesnt believe

ha ha - ok - so oe bushings are no good then? got it

please explain why they are not good

im not a vendor thanks

Bushings are a wear item. They will all eventually need to be replaced. The harder they are used, the sooner they will need to be replaced.

Some bushings are more durable than others. RE, Full Traction, and Rough Country are examples of bushing quality control issues that have supposedly been addressed.

Some bushings are harder to replace than others. Rubber is probably the hardest to replace.

Most flex type joints are rebuildable. Or, you can just buy a new stem/end.

I like my JKS rear uppers. I bought the at a big discount from someone who did not need them.

If the JKS cost the same as the others, they night have a chance.

However, they cost 50%+ more. So that is a deal killer.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

I have been looking at the JKS arms myself. Having the wristed action on them is a big selling point to me. As for the bushings, well, they are what they are, a wear item. They will all have to be rebuilt/replaced eventually.

Its relative. OEM rubber bushings dampen vibrations and provide a great street ride.....but this is at the expense of both articulation and longevity off-road - especially if you wheel hard.

When I first bought my JK, I immediately did a 2.5" lift. I bought rear upper and front lower arms to correct drive line angles. I wheeled hard every weekend for about 4 months and destroyed the bushings on the stock arms. I also destroyed the OEM bushings on my TJ in a short period of time. Also, the JKS arms I had on the front of my XJ went bad fast - and were a huge PITA to replace.

Johnny joints are the best thing I have ever used off-road, and I have been doing this for a while. Easy to maintain, repair, durable, and lots of flex. Some people complain that they don't like the street ride with them, but I have never noticed.

Manufactures like Teraflex try to compromise by having a flex joint at one end and a rubber bushing at the other end of their arms. This works fantastic, but the rubber bushings always go first.

Saying that rubber bushings are crap is a little harsh on my part, but I have never had good luck with them in the long run and am happy that there are more alternatives nowdays.

I have been running the tj version which are likely very similar to the jk version and I like the OEM bushings. The Jeep drives better and yes you do have to replace them ever 40-50k miles. They since corrected the upper control arms on the front which I swapped out with Rokmens using 2" JJ.

Jason

I love these questions about control arms. There are so many different opinions, just call manufacturers, talk to them, and pick one that you like to agree with.

I like the stock arms and the aev brackets. JKS arms are the only ones that seem really good to me, but seem like a rip price wise.

The brackets reduce control arm angle which betters the ride, climbing ability, braking, caster, and front driveline angle. With all that, I'd say its worth a whopping 1.75" loss of clearance in one tiny area. The brackets are a lot stronger than the stock one anyway, so it won't hurt them to hit every now and then.

Hey guys, over here in Aus we're finding more and more often the stock tie rod is becoming a leading cause of the DW and shimmy.

The standard tie rod ends are just not up to the task and seem to test fine until put under extreme pressure where they buckle/pop and have been known to give up to 2mm of play which is unacceptable. Trouble is, they return to normal and when doing the wiggle test there's no clunking to be felt so they SEEM ok.

Jeep have replaced my tie rod assembly once under warranty (instruction from chrysler tech) after i whinged about DW and they couldn't find anything wrong - DW went away just a bit of shimmy which went away once they replaced the Axle C ball joints and they're about to replace the adjustable end on the tie rod again as its started spewing grease. So, yeh. great quality chrysler. cough

Quite a few have been fitting the poly performance tie rod with its HD tie rod ends and have noted that the JK's odd steering tricks pretty much go away.

I thought about one of the tie rods which use OEM Mopar drag link ends, but I reckon these will suffer the same fate eventually so are a waste of time (i have also had my drag link replaced once before as the original developed clunks and then the boot tore! outstanding effort)

So you don't believe in long arm kits? Oh wait...you have one. Think about it. If you use these AEV brackets, your are lowering the upper control arm mount to a position that flattens the front lowers.....almost exactly the same as a long arm kit would. (unless you modify your axle and frame mount locations on a long arm configuration) Furthermore, a long-arm kit protrudes further back to the center of the vehicle where the break-over angle is possibly affected. So if anything, a long arm kit would technically create less clearance than a stock, or AEV bracket configuration, but then you don't benefit from the flattened geometry. I don't want to get in an argument over long arm kits being a great solution, because they are....I'm just making the argument that the AEV brackets don't interfere from a clearance standpoint anymore than other long arm systems that are marketed as "extreme off road solutions".

As for the benefits of using the brackets....I'm not saying that these are a fix-all, or the only way to do it right, but they do help on road dampening by flattening the front arms. They also correct for caster on 3" and 4" setups (this is not fine tuned like adjustable arms, but the caster is adjusted pretty close with these). They also help the anti-dive, much like a long arm kit. As far as functional modifications go, these are pretty damn solid for $99, and I'm not a person that goes cheap on my mods. I have wheeled them pretty aggressively, and have yet to have even a scratch on them....so I don't think clearance is an issue by any means.

I still have adjustable control arms so that I can fine-tune my caster....and by the way, I have the JKS. I really do like RockKrawlers products, but I wanted to benefit from the road dampening of a stock-like bushing, yet maintain the flex feature that JKS offers. I feel like this is the best option for me, granted not for everyone. My main goal was to build a very capable off-roader, but maintain the best on-road mannerisms possible because I drive my jeep to the trailhead, and around town, and on road trips etc.

As for the debate of the stock bushings not being durable....I believe that they are the most durable option. A fully bonded bushing can fail, and I know they do, but there is a reason that manufacturers use these bushings, and test them to a benchmark of 100,000 miles. I have used JJ's before, and the ride has been a bit more harsh, and the joints seem to loosen up and fail within a short period of time. If you are willing to do the labor and continually maintain/rebuild joints, and are serious about off-road performance only, then I suggest any quality adjustable control arm with JJ's. If you want more of a maintenance free setup, use the the stock arms with AEV brackets, or JKS style arms that utilize fully bonded rubber bushings (much different than the polymer synthetic aftermarket bushings)

FJ80fornow

Check out some pics of our long arm mounts. They are all tucked up inside the rig so there is nothnig hurting the cross over angles even when compared to a standard mid arm system. All of our long arms have a high clearance feature as well. We do not do anything that will hurt the cross over angle of the JK.

We understand the logic behind the AEV brackets for street use, but for off road use, we are just seeing people get hung up on them. It all depends what you want to get out of your JK or what your budget is to improve your ride if you bought a low featured system. We all have them.

Rock Krawler

Oh, so with Teraflex control arms, the rubber bushings they use need to be replaced before any work needs to be done to the flex joint?

I went wheeling in the Badlands down in Attica, IN this past weekend with the AEV kit and had no issues with the control arm brackets getting hung up on anything. I went down every trail with the exception of "Red" which is really for full-dedicated rigs anyways. I did play on red a bit, but no one in my group was capable enough to go down it, so we steered clear. Just saying. Not starting a war, but from actual use, I'm not sure where you've "seen" people get hung on the brackets. I understand the greater possibility of it happening over say, your kit, however.

If you care for your flexjoints, yes that is the case. My TF rear uppers started squeaking after my Rubicon trip a couple weeks ago, then got really bad after playing in the rocks last weekend. I found both rubber bushings cracked. I preload the bushings properly for install, and use WD40 on them when I grease the flexjoints. This is the nature of OEM rubber bushings when you go out and put it to maximum flex every weekend. In two years, this will be my 2nd set of rubber bushings replaced.

Please use the search function on this forum to view the many threads on failed rubber bushings.

Once again, rubber bushings are used for street ride and because they are cheap. If your idea of frequent use is wheeling every few months, but mainly driving around town - rubber bushings are great. If you beat on your Jeep every weekend, rubber bushings are not great in my experience.

wow, JKS rubber bushings are cheap and just for mall crawlers? I wonder why JKS arms are so expensive??