Hail2Ale

"Nothing wrong with EVO, they give the stupid customer what they want."

jordy

Like I said, I know your feelings on EVO.

My point in this was to offer up the extreme side of going fast in the sand and still rock crawling, which basically sums up Hammers. It's a no brainer to say that all of those race rigs aren't off the shelf components and have been fine tuned. Most of the people who "upgrade" suspension are going to run 45 down a washboarded out forest service road with a smile on their face not knowing the difference. Those are the "experts" with the TF foam bump stops. To be competitive you're going to have all kinds of time and money and time in the setup of the rig. Packaging that, with a price point to cover it, would leave it sitting on the shelf as most people wouldn't want to spend that kind of money. The majority of threads that happen on here are people looking for budget solutions.

I'd also suggest that your $200K number is probably light as that doesn't buy a lot of any rig beyond a really nice 1600 class 2 car. Trophy trucks start around $750K these days. $200K won't buy you a used one in any kind of shape. The Ultras fall somewhere in between to start a program, then you have to move it, have spares of everything, and a backup rig.

jordy

Here's a used Genright rig for $144K, but he's open to offers.

Only raced once. Driven by a little old lady to church on Sunday a couple times.

Off-Road Racing Classifieds | RDC | 2016 GENRIGHT ULTRA 4

TheDirtman

If you added up all the hours and charged shop rates for it I would be in that cost range as well. And I still have the shitty 3.8.

jordy

I am right there with you. I keep kicking around the LS swap with the 6 speed transmission, but have other fish to fry at the moment. That and I'd be putting new 40's on beadlocks a whole lot more often, and that's a skill I don't need to be better at doing.

Rednroll

I kind of expected and was hoping you would get a kick out of that.

Trail Jeeps

There is a way to have you cake and get to eat some of it as well with a JK. Don't let shiny things on the internet scare you.

First off, a big EVO or Gen Rite build is awesome, but for even the above average Jeeper, they are often above the point of diminished returns for your money. Is a coilover set up a lot of fun? Sure is! Do you need it? The answer is no. You don't. You might want it, but you don't need it to have fun.

Long arms? Yeah, they help on the high speed. They have little effect on the rocks until you start chasing RTI numbers, which becomes more a game of "look at me" than a true performance modification at some point. They also hang down from you jeep and are no help to your ground clearance. Do you need them? No.

Would you like to build a "hybrid?" Follow me down this road:

For disclosure we have been doing this for a long time and have landed on the JKS/Fox suspension components, we have found that they do a great job doing everything well, there are a lot of good brands on there. If you want specific recommendations and pricing, PM me, we do discounts and free shipping for forum members.

A JK's factory arms are long enough to get some real good, clean suspension cycling as long as you don't start to go too wacky chasing suspension travel. There are several good options out there, pick something nice with a lot of adjustment and something to free up the suspension movement, and replace all 8, allowing you to to push the front and rear axles fore and aft (about and inch in the front and somewhere between 3/4 and 1" in the rear until you run into clearance issues with the track bar bracket). You don't want to go above ~4" of lift, and you don't need to.

Suspension travel is important to high speed stuff, but just as important is the control over the movement you have. Pick some bump stops. You showed the Teraflex ones, which are better than nothing for sure. I would go with a full blown hydraulic bump stop. There are several good brands. Springs are important to high speed performance as well, most springs will get you by on the rocks. Good springs are multi rate. We LOVE the JSpec springs, their dual rate functions like a coilover over the fast stuff. The key to this setup comes down to your shocks. You want to go fast? Gotta pay for some good shocks. A JK is fat pig of a vehicle. They get heavy quickly when modifying them. Get some high quality 2.5" shocks, if you really want to go deep, get some bypass internal bump stop shocks.

After these basics are addressed, there are several additional add ons on the market to help you fine tune your rig. Driveshafts, braces, skid plates, shock mounts, sway bar options, ect are all important, but relatively easy after tackling the big things mentioned above.

The beauty of a set up like this? Simplicity and reliability. You are keeping the factory control arm mounts, you aren't chopping the frame up. Sure, long arms and coilovers will get you a little more performance, but for a lot more money. The closer to stock you can keep your Jeep the better it will hold together until you exceed the tolerances of the factory drivetrain. You should be able to set up a factory Rubicon on 35's or 37's to do anything you would ever want with a good conventional suspension and some love to the axles. Can you go bigger? Sure, you can and it will make it just a little more capable. I can make your JK huck proof on 40" tires. It'll be awesome, but I'd rather sell you something really, really clean for you budget that is a better overall vehicle. For your budget I could put together a JK that will commute you to work every day and will go anywhere you want it to go on the weekends.

jordy

That's about the second dumbest thing you've posted on here in the last 2 days. Lift kits being tuned to the shocks was the first.

Aside from no real loss in ground clearance from arm mounting, the ability to run larger tires offsets any discernible loss that might be noticed on the far outside of your axle tube for mounting points.

Why don't you go ahead and sit the next few plays out. (we'll see who realizes that's from a movie before the butthurt starts). Complete $1,200 kits aren't going to run in the realm of an even decent long arm kit in the sand or the rocks. Yes, there are extreme, which I've posted a few of, but there are also shit that is going to create an unhappy customer when they actually leave the washboarded out forest road.

TheDirtman

High speed and rock trails on turned coil overs and long arms are a night and day difference from any conventional bolt on coil/shock short arm. Hands down no comparison. The ability to run a softer coil for better articulation combined with a dual rate coil over and hydraulic bump stops allow you to not only run fast thru the desert but gives you a better more controlled ride on the rock trails. Tune it right and you don't get the jarring side to side ride that beats the crap out of you and you will run a rock trail way faster and won't feel beat up at the end of the day. They are more work and cost more but if you are looking for a good set up that will do both then a custom tuned long arm coil over is going to do it for you. You might even want to do an internal bypass coil over for a bit more tuning control over the system.