Looks great! (And level)On level ground...
Yorks & Lancs in Chatsworth (mom and pop shop)Where did you get your Dynatrac Endurosport installed. Looking for shops in SoCal.
Yorks & Lancs in Chatsworth (mom and pop shop)
They specialize in older Rovers, however, I have been going to them for 20 years now. He also installed the winch, Rusty's F&R track bars, diff covers, steering stabilizer and Rusty's track bar support.
Contact: Oliver 818.882.9954
ORW in Temecula Ask for kevinWhere did you get your Dynatrac Endurosport installed. Looking for shops in SoCal.
Sorry, ask for RJ. Not kevin. I saw your name above and put that in the postORW in Temecula Ask for kevin
Great write up and I am in the same boat now (without the steering issues) as you were then... I want to go from 33's to bigger tires so i reached out / checked the forums and in the end Eddie from that popular youtube channel advised this same kit to me.. So reading this just helps me with this decision... I will prob do the lift wait a few months then decide on the size tire / brand although i do like the coopers discoverer stt...I made the mistake of posting my findings on a popular Facebook group (I'm sure many of the members here are a part of). It brought out the "my kit is better than yours" crowd. As I tried to allude to, I had certain criteria that I was going for (and in this order):
1. Better handling - I think they handle like shit from factory...way too much body roll for my taste.
2. Better comfort - sometimes this is a trade off due with the goal of getting better handling - nevertheless, it was desire of mine to have with an 'improved' suspension.
3. JUST enough lift to put 37's on the Jeep with no to minimal rubbing. Im a huge fan of low center of gravity since I'm often found tilted over on the side of a mountain on the weekends!
I quote Eddie from [Banned Site], "is it the biggest and baddest kit on the market, no...but it wasn't designed to be". In my opinion its the best of all worlds and solves MY exact specification for what I wanted in a lift kit. [search [Banned Site] on YouTube for a review and interview with Tony by Eddie]
What I feel is often overlooked by the Jeep community is the tuning of the shocks with the springs. I come from a racing background (albeit limited - weekend SCCA and Skip Barber). I learned the hard way that adding the latest and greatest shocks to unmatched springs results in a ride that is often WORSE than a stock set up. I still have a BMW in the garage that loves to bottom out due to a mismatching of spring rate and shock combo that I did a couple years ago. I was just about to swap out that suspension but then I discovered how much more exciting owning and wheeling a Jeep can be every weekend in the mountains than a couple times a year on the track. BTW, if anyone wants the other car in my garage, it needs a home since the Jeep gets all the attention now.
Back on topic...spring and shock rates are what Tony (from Dynatrac) focused most on. They didn't just call Fox and 'say send me a couple pallets of your 2.0s' then match them with some off the shelf springs. Their shocks have custom valve tuning within them to match the specs of the springs. While this is all mathematics, you can clearly feel it with the ride quality and the handling. Everything just feels like its in harmony - this probably the best way of looking at it.
To make a long story short, you asked "how much softer these springs are from factory". I really can't answer that question as it would best be told by using a spring measuring device. What I WILL tell you is that I have noticed no reduction in the "softness" factor and a hell of a lot of handling improvement. When you add the two together (in combination with the lift amount that I WAS LOOKING FOR) you get a combination that has caused me to fall in love with my Jeep again.
Given all my issues I was honestly losing faith in and not enjoying driving it anymore. I never felt truly "comfortable" in it other than on the trails (minus the height issue and scraping all the time). The problem is you have to take the highway to get to the trails so I needed to sort this out as best I could to enjoy the overall ride - and the entire day of wheeling, not just a few miles going 2 MPH.
Nevertheless, I can't stress enough, if YOUR needs are just like mine and you want a no nonsense, no maintenance kit that gives you the height you need along with improved handling and (perceived) better comfort, then I highly suggest you consider the Dynatrac kit. If you desire a 3.5" kit, adjustability of every joint (which you will only do once), constant greasing of your joints, constant changing of adjustable dampeners, then this isn't for you.
One more thing, as you said above, yes, I was able to to a true apples to apples test. I see a lot of people here who throw on larger tires at the same time as their lift. I would highly suggest you NOT do that. Keep the stock wheels, do your lift and live with it for a while. Get the suspension all sorted out before you add other factors to the equation. Granted, if I had my tires I would have probably thrown them on at the same time but I'm glad I didnt.
I hope this answers your question. I know how difficult it can be to figure out what lift kit to get given so many differing opinions. And yes, this is JUST my opinion and findings based on my needs...and they (Tony and Dynatrac) hit it out of the park for me!
BTW, Im really surprised that my findings didn't flush out the my-kit-is-better-than-yours people on this forum like it did on Facebook. Either the people here truly understand the fact that the best kit on the market is the one that solves YOUR needs or those people just haven't woken up yet this morning. Sadly Im sure we will soon see the people posting on this thread saying things like "XXXXX kit is better than this". But, to each their own.