Last week the shop I help out at from time to time installed the Rock Krawler 5.5” Trail Gunner kit on a 2016 JKUR and I took the opportunity to assist in the install and set up. The jeep already had a EVO 3” Enforcer stage 2 kit with Adams front driveshaft, pro rock 44 and king shocks with front king air bumps. I scratched my head a bit going from this to the RK kit but the customer gets what the customer wants. Here are some of my impressions of the kit.

While the shop was researching and quoting the new kit the owner of the shop called RK for some approximate install times for the kit and was told it would take around 20 hours for the install. After buying the kit and going thru the instructions and set up there was no way it could be done in the 20 hours we were told. The shop owner called RK again and the person on the other side of the phone laughed when he stated he was told 20 hours and said it will take all week to do the install. In reality this kit took around 60 total man hours. I know I had 30 hours in it and there was someone there with me most of the time and there were people working on it when I was not there. I have do not have the total time from the owner yet. We blasted thru this build and didn’t mess around trying to maximize the travel out of every link or standing there studying the set up. We just installed it per the instructions (which were full of errors). This may not be a big deal to you if you are doing the install but if paying a shop $100 per hour it is going to cost you several thousands for the install.

The kit comes in a lot of boxes, just think of a standard pallet stacked two feet high. Each arm came wrapped in a plastic bag and then stuffed into a box with lots of paper for cushion. Most of the boxes were beat up and just looked shabby. Most people may not care about packaging but it is something I pay attention to and it typically reflects the care and quality that is in the box. Any that has bought an Apple or Bose product should have noticed the effort that goes into protecting a quality product in an environmentally friendly package. I just feel that seeing a product for the first time in a box that is beat up is a downer. Even the shocks were simply wrapped in a bag and paper cushioned. A company like King uses a foam surround that protects the shocks. Two of the shocks were also covered in oil and the shock bodies had several nicks and scrapes in them. The machining on the shocks had visible bad spots and the cheap stickers for the the compression and rebound make it look like the shocks were bought at Harbor Freight (a cheap discount tool store that almost everything is made in China). The shocks also do not come tuned at all and per the sticker on the shock “do not exceed 150 psi”. Most other quality shocks I have used start at 150 psi and go from there for tuning. The shafts are also not chromed and look to be honed and hardened. A few of the shafts had rough spots and nicks in the shafts. They are very light though I will give RK some love for being concerned about weight at least on their shocks. The rest of the kit not so much.

After unpacking the rest of the kit some of the brackets come powder coated and some are raw steel. As most of the brackets are welded on since this is a long arm kit I would want them all bare metal as it just takes more time and money to remove the coating.The fit of some of the brackets was bad, I would say we spent 3+ hours just grinding brackets to fit for good welding. If we had not there were up to 1/2” gaps that would have been filled. The welding from the factory on the shock towers was pretty but you could tell the welds had poor penetration. A couple welds on the tower were around 1/2” gap fillers that looked terrible and the bracket was full of sharp edges. I would also note the towers are overly big requiring a lot of removal of plastic from the trays in the engine bay that hold things like the master cylinder and the TMPS. The towers are bulky and heavy and could be redesigned (improved) for better fit at a lighter weight.

The rear upper shock mounts are just way too big for what you are doing and the fit again was poor. They use two legs that line up with the frame to locate. A couple of tips that could be included in the instructions is to cut off the legs when done and to place a removable shim above the bracket to space it away from the body or you will have rubbing on the body. This is a lot of work and time to gain very little in terms of travel as well as the expense of the bracket. The EVO upper shock bracket we removed would have been a better route to go with a shock that has a welded lower eye mount. Both of these things would decrease the cost of the kit and about 2 hours of install time.

The rear lower shock brackets fit like crap. They are made to be bolted to the existing control arm/shock mount. The top radius is not cut out enough to clear the factory welds and the shock brackets are not Clarence to fit RK’s own shocks. The look of this bracket bolted to the rear axle just looks bad. It would be better to just remove the factory mount and use a good heavy duty replacement that would look better.This bracket came powered coated or painted. I would also note that the lower rear shock mount hangs down about 1” lower then the EVO rock stars for anyone concerned with clearance.

The rear bridge went on pretty good. It was powder coated and we had to cut a couple notches in it to fit the axle vent and the ARB fitting that was installed in the axle. Not an issue for RK on the ARB line but I feel a well designed kit should not have to be modified for the factory vent line. Just more time and money on the install end.

The rear axle side track bar mount is a weld on and RK has a rear track bar that has a couple of bends and a threaded joint on each end. This just looked like a dumb design and it is. They do this because of clearance issues mainly do to the poor design of their bridge and track bar bracket. The track bar mount is low and should be raised at least 1” and I would do 2” on the 5.5” kit. The bridge for some reason is pushed to the back of the axle and becomes a clearance problem if the crazy bent RK track bar is not used. The problem with their two screw in ends is that it makes it vey hard to keep the rod from rotating over time and takes a lot of torque on the jam nuts to prevent this. A set up with the bridge forward about 1/2” an inch along with a taller track bar bracket and a frame track bar that is moved back about 1.5” would allow for a straighter track bar that could use a fixed end on the frame side. This reminds me of their “anti-wobble joint”, they take their joint and put an o-ring on both sides to prevent it from rotating. This is laughable and just runs up the cost vs using a simple factory style clevite joint at the frame end.

Note that the coils contact the bridge at ride height. We cut the factory perches off the axle and moved them out 1/2” as well as rotating them to the top of the axle so we could eliminate the dumb coil wedges.

Up front the big heavy drag link looks massive until you look at the steering box end where it re-uses the factory link end. Another component that just runs up cost and weight.

The arms are heavy and the powder coating was so so with lots of dust flecks and some rough spots from the shipping. The ends on the arms are not fully welded and look incomplete. I would not think they will break off but it just shows the lack of attention to detail. The front frame mounts were too tight for the joints and had to be adjusted with a grinder so the joints would fit. This bracket was also powder coated.

The lower front shock bracket mounts to the bottom of the axle unlike the EVO double throw down (we installed this kit on a JKUR last month) which cost you some clearance under the axle. It is narrower then the EVO bracket so the shocks sit more parallel but we had to cut off the bolts because they are too long and hit the axle tube. we also had to use steel lock washer vs the nyloc supplied with the kit because they would not fit.
We set the brackets so both shocks were fully extended at the same time. This allowed the bypass to go to full bump while the coil over had just over 1” of shaft showing.

The reservoir mounts to the side of the tower and could be better. On the passenger side you have very little clearance to the exhaust sensor. The bypass bracket works (we were missing one so had to zip tie it in there while we waited 9 days for the replacement to get here) I think RK should spend some more time fitting these into the fender wells. Something better then cheap hose clamps should be used on a $15,000 lift. Not sure why they don't mount the reservoir to the body like others do but the fittings and hoses look just thrown together. On the rear we built mounts to the body cross support instead of drilling thru the body.

When finished with adding about 2” of preload on the coil overs we ended up with about 4.25” of shaft showing on the shocks and a relatively level ride. Ride height was good and low and top of windshield around 77”-78” with the hard top on at the top of the windshield. All the shock shafts show visible oil residue. Not sure if RK uses race seals made for hot running as this is typical of those type of seals.

When it came to “tuning” the shocks we followed the instructions and made all the adjustments then found out the directions were wrong after calling and talking to RK. Another hour wasted. We took it for a ride and it felt stiff and very rough at low speed over bumps which is what you typically expect from this type of suspension. The ride performed better at speed, going over a set of tracks at 60 mph was decent. There is quite a bit of rear squat under acceleration and same with the brake dive. The rear end seemed loose on the pavement. We did a short amount of off road and it was jarring with lots of side to side movement. It would really not be comfortable on a long trip. The adjustment valves are inconsistent with every valve having a different measurement at the bottomed out mark. Disregard the instructions and the .136 measurement in the photos because non of the bottoms was close to this measurement.

We parked it that night and the next morning we had oil leaking out of two shocks and the owner showed up to take it for a ride. After about 15 min he cam back and looked somewhat disappointed and stated the ride was too stiff so it is scheduled for some more tuning. Hopefully we can soften up the ride a bit with the shocks. The owner also has 37’s on 20 with an E rated tire and is aware of what this does to the ride quality.

In summary this kit is so so with a lot of room for improvement and cost reduction. Anyone that has read my post in the pas knows I am no fan of Rock Krawler or Off Road Evolution but after installing this kit my impressions of RK dropped from middle of the road to bottom of the barrel. I would recommend Rough County over Rock Krawler today. If using this kit I would go with Fox or King shocks with welded lower mounts for more useful travel. As far as fit and finish this is the worst kit I have ever installed and attention to detail is an afterthought. The kit is heavy, very heavy when compared to other kits out there. This kit is comparable in components to the EVO Double Throw Down and while there are several things about that kit that could be improved it is a much better kit then this mainly due to the shocks, weight, and fit and finish. I truly feel that both of the kits use too long a travel of shock and lack up travel for the level of performance you should get from a coil over bypass set up.

Thank you for the honest review dirtman. The customer has been in contact with us for some tuning advice. Not exactly sure who did the install, but nothing was adjusted at all. The transition rings, bypasses etc. If there is a leak in a shock, we certainly will take care of it. The flutted bodies do hold a lot of assembly fluid as there are many nooks and crannies for it to be in that just cannot be blown out with compressed air as that just packs it in further.

Just an FYI, none of our arm ends are welded are the way around the tube ends. Welds at the end of the Pro Flex control arm ends would distort the inside of the threads far too much. There is more than enough weld on them for structural purposes and to validate proper assembly.

When speaking with the customer, we mentioned to him so tips for tuning since nothing was adjusted correctly and some suggested tire pressure for the 37x20 Nitto's. There are a lot of adjustments to be made when installing a system of that type. We give baseline starting points to adjust too and then the customer can tune to their liking from there.

We typically shoot for 5" of up travel up front for a baseline starting point, then go from there. 5 up and 7 down would be the starting operational points for the front end. Depending on vehicle stance and customer liking, those can be adjusted from there.

It is surprising that you had so many struggles with an install as that kit has been out for a long time and we have many happy customers who've installed this. We are working with the shop to ensure that the shop and customer are both happy.

Also, please keep in mind the bottom bearing caps are dual bearings with double o rings, double compression seals and hard scraper. They will be extremely tight at first.

Maybe we are talking two different customers because we had the coil over rings set per instructions and had set the bypass shock zones set as told to us by RK's owner. It was a starting point, yes, as any tuning would be.
Maybe were were getting oil out of the double shaft seal but were also getting leaking from the top cap on one shock. Are you guys running a race seal built for high temp?

Was the Kit installed at Nate's Precision? I do believe we are talking about the same customer. I was just on the phone with Nate about 30 minutes ago, Jeremy spoke with them yesterday as I have been on an extended Xmas vacation.

The Top Cap on a 2.625 shock or coilover has two O rings that seal to the body of the shock. During assembly we lubricate those O rings with shock oil to help prevent any tears while screwing the top cap on. It is common to see that small amount of assembly oil push out of the second O ring the first few times the shock is used. The best thing to do here is to clean the shock so it is free of oil and monitor it for 30 days to ensure it is merely assembly oil that came out and not an actual leak. Obviously, if there is an actual leak we will be happy to rectify that situation.

Adam C

Good to know, hope that is it and there are no leaking shocks.

Love RK but hate the double adjustable TB. Supposed to come out with a TB with one welded end no?


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I have to say if you are spending 15k on a lift it better fit like a glove ! Every part nut and bolt should be well thought out . Hours of extra grinding? NOT ! I understand removing brackets and prep work but in todays world the parts should fit well .
These companies charge high dollars for high end kits, you should be saying wow look at that fit ! Theay thought of everything! Not " Oh look at that "

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Yes. Planned changes for the 1st of the year include single adjustable track bars for JK's. Part numbers will be RK02024B for the front and RK02026B for the rear. We are always listening to the concerns of our customers and making changes to improve their experience.

Adam C

That will be a good start on this kit. I do hope for the end users that you take a good look at the shock towers and both rear shock brackets. I would narrow the rear bridge about 1-1.5" as well.

After finding this same post on another forum, It dawned on us that Tom is really just out here trolling. We are no longer playing along. It is no secret that Tom has a long standing hatred of everything RK and a personal issue with the owner of RK, we know this. We will work with Nate to ensure that him and his customer are happy, as are the extreme majority of our customers.

Adam C

For those curious, the other forum post can be seen here: https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/modi...0/#post4310939

It's a review, he's on several forums, he's known.......you guys have some issues with this kit, maybe not all the kits but if what he says above is true, assuming it is, for the money paid for a kit like this.... well that's pretty shitty.

RK has always stood behind their products with excellent customer service.....why not address this post as one. I mean you vendors can copy paste your "New Jiggly Boo" on several forums so why can't you copy paste your responses to the other threads?

Adam,
Thanks for posting the link to JK-Forum, I cant post photos here and added them over at that site. I have added several photos showing some of the issues with this kit that could be improved and lower the cost to the end user without sacrificing performance. Most of the issues have been corrected by us without your help. Really the only thing you guys helped with was sending a shock bracket that was missing from the kit and some assistance with tuning since your instructions were way off in terms of the measurements on initial settings.

You can call me names, that is your typical fall back response. This is not a haters post and I would hope you would take the oppertunity to improve your end product. For a company that advertises how good they are it just does not show in the quality of the product out of the box, the time it takes to install, or the ride quality. If you want to put out low quality work like this, thats fine with me, but people should know what they are actually getting instead of the marketing bs you see on fakebook and the forums. We don't see these issues on other companies out of the box and while things like shock towers typically take some grinding for a good fit for welding your stuff takes a lot more which in the end costs the customer vs buying from some one else. If you really want to "make things right" you should offer to refund $1000 to the end customer for the extra time and materials it took to correct things that were wrong.

Adam.
You are pathetic. And apathetic. thedirtman illustrated for you and all of us just how weak Rock Krawler is. You always blame installer error, regardless of the actual manufacturer error. Your shit don't fit. It is poorly designed and made.
Thanks to dirtman for the honest and unbiased review.

I feel like thedirtman doesn't really have a JK - but a buggy based on a JK, so his experience isn't really relevant.

Then I looked at the pictures of the welds. Rough. I got some RK upper control arms and they're built nicely, I bought them a few years ago though.

Train your production people, hire experienced people and pay them well, and get a quality program going to catch these issues before they leave the dock!

If i spent that money on a kit like that, this information and much more had better be included, i would want to see a well packed pallet with undamaged packaging, no marks or nicks of any kind on my parts, satisfactory welds and quality components along with detailed instructions and service information. Just my .02

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I actually have a 2007 JKU bought new and is still stock with 185,000 miles on it, 2007 JK/buggy toy, 2001 TJ that is stock with 215,000 miles, and a 57 Willys Wagon that is original. I have owned 3 other tj's and worked on many, many jk's and tj's as well as advising people all over the county on more extreme builds. I have installed Rock Krawler, EVO, Metal Cloak, Clayton, Currie, Rough Country, Synergy, Rubicon Express, JKS kits and components over the years.

This kit out of the box has been the worst looking kit I have ever seen from any company and yes I actually am the one that opened every box in the kit and inspected prior too install. I can't believe that this would be a one off bad packaging by someone and if RK has not heard of these issues is because the installers just fix what needs to be fixed as it is faster then trying to track someone down on the phone to get a part shipped out that is likely going to be just as bad. Customers want their cars and don't want excuses from the shop on delays and added costs due to poor quality.

I disagree, and I'm happy to work with any customer to resolve an issue. I am not apathetic to the situation, as stated several times, I personally have worked with the installer which was not Dirtman, to ensure that the kit is installed correctly. The owner of the shop is not displeased with the kit. We have thousands of kits in customers Jeeps around the world who are happy with their products. Tom's review obviously does bring to light some things that will be reviewed and some conversations will be had with our sheet metal fabricator as there are a couple things I can see in the photos that I'd agree are not the quality that we expect. Our sheet metal is not made in house, it is produced by a company that is local to us and we will address the concerns there.

Adam C

Agreed, this is certainly a conversation that will be had with our sheet metal fabricator.

Adam C

What about your own internal process? With the shape those parts are in, how did all this fail:

1.) Receiving did not reject non conforming material immediately.
2.) Person building the kit did not bring up the quality issues to supervisor.
3.) Passed final tests.
4.) Whoever stuck them in a box didn't say anything or throw up any red flags.

Seems like the ball was dropped at every opportunity in your organization. Most likely because no process exists, and no person on the floor genuinely cares about the product anymore - or can't afford to care since they're slammed with work. Can't just blame it on any single person.

Personally, if I knew something with my name on it was out there in that kind of shape, representing me at very meet and greet and every offroad event, I'd go there and replace it.

I think you talked to Nate on the phone maybe 3 or 4 times, a missing part was one phone call, Questions about your shock valving was another, one call was forwarded to the owner, I was standing right next to Nate when these calls happened except for one on Thursday. Your "working" was minimal and after we had done the install. Nate is an award winning fabricator, mechanic, one hell of a welder, and over all nice guy that satisfies his customers with a smile. Depending on the build, he does not do everything from opening the boxes to washing the vehicle prior to delivery. His talents would be wasted on things like cutting and grinding brackets, packaging and cleaning. He also has a shop with 5 employees to run so while my name is not on the door and don't claim to be anything more then someone that helps out from time to time, I can assure you that I was a big part of assisting on this build and was there every step during the install from unpacking the boxes to the test drive. I also appreciate Nate and his shop for allowing me to gain even more experience by helping out in his shop and allowing me to learn from a master builder. I can tell you just working with him has made me a better builder over the short time I have known him.

I think you are right, I'll personally take time to work through this process and use it as an opportunity to better the products.

Thanks
Adam C

I thought is was a good honest review of a kit. Hell, the man even offered advice to improve the kit. I wish there were more reviews done by more people.

Then I read said kit cost the customer 15k. That certainly changes expectations of the quality one would expect. Scratches instantly become totally unacceptable. 1/2" gaps, not going to cut it. That would piss me off.

RK, your response to all this was pretty fucked up. You tried to shoot the messenger. But thanks for the link to the pictures, you just proved Dirtman wasn't just making all this up. You can use this thread to improve your product, or you can keep telling us Dirtmans eyes are lying to him.

I know that I personally spoke to Nate 3 times, one of which was for a missing reservoir mount, and that Jeremy had a few conversations although I don't know how many. Nate certainly is a very high level fabricator and he was a pleasure to speak with. When I spoke with Nate yesterday, I asked him about problems that arose with the build because I had just read through your initial post when he called the shop. Nate said that he understands that tolerances exist and that with all long arm installs, he expects to do some refining. Overall he stated that he was happy with the kit and was looking for some aid in bypass tuning, we were happy to help.

Adam C