I had major binding where my AEV Drop Bracket had pinched the rear joint of my front lower control arm due to heavy rock rash. For a quick repair I cut off the pinched portion of the bracket to allow the control arm to pivot.

Is it okay for these bushings to be slightly exposed? How long do you think they'll last in this condition?

 

If it were my Jeep, I would replace the drop brackets. You trimmed off material, and weakened the bracket. As a general rule, you want to have edge distance from the centerline of a bolt hole a minimum of 2*(hole diameter).
I'm not sure of the loads that go through that bracket, but it may be sufficient. At the very least, you could hit the bracket with some sandpaper, re-prime, and repaint. Rust is not your friend, especially on bare metal.
Good luck!

 

Drop the brackets and get some beefy adjustable arms and a skid/reinforcement for the control arm mount. Looks like you're having fun with the JK and could use a bit more clearance on the lower arms.

 

^^^^^ what he said.

 

I like the way my JK handles with the brackets a lot, but if I were banging them on the rocks like that the brackets would be out of there and replaced with adjustable arms right away.

 

I would have just bent it back and replaced the arm with another stock one. Better yet a adjustable lower with fatter joint that can take abuse.
I will be running The Rancho brackets along with arms.



2007 Rubicon /2 door/6 speed

 

I live in Colorado and the trails here were hard on the drop brackets. I ran the brackets for two years and switched to Synergy lower control arms. On a shorter lift (2.5") the difference was minimal after going with the adjustable arms.

 

I live in Colorado and I like the drop brackets for the improved ride and the protection to the frame side control arm mount. I did a lot of damage to my factory mounts and I had to do a lot of grinding and hammering to fix them. I would rather have the Rancho drop brackets take the abuse and damage.

I recently did Holy Cross and the drop brackets held up better than the factory brackets on previous trail runs.

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