c20040215
Well-Known Member
Brackets would definitely help on and off-road. Some people like to point out the obvious they hang low, which they do. From my personal experience and observation on variety of terrain and trails, they do more good them harm. 95% of the time you hit the brackets they just glide over whatever you try to climb. Where they would get "hung up" is when you reverse.. which in most situation you are backing down a climb to reposition, and gravity helps you overcome that. The brackets from Metalcloak and teraflex have a better skid angle design to minimize it.
Where most people don't get is they drastically improve the ability to climb over the obstacle, especially a vertical ledge and undercut situation. The control arms are sitting parallel so they don't need to swing forward before they can swing up if that makes sense. I have a manual and I can tell how easy they make climbing up a vertical ledge without feathering the clutch as much. Not to compare them to a truth long arm but they give you one benefit of a long arm kit.
My two cents is if you are building a dedicated rock crawler and nothing else, or you have to drive through a 5 mile rock garden from and to work everyday, stay away from those brackets. If you have a 2.5" + lift and want your jeep drive nice on the road, have a better suspension geometry, and perform well on 95% of hardcore trails, brackets could be a good choice.
Nate from dirt life style explained it better than I can.
Where most people don't get is they drastically improve the ability to climb over the obstacle, especially a vertical ledge and undercut situation. The control arms are sitting parallel so they don't need to swing forward before they can swing up if that makes sense. I have a manual and I can tell how easy they make climbing up a vertical ledge without feathering the clutch as much. Not to compare them to a truth long arm but they give you one benefit of a long arm kit.
My two cents is if you are building a dedicated rock crawler and nothing else, or you have to drive through a 5 mile rock garden from and to work everyday, stay away from those brackets. If you have a 2.5" + lift and want your jeep drive nice on the road, have a better suspension geometry, and perform well on 95% of hardcore trails, brackets could be a good choice.
Nate from dirt life style explained it better than I can.
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