Any thoughts.... Pros or cons....

 

some hate them simply because they don't like AEV others love them simply because they love AEV. AEV has a forum and has lots of good AEV info. I have a TeraFlex 1.5" performance coil kit but when I save up the money I am going AEV.

 

I started with the same lift and now have the AEV 2.5", WOW what a difference. I love my new lift, its the Cadillac of lifts. Keep in mind its not intended for rock crawling. I drive 40+ miles a day and this lift handles so well at any speed. I only ever see beach sand for off roading and I load it up with lots of stuff and people and it handles the weight very well. I would highly suggest you the geometry brackets with it. I ran without them for a while and it was a little bit flighty and now its just awesome.

 

Pro: Handling is great and ride quality is excellent with their triple rate coils and matched tuned bilstein shocks. Keep a lot of good oem components and replace or upgrade only what is really necessary.

Con: Nothing is adjustable (could be a pro instead) to correct the caster you will need the geometry correction brackets witch they have their own pro and con also.

With the brackets you loose a bit of ground clearance but the ride is greatly improved and caster is back to oem spec with control arms on the perfect angle.

 

I have this lift on my 2013 with 35" tires and we have almost 10K miles on it and don't have any complaints.

Check out the Build

» Bruce Banner Build with parts from AEV, Rigid, and Method Race Wheels Northridge Nation News

 

Aev sounds like a good choice so far, i will be runng a 35" trail grappler, with for now factory fenders. I do not want an extreme amount of lift. so with that being said, so here is the dumb question...how much will the off road capabilities improve with this lift... Is there a increase in the amount of articulation. Just want to make sure i get it right the 1st time with know regrets...... Thanks for all the information guys! I Greatly appriciate it...................

 

I've managed to easily climb over obstacles and ride over sand dunes, the kit is real nice, it also feels super soft on the streets, if your looking for faster harder off-roading kits, I'd go with ones like fox, those can get you through dessert runs real fast

 

I have had this kit for about 10k miles now as well. I would say it's quite a stiff ride compared to the soft and spongy stock springs. My ride improved a lot when I added a heavy rear bumper with tire carrier. I used to hop over speed bumps. Now it takes them as I think AEV probably intended.

The knock on this lift is the lack of "adjustability" due to the use of brackets instead of control arms. In my eyes, in the $1000 premium lift kit price range (AEV, Rock Krawler, etc.), there is no adjustability. The comparable kit to this from Rock Krawler is the stock mod. Once you add shocks, it's a similar price. To make that lift "adjustable," you must add adjustable control arms. People for some reason think that you can't toss the brackets and get adjustable arms for your AEV lift. RK advertises their lifts are upgradeable, and argue that the AEV is not. I disagree. See the sentence on adding arms prior to this.

People also say this lift is bad for rock crawling, off road, etc. This is BS in my eyes, too. I am confident the RK kits provide better articulation that my AEV kit, but the AEV kit is nearly as good for the rocks if you add arms (just as you would for competitively priced RK kits). The other knock is that the bracket hangs down and catches. All of the complaints about AEV seem to pertain to the brackets.

I strongly agree that the more expensive kits are a bit of a rip off, but the 2.5 is not in my opinion. That being said, the main reason I went with AEV instead of RK was that I didn't want a 3.5-4" lift kit (2.5" RK kit lifts 2-doors this much) because I was worried about driveshaft issues. Since then, the price of driveshafts seems to be small in comparison to some of the other crap I have added!

 

Aev 2.5 have plenty of droop and good articulation due to the bilstein 5100 and triple rate springs. At this lift height you don't really need adjustable control arms. A front adjustable track bar may be a good think but not necessary. So IMO the aev kit is a very complete kit and doesn't requires anything else. If you don't want to use the geo brackets to improve ground clearance, you could use instead 2 front adjustable control arms to correct the caster.

 

I have to commend everyone here. This is (so far) the most civil discussion of AEV lift pros and cons I've seen on any forum. Most such threads descend into fanboy love and hate.

Unfortunately, I have no experience to add to the discussion. My '09 2-door is still stock, but I'm considering the AEV 2.5 and the TeraFlex 2.5 coil lifts. From what I've read (again, take this as heresay), the AEV provides a far better on-road ride and controllability -- which is why I'm leaning toward the AEV -- while the TF offers more articulation. I've seen a few people complain about TF springs sagging over the long haul, but I'm guessing it's in the minority of users.

Like most quality suspension lifts, you're likely to gain more than the 2.5 inches advertised if you aren't running aftermarket bumpers. If you don't plan to upgrade said bumpers, I'd think driveshafts would be in order.

As I noted earlier, I'm heavily leaning toward the AEV with the geometry correction brackets for its better on-road ride since my Jeep (sadly) spends 95 percent or more of its time on road. For me the lack of adjustability is a plus, since I'm not mechanically saavy. It means fewer things to get knocked out of adjustment and require outside help to make it right. These small 2.5 lifts come as close as you'll find -- I think -- to install-it-and-forget-it lifts.