I've been trying to find the answer to this question for a few days now... I haven't been able to find anything. I'm leaning real hard on putting together a 2.5" Metalcloak lift and was wondering, If I use correction brackets up front, do I need anything for the rear? I'm leaning towards getting a set up adjustable upper control arms. Are they even needed? None of their "budget" lifts have any rear end parts, save sway bar end links and a track bar bracket. So I'm leaning towards no, I don't need adjustable UCA in the rear. It only pops into my head because if the front needs adjustment, why wouldn't the back?

 

Need? No. I'm running a pieced together MC lift with AEV front brackets and nothing in the rear (aside from tb bracket, tb, sway links, and brake lines). Would it be beneficial to do some control arms? Probably so, if nothing else to push the axle back into the center of the wheel well and get the rear ds angle in a better place, though I'm not sure how much that angle matters in my case as I've got the TF high angle cv's on both ends of the rear ds.

 

I can't recall if you have a 2dr or 4dr and it's not in your profile. 4drs are really forgiving in the rear up to 35" tires and a 3.5" lift. Usually it is 37s that really force a move to adjustable arms in the rear, and that is due to the tire just being too far forward in the wheel well that is causes more clearance issues. Though 35's and 3.5" can benefit from them, you can get by as well (I realize you are thinking of a 2.5" lift, I'm just saying). Even if you have a 2dr, a 2.5" lift is going to be forgiving. Also, nothing says you can't install your lift and then reassess the situaton. The only real reason for adjustable rears is to reposition that axle and extend the wheelbase again. The pinion angle in the rear is typically good enough. Obviously not every situation is the same.

 

Caster.

With added height, the axles rotate, raising the pinions. Up front, raising the pinion automatically lowers the Caster. Low Caster causes looser/flightier steering. No Caster in the rear, so all you're dealing with is pinion angle - not trying to balance between the two...

 

I did forget to mention what jeep I'm running... 07 JKUR

Much appreciated y'all!

 

How do you like that MC lift/AEV bracket combo? I'm looking at running my rear much in the same way as you have...

 

It rides exactly how it should. The rear was a little harsh with fox shocks and just the MC TB bracket. I added the MC rear track bar and it smoothed it out. The front has had zero issues since putting on those AEV control arm brackets. They did get into a few fights with rocks on 33's but with 35's they're not getting near the attention. With MC 2.5" coils, steel front bumper, winch, etc- I'm sitting in/ at 2.5" all around.

I took it in for a "professional" alignment at an off-road shop in town (who promptly took it to the corner alignment shop ....even though I asked if they did their own alignments), but anyways that came back and said the caster was low. I pointed out the CA brackets and asked why they didn't bump it up another notch and that's when they spilled the beans that they took it elsewhere. It was closing time for them so they sent me on my way. I got home and bumped the brackets to the 3.5" holes and I like the way it drives. Point being- just because it says 2.5 doesn't mean you have to put them there if you can get better numbers in another hole. Needless to say- I've not been back to that shop or bought anything from them since that experience.

 

Nice! I was going to ask about whether you had to "deviate" from what setting AEV suggested with regard to lift vs CA position, due to the MC springs... I'm not a fan of shops that advertise that they do their own work, when in reality they farm the work out. To me, that's false advertising. If/when I find out a shop does that, they're blacklisted. Poor customer service (like sending you along your way before fixing the issue) will also get a shop blacklisted.

 

Driveline angles and wheel base will dictate weather you need rear arms or not. On a JKU with the factory drive shaft you should be fine without them, you will just have the loss of wheel base and more than likely have to trim the front pinch seam. Single ended u-joint drive shafts and double cardon shafts are more picky on the angle of drive line. relocating the lower coil perches and trimming the lower control arm mounts are a couple things I recommend to my customers when doing a lift. It helps to get everything lined back up after lifting.

Instead of using reloction brackets up front cut off the lower control arm mounts on the axle and install HD mounts higher up on the axle to flatten those arms while improving ground clearance.

 

Ok, you've got my curiosity here. Does that not mess with the amount of separation required at the axle or is it enough with where the factory mounts are and moving the lowers up? I replaced the front shock mounts (really should have used a different bracket to change the lower orientation) so cutting and welding isn't bad.