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BDS lifts any good?

57K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  Imped 
#1 ·
What does everyone think about BDS lift kits? Junk, or on par with Rock Krawler? Just trying to make sure that I have thought through my choices. Pretty sure I am going with Rock Krawler though. Thanks for the help!
 
#2 ·
I have no experience with them, but I have a friend who owns a reputable 4WD shop in Charlotte. According to him (they sell BDS) he likes their stuff, but they have had some issues with sagging and the like. They do offer a good warranty, but if you have the money I would go the Poly/Teraflex/RK route. Many of the vendors here will hook you up. Check my sig line for my recommendation.

:beer:
 
#3 · (Edited)
TBH I helped my brother install a BDS 4" kit in his JK and it seemed to be good quality the only thing I really disliked was it uses a drop pitman arm on the steering box? for the price the control arms where beefy and weighed a hell of a lot more then my RK pro arms...:D He has the 2" fox shocks and I had a chance to swap for a few miles on a trail with some mixed terain and it handled perty good and since then we have wheeled with each other a few times in the low speed stuff it flexes well but in the high speed stuff is where the biggest difference is I just leave him in the dust and wait for him at the end of the trail or any crossroads with the RK pro kit and the King shocks yeah I spent 3000 more then him but it was well worth it! :laughing:
 
#5 ·
My buddy has their 4.5" short arm and it's a giant piece of shit. He's wheeled it twice and it did fine but on the road it did nothing but fail.

both rear uppers have stripped out, the front trac bar mount holes wallowed out, the shocks are all toast after less than 2 years. Non adjustable lowers means you're at whatever they put you at.

i wouldn't recommend it to ANYONE.

they're bullshit lifetime warrenty sucks. you have to ship the parts back on your dime and they'll send you new ones. Well in the meantime your rig is sitting there on blocks.

They let you buy new parts and then return your old ones for a refund, but it's still a pain in the ass. When his trac bar bracket wallowed out it was 1/2 the cost of buying a new one just to ship it.

i'll see if i have any pics of the rig. He got pulled into the "bds hype" from a local shop but he hates the kit and it'll eventually be coming off for something else. (well, we'll prolly keep the springs, but the rest is going in the trash).
 
#7 ·
I had some BDS suspension components on my TJ and for the price, it was decent. Worked well both on and off road; however, it does not compare at all to Rock Krawler. I run the RK 3.5 with all the high steer stuff, it is top of the line without question. I would highly recommend it. :koolaid:
 
#9 ·
We have installed plenty of rock krawler and bds lifts here. I have had to warranty out some bds stuff for customers but all have been happy with the outcome. They aren't on par with rock krawler though. If you have the money I would run rock krawler stuff. I like the way they drive on road and they do great off road.
 
#12 ·
We had a spring that was sagging on a customer truck. I also had a customer with a leaking shock that was new out of the box. They took care of both problems right away and the customer was happy each time with the outcome and the customer service was easy to deal with. It isn't common but we install a ton of rock krawler lifts here and probably about 1/10th as many bds kits.
 
#13 ·
I don't think it's really comparable to Rock Krawler, but then again I went from keeping my factory arms to a long arm so there is some bias there...

I had a 4" Zone lift (made by BDS) and it sagged down to about 2-2.5". Now granted I had a ton of weight on it (RR complete skids, roll cage, and FF bumpers) so I'm not necessarily faulting the lift. It was OK before I added all that weight. But the RK 5.5" long arm has held up much better with the weight, and it's a better ride.
 
#14 ·
I have the 3" lift and have had no problems but there's really not much to a 3" lift. I'm not crazy about the valving in the shocks but I'm used to having a long arm kit on my old WJ so it was much more plush.

I did upgrade to adjustable lower control arms (see sig) to avoid using the adjustable cam bolts.
 
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