I was driving home from the golf course yesterday and the Jeep began to shake furiously. Since I don't have doors or a top on right now I could look out and see my front tires oscillating uncontrollably and did my best to stop the vehicle and pull over. After checking the obvious i crawled under and discovered the Track Bar bracket was completely sheared off.

Having heard and seen photos of this previously I wasn't too shocked, but a little bummed. Living in Moab has its definite advantages - 1 it means I spend a lot of time on the trail and am admittedly rough on my vehicles, 2 we're blessed with some of the best Jeep geeks in the world. So I towed my Jeep down to Steve at Moab 4x4 Outpost. For anyone coming to or through Moab and need work done - Steve and his crew are over the top. Steve wasn't too surprised by the break and said he has seen several in the last two weeks. So many that he has fabbed additional bracketry to beef up the stock brackets for the track bar and the lower control arms.

I just wanted to share the experience so everyone knew what Steve has already seen first hand - the track bar placements are under engineered for most rigorous offroad driving especially with lifted vehicles using simple relocation brackets. Now before anyone goes and blames Skyjacker (my lift make) its been happening with a variety of makes. Skyjacker will hear from me as well and should know better. I've seen other posts about similar problems and know they are aware of their poor design. Fortunately a problem like this is just an annoyance as I have other vehicles to get around in, but I would definitely forewarn any daily drivers to be cautious if you have a lift, drive heavy offroad and use a design with a simple relocation bracket. Consider having it beefed up, getting a different setup or being a little kinder to the vehicle.

 

Hey mrmoab, I'm sorry to hear about your break and yes, I will have to sing praises for Steve and Moab 4x4 Outpost as well. They helped me out big time about 2 years ago when I had a pretty good break on my TJ during EJS.

Just out of curiosity, do you have any pics of the carnage? I really would like to see exactly what broke and how if at all possible. Also, I would love to see the beefed up bracket that Steve made for you.

 

I would also like to see pictures of this. This subject has really caused a hault in my lift ordering and selection. I have decided to wait a while before getting a lift to see if anyone finds a fix for this. PICTURES PLEASE!!!!!

 

I plan on doing a simple solution when my skyjacker lift comes in, its ingenious really.

I am going to weld reinforcement brackets/tabs onto the lower track bar mount seeing as it is kinda sketchy FROM THE FACTORY never mind putting a extended bracket on it

actualy I would do it no matter what lift I used just because I do not trust it.

 

I would like to see pictures of your reinforcement bracktes/tabs when you do it. Both off the jeep and on.

 

I have to 2nd (3rd) Steve's praises. He fabbed a part for me last year while I was at Moab, great service.

Andy

 

sure. I will also "try" to make sure whatever I use to reinforce it with will be easy to obtain or commercially available tabs so it keeps the fabrication simple.

 

Cool, Thank you!

 

Am i correct in saying that i dont have to worry about this with the Teraflex 2.5" lift?

 

Yup, you won't have a relocation bracket with the TeraFlex BB and so you won't have this problem.