Best suspension for high-speed offroad/prerunner Wrangler

[sacourtney07]

So all my friends focus on rock crawling. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty fun, but if I can hike a trail faster than I can take it in my Jeep... the point is sort of lost on me.

I can get plenty of advice on best shocks, springs, brands, etc. for that sort of deal. But I'm more about bombing down some dirt roads at 60 MPH and not worrying about slamming my suspension when I hit a divot or overheating my shocks on miles of washboard.

I would have a Raptor if I could. Got dang I want one so bad. Since I'm broke from buying a basic JL Sport with nothing but a Dana 44, I would like to know what y'all have done with your JL or JK in regards to making it fast and badass.

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[Nomad_K]

Coming from a JK and a moderately built IFS rig to the JLUR, let me ask two questions.

1) Do you want to rock crawl and go fast, or just bomb along dirt roads in the valley?
2) If budget is an issue and you only want to go fast as opposed to hitting trails and rocks, have you thought about a used GenI Raptor instead of the JLU? That may be sacrilege on a Jeep forum but if the desert is your primary focus a different platform may provide more kicks for fewer dollars and headaches.

Now, if you are coming over to the Jeep from a pre-runner and just want to improve the capabilities of the Jeep recognizing that it is a different platform... If you have the time, money, and or patience, I am sure there will be long arm kits with coilovers and bypasses for the JL. In San Diego you could also find a shop to help you build something like that today.

For the JK and other Jeeps, Off Road Evolution, Rock Krawler, Metal Cloak, Clayton, Currie, Synergy, and Icon all had good kits for a variety of uses and I think that they all have kits available today with Fox, King, or proprietary shocks. I am not sure if Teraflex has anything on the market yet.

I haven't wheeled a JL (waiting) so I can't speak to the priority parts that you would want to replace first (which arms fail first or limit travel, etc). However if you want to do extended runs at speed, at a minimum I would look at a 2.5 inch diameter shock with an external reservoir. You may not need that for going slow through the rocks but that extra fluid capacity will come in handy if you are going after it in the desert. I would also look at a quality spring vs a spacer, some soft bump stops to cushion big hits, and extended brake lines if you are going to be pushing the limits of the stock (or aftermarket) suspension's travel limits.

I think Marcus from @River City Offroad is here (I hope so because I never see him at JKO anymore ). If you reach out to him with your budget and build needs he will steer you in the right direction and will likely save you money on the parts and on the need to buy parts twice.

 

[River City Offroad]

Thanks for the tag brother!

As far as going fast goes, you can get real deep into the pocket book pretty quickly trying to go fast with solid axles. I'm sure there will be some options coming down the pipe before too long, but the only thing I've seen set up this way as of yet is Loren Healy's JLU that is on coilover/bypass on all four corners with Fab9s. Looks sick and I'm sure it'll boogie, but this thing is very heavily modified.



If you're wanting more of a weekend warrior / daily driver rig I would look at some of Rock Krawler's suspension kits and wait for Teraflex to get the Falcon 3.3s out. The RK coils paired with the Falcon 3.3s is hard to beat on a JK for an all around overland type rig.

Marcus

 

[sacourtney07]

Sweet, thanks for the replies. Been looking into it for the past 8 hours at work, plus based on your replies, looks like I’ll go with some remote reservoir Fox 2.0 or Falcon 3.3 with some good bump stops and a lift with quality springs.

Basically my main priority is speed but needing some clearance to get through some rocks and holes if I need to. I won’t be heading to the trails just for the purpose of crawling over boulders.

I’m changing careers in 2 months so if I get that job I want I’ll be picking up some coil overs.

Now time to wait for the engineers to make that gearrrrrr

 

[MacBigButt]

So all my friends focus on rock crawling. Don't get me wrong, it's pretty fun, but if I can hike a trail faster than I can take it in my Jeep... the point is sort of lost on me.

I can get plenty of advice on best shocks, springs, brands, etc. for that sort of deal. But I'm more about bombing down some dirt roads at 60 MPH and not worrying about slamming my suspension when I hit a divot or overheating my shocks on miles of washboard.

I would have a Raptor if I could. Got dang I want one so bad. Since I'm broke from buying a basic JL Sport with nothing but a Dana 44, I would like to know what y'all have done with your JL or JK in regards to making it fast and badass.

This is basically my goal as well. King Shocks and EVO Stage 3 Overland lift is working well for me so far. I'm very impressed with how it slams along rough backroads and corners on switchbacks. I was originally going to go with coil overs but I'm not good at the patience thing waiting for the kits to come out. I might also switch to the EVO plush ride springs but I'm not convinced they would be better than stock + spacer.

EVO now have a long arm kit but the JL has great wheel travel already. My next upgrade will be better hydraulic bump stops front and back.

 

[porkchop]

also check out the 2.5" kit from Icon Vehicle Dynamics. nice kit.
the Stage 1 or Stage 2 would do nicely.
http://iconvehicledynamics.com/shop/725-5-suspension-systems

you'd definitely want to add a good hydraulic bump stop kit for what you're looking to achieve.

 

[Nomad_K]

Marcus - great to see you again and your welcome - good to se you here and I hope to see some axle swap information coming out of your build

MBB - thank you for chiming in on the Evo kit - I was looking for some personal reviews!

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