The castor was at 4.5 before the brackets but with the lift. I put the brackets on and adjusted both uppers and lowers to get everything lined back up.

 

A caster of 4.5 should not cause poor drivability or handling qualities. In fact it should be an improvement over stock. I would argue something else is going on then.

 

You aren't getting what I'm saying here lol.

I'm saying prior to the brackets. Castor was 4.5*
Ride was fine but harsh.

After bracket install, I want to say castor was around 5-5.5*, but the softness of the ride improved where as nothing else had changed but the brackets.

So what I'm saying is, after the brackets, while still having adjustable arms before and after the install, the ride was dramatically improved after the install of the drop brackets.. Nothing was wrong. You're saying the ride will be improve with adjustable arms, but I've had them before and after the brackets. The ride before compared to after was terrible. Harsh and rough, after it was soft and plush, I don't want to go back to wanting to sell my jeep caUse it rides like a go kart with no suspension.

 

You don't need both is the point, they both do the same thing in the sense of caster adjustment.

That said, arms only are going to ride "more harsh" because the geo - those brackets keep the arms closer to parallel to the ground, essentially pushing all bumps (force) into the coil and not transferring it to the joints and then frame. Without the mounts, the arms are less parallel, transferring more force into the frame giving you a harsher ride.

I think this is really a situation where you can't have your cake and eat it too - I understand what you want to do but in your case I would ask why not just put on the stock arms? That would solve your problem and be cheaper...and if you don't need adjustables and don't rock crawl save the $$

My metalcloak arms ride awesome, better than stockers lifted and better than my old teraflex....but they are not as parallel as the stock height so they transfer more force to the frame than a bracket would

 

Yeah I guess I can't have my cake and eat it too. Kinda sucks. Lol the ride is great right now. I'll probably not be happy taking them off, but I guess I don't have a choice and I just bought the arms, so I'm not gonna sell them. Hopefully it won't be too bad. I was thinking maybe the brackets that have holes drilled for different lift heights may work. Since they have holes drilled for 4" 3" and 2.5" or whatever. I think the issue may be that I dropped from 4" to 3" lift springs the same time I changed the control arms.

 

I have to comment on this thread. Correction brackets seem to be the most misunderstood upgrade.

Yes they do correct your castor. However, they also correct your control arm angles (upper and lower) to reorient the arms back to level and stock orientation with the ground. This is what reduces the jarring feeling when hitting bumps with a lifted jeep.

Think of a wheel barrel. When roll forward with the handles high and a steep angle between your hands to the axle. And try to co over a curb. It is difficult right? But if you lower the handles so that the pegs are just above the ground and the angle is minimal, you can more easily get over those bumps. The drop brackets do exactly that while also correcting castor.

Will you ride suffer? You just have to try it and let me know because I'm running the same setup with the AEV brackets... LOL!! I plan to remove my drop brackets but have been lazy!

 

You can run both but the arms will need to adjust stock or close to it. RK's do not as you found out. I went from lowers only to Rancho brackets and now run RK adjustable arms. I really did not feel much of a difference switching from the brackets to both sets of arms. Now, lowers only to brackets i did.

Fwiw, i set the RK uppers the shortest they could go which was 19 1/4
Lowers had to be set to 23 5/8 to achieve 4° caster.
Honestly, the lowers alone will work just fine unless you want to move the axle forward some.

 

Speaking as someone who went from the AEV brackets to Metalcloak control arms, I can say that my ride improved.

I get what you are saying about the arms being more parallel with brackets and how that would affect ride quality. But again, speaking from experience, I had no issues going from brackets to adjustable arms. Wish I had done it a long time ago.

If you don't do rock crawling, then just stick with the brackets if you prefer the ride quality. For me it came down to clearance and I didn't want the drop brackets to get hung up on rocks anymore. I'm incredibly happy with the arms. Improved ride quality and improved ground clearance. And I could finally dial in my rear geometry too.

 

I think you mean get caster/pinion angles correct not geometry. The bracket changes the links mounting point wich changes anti squat and anti dive and arm swing and such. Just lengthening arms minimally to regain caster does little to overall geometry so to speak.

 

Okay I was abbreviating. I did mean caster/pinion angle when I said geometry. To me those angles meant geometry.