Putting some lift on my 2012 JKUR. Specifically on the front, I am going with OME 2616 springs and their trim spacers. No heavy bumper. Expecting between 2.36" (2" spring plus 10mm spacer) and 3" of lift up front. I'm worried about caster. I am paying for the install and alignment (I know, I know, but its a time, tools, etc thing). I don't think they will charge me anything extra to install a set of arms up front during the install, but I'd guess if I decided to bring it back later to address flighty steering thre will be extra labor charged then. So I am thinking I should just get some arms up front during the main installation, have them set the caster accordingly and be done with it.

So get the arms now or wait and see?
Get uppers or lowers?
Teraflex or Rock Krawler?

 

I would drive it first and see how it feels. All you need to do arms later is a 21 mm socket and wrench, and a floor jack

 

I got lower control arms for my flightiness issue and it fixed it. I went from 3 to 5 degree camber and got a toe alignment done. drives like stock other than my wide tires wanting to grab every imperfection on the road

 

I have the 2.5" teraflex coil lift on 37's and all I did was toe in the front tires 1/8th of an inch, took about 3min to do and installed a teraflex monster adj. front track bar that I bought from my buddy for cheap and I am still running all the factory arms and it rides just like stock right now. Gonna get new arms eventually cuz my rear lowers are bent to hell. Probably going to get rock krawler rlca's cuz they are already pre bent for more ground clearance

 

I assume you mean caster, not camber. A

Stock JK has around 4.0 to 4.5 degrees of caster so if you were at 3, its not terrible. Yes, it mught feel a little flithy but should still be driveable.

To the OP, if you do get a set of adjustable arms, aim for castor in the 4 to 4.5 degrees. A lot of people go higher (especially with bigger lifts) but that puts a lot of pressure on your driveshaft due to pinion being off. It can lead to vibrations and, in worst cases, a blown up transfer case. It comes down to balancing flighty steering from potential driveline issues. Which is more important for you to address?

Installing arms later is super easy. I'm an idiot with a wrench but did mine myself when I was running my smaller lift last year. Didn't even have to jack the Jeep up. Simply did one side at a time and used a long screwdriver to help line up the mounting holes.

 

LCAs are easy to install. I have a TF coil spacer lift and went with the adjustable LCAs to insure the caster maintains stock setting. I am a bit paranoid about this issue though because I had an '07 with same size lift and got death wobble which took some effort to fix, and included getting the caster corrected.

In my mind having the LCAs is for piece of mind and if I decide to change to lift in the future.

 

CAs are nice to have for getting correct suspension geometry, but get expensive very quickly.

I went with the Rough country CA relocation brackets in the front. I lost a little bit on my front of my lift and had to add in a spacer, but my street manners are superb.

I will eventually upgrade to 3"5 of lift and then I will do control arms. With a 2.5 kit from OME I would say just to stick with brackets unless you are truly going to net more than 3" of lift.

The only other thing I would add is that rear lower adj CAs are nice if you plan to run 35s. Otherwise you end up having to trim the pinch seam in the rear. My buddy just did the RK 2.5 max travel kit with CAs and with the adjustments he was able to make, his 35 KM2s don't even come close to the seam without having to trim it.

 

I wouldn't do it... but if you do make sure you do it right and get something really nice/expensive.

The stock control arms are pretty strong and have good bushings, if you replace them with a adjustable control arms that are cheap, your ride quality will suffer. I would see how it rides with the OEM control arms before you make the jump.

 

Brackets are OK and can help bring back proper geometry (AEV makes brackets as well). Some will argue that the loss of ground clearnce and running stock arms will be a negative for off-roading. So you have to decide if the cost of arms vs. brackets have any addiitonal benefits for you...especially if you go off road alot.

I would have to disagree with you on running just lower arms in the rear for the intended purpose of creating pinch seam clearance. From what I understand, In order to PROPERLY push your axle back out of the way you need to have both upper and lower. By just running lowers and lenthening them to push the tire back, you are most likely creating a pinion angle issue on your axle which could lead to driveshaft failure.

The best combo, if you are not doing all 8 control arms, would be to do front lower arms and rear upper. With the Rock Krawler lift, they offer a package that comes with longer rear arms (the X-Factor lift) so you can push the entire axle back 1" to help bigger tires clear the pinch seam.


If your buddy set the control arm lenghts longer than RK suggested, take a look at the rear driveshaft and make sure it looks OK. There should be zero pinion or as close to zero as possible.

At least, that's how I understand this to work.

 

Let me also add that pushing the axle back like the X-Factor lift does, it's not just the control arms that are longer but you also must relocate the sway bar and the track bar. The track bar uses a bracket whereas the sway bar requires drilling out new holes.