I ran the Rancho brackets and loved them until this Summer when I mangled one pretty bad on the Rubicon Trail. Now I'm running longer lower control arms. After seeing what coming down hard on a boulder can to the welded together Ranchos I'd hate to see what the same hit would do to bolt-together set like the AEVs or similar. BTW, they don't hand down an inch. It's more like 2.5". My recommendation, get a set of fixed length lower control arms with the rubber bushings on each end to preserve your on-road ride quality. The adjustable all-metal are great for their range of movement rock crawling but you'll feel every little irregularity in the pavement all the way to you fillings.

 

Any type of caster correction will make the pinion angle worse. It makes no difference if you are doing it with cam bolts, adjustable control arms, new axle brackets, or drop correction brackets. The bad pinion angle is a result of the lift and the rise at the transfer case and has really nothing to do with the axle, you have to keep the axle pinion where it is at from the factory to have proper caster.

I can't see what Boca is describing as being accurate. Without running the brackets the pinion going down while with the brackets it would rotate up, as the change in the affective control arm length is minimal and pinion movement is dependent on the difference between the two arcs the upper and lower control arms move in. With shorter upper arms moving in a tighter arc the pinion is rotated upward as the suspension droops. The bigger the difference in the length of the upper and lower control arms the more extreme the change in pinion angle. To see a change like that would take quite a bit more length of a lower arm while the upper stayed the same to get that much change in pinion movement.

 

I ran these for years with great results and no driveline issues. On my two door with 3.5" lift they made a noticeable difference in on road drivability. They took on the Rubicon, many hammers trails and lots of rocks in Southern California. They are low hanging fruit, but they are also tough, if your a decent driver and choose your lines properly you'll have no issues. Pay close attention to the set up, be sure to measure properly for selecting your bolt holes, The change in castor between holes is noticeable.

 

For a DD, these are the business. I'm at 2.5" and you absolutely feel it. It's one of those things that you don't notice until you notice.

Yes, they're more vulnerable to rocks but that's one day out of the year, what about the other 364?? I had more issues with rocks smashing my rear lower shock mounts than these. Hacked those up and now she's a happy camper. Blues/ purples at Rausch Creek here.

 

I was in the AEV r&D shop a couple of days ago and Boca is correct.

 

I have been with rigs that have them on the Rubicon Trail, Dusy Ershim, Rose Garden Hill and Golden Spike and they had no issues. these were rigs with AEV 2.5" and 3.5" lifts and 35's so not huge tires. I guess be honest with yourself as what kind of trails you are going to do. I think people that are going to be doing stuff harder than the above named trails probably will beat them up but people that are doing those kind of trails mentioned above should not have an issue.

 

So you think these are the best option until I can do longer or adjustable arms?

 

If your long term goal is to get longer adjustable control arms then I would skip the brackets. You are spending money on something you basically just said you were going to get rid of. Some companies (JKS and Synergy come to mind) now have fixed length lower arms with rubber bushings in both ends. If you do one of those options you will be good to go at a cost not really significantly more than brackets, maybe an extra $100 I think?

FYI... The JKS are slightly longer (23") than the synergy (22 7/8") ones, so I would do the synergy ones for up to 3" measured lift and JKS for over 3" measured lifts.

 

The AEV brackets do this because they don't just drop the mounting points vertically. They also change the relationship of the mounting points in other ways. (Front to Back and the amount of separation.)

 

makes sense