TX_JK_Watson

Not so much rock crawling but the terrain we cover has some good sized ruts and the hard pact hills are littered with craters

SoK66

The loss in clearance with drop brackets is insignificant. They restore stock angles along with caster, eliminating impact shocks common to extended arms. Adj control arms can restore caster & axle centering, but they can't correct the angles and add axle steer. The use of drop brackets emulates much of the improvement of long arms without the complexity & cost.

Jonathan_JK

It basically boils down to what you want to do. Brackets are not what I would put on my Jeep. If you want to put long arms on it by all means put some long arms on it. Do your research educate yourself and ride-in/Drive a few modded Jeeps from your club to see what you like.

TX_JK_Watson

I wish I could ride along with other rigs that have what I'm looking at but unfortunately the majority of people here run the basic ProComp and Rough Country kits. I was interested in the 3.5 series 2 from RC but it seems to be a hit or miss kit.

I got a quote for the rk 2.5 flex with bilsteins and teraflex bumpstops for $1185 and a teraflex 2.5 with rancho geo brackets and rancho 9000 shocks for $994. I'm leaning more towards the rk since it comes with more components

jlocker

I really like the rk stock mod paired with bilstein 5100 for a good riding starter kit for well under $1000. Unless of course you jump into the flex. I personally dislike the drop/correction brackets.

nthinuf

You are on the right track with comparing your options, but just a suggestion to look past the prices and actually compare the components (and the quality?) you are getting. While you might be perfectly happy with the cheapest lift on the market, paying a little more will probably be a much better choice. Just remember that ANY lift can be added to or modified down the road. If it comes with CA brackets, you can always remove them and swap the arms out later. You can even keep them and still add arms.

As far as which form of caster correction is right for you, that's where the research comes in. If you don't want to lose any belly clearance, get arms. Easy decision. (But the loss of clearance probably should be lower on the list of reasons. I'd guess that the majority of people reading this forum won't really miss that inch of clearance in those two spots. ) Some will try and talk you into fixed arms, install and forget. I would suggest spending a bit more for adjustables, though. Always nice to have the option to fine tune the caster or position the axle. And back to brackets, I had been running adjustable arms for years, added the brackets, and can't really say that I noticed all the fuss that everyone makes over them. Maybe if/when I remove them I'll feel a big difference, but...

TX_JK_Watson

Believe me I've been comparing kits for a few months now, even made a spreadsheet showing what each consist of lol I really want to get the 2.5 flex from rock krawler it's just a matter of convincing myself to drop that kind of coin and not cheap out and get the 3.5 rough country. I just feel like I won't be satisfied with the 2.5" and will be itching for more height (but then comes the trouble with the driveshafts).

nthinuf

Added height is more than just driveshafts. Touched on fixed arms vs adjustables earlier, but being able to fine tune gets more important as you go taller with that caster/pinion compromise up front. Since you have a 2door, will you want to adjust the rear pinion? If so, how, since that kit doesn't include rear arms? How much reading have you done on trackbar brackets? What is the general opinion of dropping from the frame vs raising from the axle? Opinions on cheesy rear brackets vs beefier options that are weld-on or have u-bolts around the tube? Since both axles have trackbar brackets, how will you feel if one or both axles are off to one side and you have no way of further centering it? How about steering correction? What have you read about drop pitmans vs flipping the draglink?

If you decide to go inexpensive, by all means go for it. Just do the reading so you know what you are getting.

TX_JK_Watson

Now that I have all those variables laid out in one shot, I can now tell that it's better to start out smaller with the correct components instead of jumping into a taller kit that is missing stuff and end up paying double or triple just to make my jeep handle well.

TX_JK_Watson

Well I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on the 2.5 rock krawler flex with Bilstein 5100s and Teraflex Bumpstops, I just need to stop getting sidetracked by other cheaper kits lol