Hello! I recently picked up a 2008 JKUR as a project to work on with my 13 year old son. It is my 3rd Jeep so far as I started wrenching and wheeling on my 91YJ when I was 15 and then ran out in 2007 to buy my first "adult" vehicle which of course had to be a 2007 JKU...a growing family neccessitated a move to a larger SUV so I had to part ways with my beloved 07 back in 2011.

The "new" one was a long-time beach jeep and aside from the nasty rock sliders is rust-free. It is a 6spd, 1-owner, and dealer maintained for the last 16 years with the mopar unlimited powertrain coverage. It's sitting on 285's right now but is otherwise completely stock minus a full Rhino-Lined interior.



The wheels rub at full lock, so a lift is first on the long list of eventual modifications.

I want a high quality lift kit, something that is able to grow as our build grows. Initially I'll be driving it at least 50% to ease a little of the mileage I've been racking up on my F250 and save a little on fuel. Eventually it will be a daily driver for a 16 year old kid. As far as wheeling I live on the eastern shore of MD where we don't have much but farm access trails and sandy beaches, but I would like to eventually find a club and travel up to some events at Rausch Creek.

I've done a lot of research and pretty much narrowed it down to Metal Cloak, Rock Krawler, or Clayton. I am currently torn between either 2.5 or 3.5 mid/short arm kits as I have no desire to get into the big-time pay-to-play of 37"+ tires and major driveline modifications. Will be looking at the entry level package from each, so the 2.5/3.5 True Dual MC, the 2.5/3.5 Adventure from RK, or the 2.5/3.5 Ride Right+ from Clayton. My priorities are good on-road manners/ride comfort and the ability to correctly align the jeep with proper caster for correct handling.

From my research all 3 seem to have solid reputations, and all 3 kits provide the ability to later on add additional adjustable control arms, track bar's, etc as the need/desire arises, and it would seem that if I started with 2.5 and the kid wanted to go higher later, could go up in coil size without having to replace all the other parts.

I'm not sure which way I'm leaning at the moment so I'm looking for experiences from others beyond the 5 word responses that FB groups have yielded. I've noticed that of the 3, MC and Clayton provider adjustable uppers vs RK coming with the adjustable lowers...is there a better option between the uppers/lowers for correcting caster? I did reach out to MC and was assured that their adjustable uppers would allow for caster correction. The other difference really seems to come from MC having the outboard shock mount, which seems to make total sense when it comes to articulation...otherwise I'd gather they're all about equal, and from a budget standpoint it seems like a wash...what do you all think?

If anyone has pictures with 2.5 or 3.5 lifts on either 33's or 35's I'd love to see the difference...I've read at least the MC lifts can be a little higher than listed but I'm not sure if that's coming from people who came from sport/sahara suspensions or Rubi's as well...

Nice to meet everyone and looking forward to hopefully being around this forum for quite some time!

 

In running the MC 2.5 based off recommendations from here. So far I haven’t had any issues and just put on wheels and installed the out board shock mounts . I can definitely tell the difference in them being out board vs stock. My vote is MC.
The first picture is on 35x12.50x20. The last 2 are current set up with 35x12.50x17 with 4.5 back spacing with Black rhino wheels with shocks outboard.

 

I am running a mixed bag , MC long arm weld on kit with rock krawler 3.5" springs and fox reservior 2.0 shocks. Plenty of articulation with the MC long arms and the RK springs ride nice but on the firm side ( could be the shocks). can't go wrong with any of those brands really.

 

I'm toying with the idea of piecing together a kit myself, but as this will be the first suspension lift I've installed in 20 years since I did a spring over axle kit on my 91 YJ it does give me some pause that I may be over-complicating things a bit. I want my jeep to be capable, but I'm not building a crawler...I know I could go simpler/cheaper and get the look and clearance to fit 35's, but I also want a good base that when I hand it over to my son who will have more money than sense (not that he will have much money ) ... he doesn't have to start from scratch.

I really like the clayton stuff, it looks great and they cover their arms against anything you could do to them...they also have service free bushings...I don't have much info on their springs and how they ride. I've also heard the triple rate coils from RK are excellent, but I don't like that their adventure package comes with non-adjustable lowers, so those would eventually need replaced if I wanted to go to all adjustable arms, but they also stand behind their stuff and whatever you can do to it...then there's the MC kit which probably gets the most hype of any of them from the internet...Its hard to say how much of it is reputation effect...I have no doubts its a high quality lift, and as such would expect anyone who buys it to hype them up and clearly A LOT of jeepers have gone with them, but at the same time aside from the outboard shock mounts which I like, don't see what sets them apart to say a clayton lift that is almost $500 less for more or less the same components.

I don't know...maybe I do a fraken-lift, Clayton Arms, RK Springs, and MC shock mounts...but that would probably eliminate any savings over just joining the herd and going with the MC kit

 

I'm not some MC nut-hugger for the sake of it, and my jeep is a frankenlift built over time and learning lessons the hard way. You're going to make your life easier if you just go with the MC from the start. They really are the best thing we have offered for our JKs, are a small and good company that stands behind their products. You need to just scratch RK off the list. There's just nothing good about their products unless you want to listen to local retailers peddling their products, but if you go by that train of thought, Rough Country and Rubicon Express would be the best you can buy . I've been in the game since 2013, been through some RK things, seen friends go through RK things, seen the whole internet go through some RK things. I do still have RK srpings under my jeep but I live in Texas and they continue to hold the jeep up just fine for me. If living in rust belt, no way. If you want to go Clayton, then by all means go for it. You could do worse, but you are also getting to overthinking it.

As a father, I would tell you I'd never put a young kid in one of these myself, but kids want what they want. Do not skimp on any steering component. Quality TB, and quality ball joints....and I'm not talking OEM "quality" ball joints. The leading cause of DW is loose bolts, track bar joints and ball joints. One case of DW in the wrong situation could be fatal, and it can happen out of nowhere when a joint goes south.

 

I've got just under 3 years (and probably 20-25k miles driving it myself) before I turn over the keys, and by then plan to have all new steering components...PO did the ball joints at the dealer less than 10k ago, but when they go they will be deleted. This is also why I'm not making this some crazy build...2.5", 35x12.50'sx17's on OEM wheels etc. I get it that kids will be kids, I was a 16 year old with a jeep once too. Hopefully along the way the kid learns a thing or two about wrenching and driving so that when he does get behind the wheel he's prepared to correctly handle any situation he finds himself in.

I've yet to hear 1 negative thing about Clayton, and I've been looking....and everything you said about being a small company, jeep focused, made in the usa, stands behind their products, etc seems to be there. I certainly would LOVE to hear from anyone who has direct experience (good or bad) with Clayton...MC is a known commodity as you said, and I generally prescribe to the "get what ya pay for" and "quality ain't cheap" arguments, but so far the only thing I can see that justifies the Clayton kit coming in cheaper is less brand reputation / marketshare...Really would love know a little more about Clayton (good or bad) from anybody who has their ride right or Overland+ kits.

 

Mine is mostly MC except for SS (Rubicon Express) and front TB which went to RE Extreme as well to get the adjustment sleeve that can be adjusted on vehicle with bar installed. Other than front TB I like every thing else from MC. Synergy and Clayton installs from people I know are good products in feedback with no issues.

 

If these are not the two kits you're looking at, please give us some links. For a constructive comparison on parts and price I'm pulling up these two kits -







What we see off the bat is a $381 price difference. You may not know, but MC will run 10% off + free shipping flash sales but you need to be on their email list. That would bring the price difference of the 2 kits down to $230. You may get a discount on the Clayton stuff....idk. What I would highlight is the following:

- Clayton you are getting brake line relocation brackets. MC you are getting new SS front brake lines and 2 brackets for the rear
- MC you are getting a full set of front AND rear ADJUSTABLE bump stops that are nice
- MC you are getting shock outboard brackets
- the MC rear TB bracket looks much better to me
- MC you are getting a front track bar (about the most important component IMO) with their bushing on both ends. Clayton TB appears to be using a heim on the axle-side.

One thing I will say is it's been a long time since I looked at Clayton. They are just not that popular relative to other brands for whatever reason. It appears they are using a nice dual durometer joint in their arms these days which is a nice upgrade from what they used to have back in the day. I'd say that is probably comparable to MC's joints. I do not like that heim on the TB at all. When I look at this direct comparison, I'd still say MC is the better option.

 

My 2010 had Rough Country 4” and I pieced together MC 3.5” and the clearance went up 1”!

Just today adding Rancho knuckles and MC ball joints!

 

Yes you were correct that those are the two kits I was comparing, sorry I should have provided links in my initial post. Appreciate the detailed breakdown, I was aware of the shock brackets but hadn't considered the trackbar joints, to be honest, heim joints, girro joins, johnny joints, etc is all new terminology to me so I'm still trying to get up to speed on those ins and outs.