Rednroll

Let's get to it. This is where they should be headed, with the Rancho RS9000 shocks along with those Rancho geo brackets added.
2017 - 2007 Jeep Wrangler JK 2/4 Door - 3-3.5-in. Progressive Sport System - RS66110B - Rancho® Performance Suspension & Shocks

tnheritage

Man I really appreciate your attn. to details Rednroll, I really do and while you've brought up great points why I should choose certain components looking back on what you are saying I'd maybe be better off with the TF kit. Look, I'm not going to buy all the stuff that you mention just to go through Nemos Tunnel or the Hurricane Trail, I only wanted a 2 to 2.5" lift, not trying to change all the geometries on my jeep and I understand while adding lift you do change them, again I see what your saying and I agree to a point but it's like me buying a truck to only haul a couple bags of trash off every weekend, instead of the normal 1/2 ton truck why not buy the HD 3/4 ton diesel to haul the 2 bags of trash every week. I'll take a look at my budget again but I'm at no more than what the TF kit cost, so if thats a better kit then I don't care to go that route but I just don't think I'll ever warrant a 1500 to 2500 dollar investment in what I want to accomplish.

Rednroll

I'll just quote TheDirtman since his posts touches on most of the items you may experience. TheDirtman tends to be short on words but long on wisdom.

With the added links of the TF kit the sway bar concern he mentions gets addressed and also helps with the down travel limitations. The longer links in the kit, get installed in the rear factory locations and the factory rears which are longer than the factory front links, get moved to the front. The factory front links get moved to the trash.

The rear track bar relocation bracket will help with the top heavy roll feel. So you could go with the TF kit as you mentioned, or you could price adding a set of rear longer sway bar links and relocation bracket to the Rancho kit. When you do that, now you're doing more of an apples to apples comparison between the kit contents if price is your biggest concern. The TF kit looks like it includes bump stops as well, where you will want those if you'll be moving to larger tires. The Rancho kit may also include bump stops but its hard to tell since I'm not familiar with their bump stops and the pieces look kind of small in the pictured Rancho kit. Bump stops will help prevent you from smashing your larger tires into your fenders.

From there your next biggest concern is this "and the steering will feel light." This has to do with caster adjustment which is needed after you lift, where neither kit includes any caster correction adjustment. This is where Rancho's recommendation of adding their Geo Correction brackets to their kit comes into play and is a very good recommendation for either kit. That's another $150 to slap onto your budget. You don't "have" to add the geo brackets, but if you don't and you find you don't like the way your rig rides/steers, then you know what you need to fix that feeling where I'm sure either Teraflex or Rancho will be happy to sell you additional components if you call them up after purchasing one of their budget lifts and start describing to them the aspects of the ride you would like improved. Teraflex will likely try to sell you some replacement front lower control arms and Rancho will try to sell you some front lower control arms or their geo correction brackets. Replacement control arms or brackets they will both re-adjust caster. Brackets cost less and address more items for geo correction. The Rancho brackets can be used with either kit. There are other vendors that make geo correction brackets that cost slightly less, but the Ranchos are some of the better ones.

If you set your budget closer to $1K, you will likely be able to get a decent lift which includes a majority of the components which addresses most of the major concerns. After some research, that's where I started with budget after looking at the $400-$600 starter kits. I went above that budget, but not by much...I think I landed around $1300....and went up from there afterwards by upgrading my tie-rod and drag link where my factory tie-rod needed to be replaced anyways.

You can look at my signature for which lift I went with, where I did those types of apples to apples kit contents comparison shopping and I found it to be one of the better value lifts out there but I did still need a couple additional components to have it done right to address the major concerns and be a more complete lift solution.

resharp001

I wouldn't say that's an accurate state about my life in general, but I know you didn't mean it as an insult.

I would say I'm neither afraid to make mistakes nor admit mistakes. There's nothing wrong with mistakes as long as you learn from them. I had bumps along the way, but the knowledge I gained was priceless. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know. You can read till the cows come home and still end up making the wrong decisions.....or still end up just as confused. Sometimes it takes actually seeing things in action for the light bulb to click on and really understand. I'm the kind of person that lives in the moment rather than worries about living behind a camera lens trying to capture pictures to preserve the moment. Kinda the same thing with the jeep....just all in perspective. I'm sure not paralyzed by fear of making the wrong decision....lol. I have a buddy that leans a bit more towards your side. Every decision is this big thing. He'll spend 6 months researching a TV, or a car, or whatever....and agonizing over which direction to go and worrying about buying the wrong thing and then realizing there was something better he should have gotten instead. Life is too short to worry about always making the right decision on things that are really inconsequential in the big scheme of life

People that are on here asking questions and searching for answers probably lean more towards your spectrum...just by nature of already asking questions. They can listen or not listen. Doesn't affect me much either way. I try to save a little heartache and money for em. It's my effort of giving back.

Rednroll

Yep, I'm definitely not criticizing your method of gaining experience or intending to throw any insults your way. Actually, I was more criticizing my way because I realize the faults with it. We tend to learn more from our mistakes, so I'm there with you on your methods. I'm just a cheap azz with most of this stuff, since it's more of a part-time hobby for me where I rather spend more of my time than my money on that hobby, and if I'm really honest with myself, I just enjoy doing the research of it more than anything else.

What can I say? I'm an F'ing engineer. I enjoy figuring out how sh*t works!!! I was the kid in pre-school when everyone was playing with their toys, I was pulling them apart and trying to figure out how they got put together. When my friends broke their toys, I was saying to them "Let me have that, let me try to figure out a way to fix it." That was how I had fun and things haven't changed much since then besides the toys I'm playing with.

Mike H.

Do yourself a favor and add to either kit control arm relocation to get castor where it needs be. Brackets are cheaper than arms.
Even at 2-2.5" lift, without addressing castor, your Jeep will be darty and wander... and that gets old fast, and, can be downright unsafe when braking hard on uneven or worn-wheel-tracked pavement.
Don't get hung up on "dual rate" coils. Only time the dual rate ever comes into play is off road, disconnected, and fully flexing the rig... has absolutely nothing to do with enhanced ride quality.
Lots of good advise above, good luck.

tnheritage

Does the Teraflex kit come with those? The $748 dollar 2.5" one?

resharp001

Most kits are not going to come with these brackets. I THINK only the AEV 3.5" kit might come with their own. You just need to budge another $100 or so and buy some. AEV and Rubicon Express make 2-piece designs for $100+/-, and Rancho makes a nice 1-piece design that costs a bit more. There's another 1-piece out there too I believe, but can't recall at the moment.

TrailBadger

tnheritage

Sometimes to much information or too many offering suggestion tend to get you more confused. The best thing to do is purchase the set you want. could be the brand, could be how it's designed or it could (in your case) the budget.

For us I was looking and focusing on the spring rate as this was a key point in buying the RockKralwer system. I wanted more spring rate then what other kits offered. But not only that, 1000's of those would purchase the RK kits showed before and after pics and this was the lift for us. Erm I mean the suspension upgrade which happens to lift the jeep.

Now I could be boasting about the RK kit and we don't even have it on the jeep yet. I'm confident this system will work for our driving habits. But it's not just the coils, but other hard components which make of this system, then add shocks which I've added the TJM gold edition shocks. Mind you I wanted the jeep to have a Rubicon appearance with the red shocks and all. But finding the gold shocks, has taken the jeep in a different direction yet accomplishing what we wanted.

So don't over think this, get the system you want and build from that.

nthinuf

Caster correction is one the many personal preference items. As you lift, the axle rotates, the caster decreases, and the steering becomes flighty. It's automatic, and it gets worse as you go higher. At 2.5", some choose not to correct it. Others do. That choice is yours, not ours. And you will decide based on how you think it handles.

If you decide at some later point to correct it, you have options. (Cam Bolts, Brackets, longer/shorter Fixed Control Arms, Adjustable Control Arms) There are pro's/con's, so do some reading on them all before pulling out the credit card.