I recently purchased a 3.5 AEV lift. Prior to installing it, I was looking for some opinions/advice. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience with running this lift without utilizing the AEV drop brackets? I'd prefer not to retain the stock control arms but instead replace them with upper and lower Rock Krawler arms?

 

the drop brackets are there to return suspension geometry to stock I think if you delete them youre not going to be happy with the way it will handle, it will likely nose dive under hard breaking conditions

 

I run this lift and told myself that I would replace the brackets and stock control arms as soon as they gave me a problem. So far I haven't smashed or damaged the brackets after numerous wheeling trips and my on road performance is great.

I'm no engineer, but their is something to be said about the way these brackets affect the handling by keeping the control arms parallel to the ground as opposed to replacing them with aftermarket.

However, if you are used to wheeling in big rocks, I would probably opt for the rock krawler arms.

 

Did you have to replace your rear driveshaft? I have a 2 door and plan on running 35's

 

I have a 4.5 lift. I had the brackets and replaced with RK upper and lower arms. 1st and foremost the ride was better on road by far with the brackets on. You can turn at speed and stays linear and less roll. Without brackets, the Traction control system hits the brakes when turning fast at intersections due to more body roll causing the computer to interrupt. The ride is just a tad choppier on the highway going over expansion joints also. That being said; I knew that was going to be the case. I wanted more OffRoad capability and knew I would lose the daily driver advantage of the brackets.

 

I recently added brackets to my lift after running adj lower arms for the past 2 years. I will agree that the ride is huge improvement from the adj arms alone. I barely feel railroad tracks and expansion joints. i think its worth sacrificing the ground clearance for on road ride quality.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. Looks like I'll be installing the brackets this weekend. Did you have to address the drive shaft after installing the lift?

 

I'm glad this thread came up because I was wondering the same. Since its my daily driver now I'm keeping the brackets, in a few years when it's not my DD I will put long arms on, no sense on spending money on short.

 

I only replaced my front driveshaft to fix the clearance issue with the exhaust crossover on my 2012.

My rear driveshaft is stock, but I have a 4 door. I'd just call Northridge 4x4 or AEV and ask about the 2 door.