So your saying the amount of offset in the tire he’s showing is minuscule! Looks pretty obvious to me!
I'm saying the effect of that offset is miniscule... Most lifted Jeeps have axle offset. To be centered/centered, you will need both adjustable track bars, F&R the majority of the time. How many kits come with both track bars? Very few... Sure, you can add them after the fact. It's us OCD's that do that. Most do not. I would fix it, I'm saying it isn't killing the Jeep, killing the ride quality, or killing the fun factor if it isn't done.
What resolution are you hoping to get?
Buy an adjustable track bar and ask them to install it, fixed.
So I actually went back to my Jeep yesterday, loosened and tightened all the suspension bolts while it was on the ground. Then I had my wife push the body of the Jeep in the pass side from the driver's side. There's enough play in the eye of the track bar to move it a tad. Doing that gave me a difference of 1/8" to 1/4". Perhaps you could give that a try?
I did the same thing when I installed mine. The rear is pretty darn close, but the front is off by over 1/2", so I'll be ordering an adjustable track bar for that. Sort of unrelated, but I noticed a lot of people having thrust angles pretty far off too.
Yep I ended up ordering front and rear from metal cloak. It was well worth it to have everything square.
Don't want to derail this thread, but noticed you wrote a review on their site. The track bar fixed your bump steer too? I noticed that when I was installing the lift, the front axle was shifted to the drivers side and because of that, there was lateral load on the swaybar endlinks. I thought to myself - This is going to create some bump steer. Sure enough, I have it. Good to know that the track bar will help.
Yes I feel that it did, until I went to 37s then it came back in the form of tire pressure and balance. Totally worth the money, however Rusty's sells good stuff too with much quicker shipment times and a better price.
Thanks for the clarification. This probably answers after my rancho 2" sport lift, it was showing similar signs. To add, the rear driver side sway bar link is now rubbing against the inner wheel well when articulated.I'll try to put some clarity to this discussion. On a track bar or panhard bar suspension, the axle does NOT move in a linear up and down motion, it actually swings on an arc that is controlled by the track bar. The fulcrum point is where the bar mounts to the frame. In the rear the frame mount is on the passenger side. So as you lift, the axle swings out to the passenger side. It should be noted that this happens during any suspension movement too, while you are driving. As the suspension extends, the entire axle moves out to the passenger side and as it compresses, it moves towards the drivers side.
The front axle has the same characteristics, it just moves the opposite way since the fulcrum point is on the drivers side so when the suspension extends, it moves the axle to the drivers side. Axle shift is not a cause of driveability issues.
The new rear axle in the JL already has a high track bar mount for proper roll center. On the JK's, we added a rear track bar bracket to raise the roll center which also meant that the stock track bar would still be very close to centering the axle. Raising the roll center gets it closer to the COG which reduces body roll when cornering. On the JL, there is no need for roll center correction, so no bracket is included. So now when you lift it 2" in the rear, the axle shifts about 1/2" making it stick out on the passenger side about 1" farther than the drivers side.
The same is happening in the front, just to the drivers side... On a JK it was common to be able to keep the stock rear track bar and add an adjustable front bar and you were good. On the JL, if you want to be centered (my OCD says yes, it must be fixed) on both, it will likely require adjustable track bars front and rear.
One thing that rings true on the JL, just as it has on every other Jeep, is that all Jeeps are a little different. I have already seen 3 JL's with the Mopar kit that had opposite effects. One had the rear axle out but the front was still very centered, another had the rear that looked great and the front needed correction and the last one had both out and needed both bars to correct.
The million dollar question? Why aren't they included in the lift kit? Every manufacturer builds a kit to hit a certain price point... I'd say that Mopar didn't think the extra $400 was going to look good on the price tag.
