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Not happy with my pieced together lift any suggestions?

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junglemaster

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Yes Rubi springs are side specific.
Yes I have the higer numbers in the passenger side and it still droops a little bit. Maybe thats normal
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I've got takeoff Rubicon springs that were removed about 10k after being bought new. I've got hardtop, factory steal bumpers front and rear, and the factory tow package. I believe that combination of options gets the highest spring rate.

Edited to add: Forgot to point out that I'm your neighbor out on long island, so they're yours if you want to take a ride out.
Thanks Mike, I will. take you up on your offer and try this fix first! PM sent
 
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RUSTYS, I put the higher number springs on the passenger side isn't that correct? Read it here on the forums. It was ending numbers 59 on driver side and 60 on passenger. Anybody use the Rock Krawler spring isolator pads on their lift front and rear? And yes, it is driving me crazy maybe if I had a hard top it wouldn't be so much rake
 

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I'll admit that new pic, its way more obvious. I don't think the hardtop is that big of a deal. I take my top off all the time and my rake doesn't increase drastically. I was playing with my own rake this weekend because my bumper and winch made my back end sag. I loaded around 150% in the very rear of my jeep and it only lowered about 3/8th inch. I honestly think you need to spend a little money and get the appropriate spring set from Synergy or similar.
 

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RUSTYS, I put the higher number springs on the passenger side isn't that correct? Read it here on the forums. It was ending numbers 59 on driver side and 60 on passenger. Anybody use the Rock Krawler spring isolator pads on their lift front and rear? And yes, it is driving me crazy maybe if I had a hard top it wouldn't be so much rake
I don't think the top or the metal bumpers make any difference. The factory metal bumpers are light. When I take my top off my JL or JK my rear doesn't come up at least to the naked eye. Look at lift kits on the market and not one of them talk about bumpers or tops. I think you need to spend a little money and start with a clean slate. I don't think the lower control arms make any difference either. Another little advise I'd give is don't run shock extensions like some people are telling you to do. I think you had a solid idea In your mind when you started but it's really going sideways on you. My advise if you're on a tight budget is sell what you have and just buy Rough Country 2.5 spacer lift with their N3 shocks. Total price would be around $300 and you'd be way better off.
 

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I'll admit that new pic, its way more obvious. ...
Yeah the photo definitely looks a lot steeper than the stock rake.
And what happened to the wheel well liners? I know you mentioned getting some but they were in your original pictures so why replace them?

...... I don't think the lower control arms make any difference either.....
I got longer LCA's with my lift and the camber angle is exactly the same after the lift as it was stock, so they do correct it. Now if you're talking about them effecting handling/performance they may not do anything. IDK, but I didn't want to risk worsening my ride/handling. I guess worse case is you add them later if you need to.
 
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I'll admit that new pic, its way more obvious. I don't think the hardtop is that big of a deal. I take my top off all the time and my rake doesn't increase drastically. I was playing with my own rake this weekend because my bumper and winch made my back end sag. I loaded around 150% in the very rear of my jeep and it only lowered about 3/8th inch. I honestly think you need to spend a little money and get the appropriate spring set from Synergy or similar.
I would have done that if I had known about it sooner or even the Enduro lift. The first time I saw the enduro lift was the wayolife Eddie on YouTube showing it off, and then I didn't take it seriously because I know he gets paid to make those videos so I always take what I see with a grain of salt not to mention he is friends with the owner of dynatrac. He changes lift kits and suspension set up all the time so its hard to keep up.

So you know, it's all subjective. Everyone will say the one they got is the best because they've invested their time and money and rightly so. So they want to justify their investment and feel good about it, I get that.

But I'm in NY and I haven't seen a Jeep specific shop that was friendly and willing to help explain everything. The last shop I went to they were wrench monkey knuckleheads that tried to sell me some left over kit that another guy abandoned and tell me it was good and I had enough after that and tried to go my own way.
 
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I don't think the top or the metal bumpers make any difference. The factory metal bumpers are light. When I take my top off my JL or JK my rear doesn't come up at least to the naked eye. Look at lift kits on the market and not one of them talk about bumpers or tops. I think you need to spend a little money and start with a clean slate. I don't think the lower control arms make any difference either. Another little advise I'd give is don't run shock extensions like some people are telling you to do. I think you had a solid idea In your mind when you started but it's really going sideways on you. My advise if you're on a tight budget is sell what you have and just buy Rough Country 2.5 spacer lift with their N3 shocks. Total price would be around $300 and you'd be way better off.
Thanks Rusty but the labor cost will be much more than that it cost me $950 to put on teraflex 1.5 spacer lift, install fox 2.0 IFP 0-1.5 in shocks, longer Mopar LCA's, JKS 0-2 disconnects, trailer front track bar and install maximus 3 winch plate and warn winch. I think that was a fair price, and the man that did it, did a great job. I got it done at Evans 4X4 in deer park long Island. Nice guy to work with... I am amazed at all the Texas or down south jeepers who say oh they got their lift done for $250 or something like that.

I have no prior experience dropping axles and such and did not want to ruin things as I typically tend to do and spend even more money trying to fix the problem I created especially with suspension.

I was hoping to pull the trigger once and call it good, but I guess I didn't get lucky. Was also a bit harder to guage because I have the soft top, it seems everyone running off road rigs only run hard tops but there is a big difference in the weight. The hard top weighs 140 lbs and while I haven't weighed my soft top I did upgrade to the premium top and when I went to put it on it wasn't heavy at all, dare I say maybe 40-50 lbs max??

It was bulky and long but not heavy at all. I don't have any weight in the back, just the Falken wild peak 285's and rear Rubicon steel bumper. IF you have a soft top, better account for that for those who are trying to set up their rigs with some lift.

Its hard to tell what's good, everything is a compromise and everyones ass feels different. I'm not picky I just want something great/good even, don't want to settle for Meh.

Yeah I know, shoulda got a Rubi but when you look at the Rubi in my area going for literally DOUBLE the price what I got my Jeep for, I think I did the right thing plus I couldn't find a Rubi in a 6 speed/soft top in my area to begin with and thats what I wanted. Couldn't justify it. I figured spend 5k-10k in mods maybe and I'd still be way on top.

And I'm happy with everything else so far the car has been amazing with no complicated electronics to break, other than this lift I've done the other mods on my own and its really user friendly to work on provided you have the tools
 
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Yeah the photo definitely looks a lot steeper than the stock rake.
And what happened to the wheel well liners? I know you mentioned getting some but they were in your original pictures so why replace them?

You know, they got cut up during the installation of the shocks (to access the bolts without removing the linere) and it looked terrible.. they had uneven cuts on all sides, I couldn't stand it so I ordered Rough Country inner liners going on very soon...

I got longer LCA's with my lift and the camber angle is exactly the same after the lift as it was stock, so they do correct it. Now if you're talking about them effecting handling/performance they may not do anything. IDK, but I didn't want to risk worsening my ride/handling. I guess worse case is you add them later if you need to.
I think the LCA helped to keep things within spec, my jeep tracks straight at 80 no wobble or anything but gotta hold on when you hit a big bump that wheels gonna jerk one side or the other.

The one thing I would like to improve is to have more tighter sharp feeling steering. I know, I know, its a jeep but I'm coming from AMG's and Bimmers, and I love the sharp feeling of turning on a dime. I feel like it is possible with the right components.

Evan who installed my suspension told me the next upgrade he would do would be the tie rod. Do you think the tie rod would improve the steering feel? Would I be better off replacing the drag link at the same time?
I saw synergy had a kit and also steer smarts yeti. It's hard to tell what's true and what's not, who drank the Kool aid and who is being really honest about their set up if I am being honest about it.
 
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So I called Teraflex about this issue and spoke with Taylor. He told me I shouldn't try to lift the front but instead to drop the rear. He made sense at that point but i felt like a fool because I didn't read anywhere saying about doing only a lift in the front, fuck me!

I told him the front felt heavy with the steel bumper and winch. He says its the shocks. Fox shocks are amazing off road shocks but on the highway its gonna be a little soft and around the corners, etc... then tried to sell me on teraflex shocks. I asked him if I put taller springs for a 2" lift then would that be beneficial? Would it ride better and stop the nose dive? He tells me nope the nose dive is because of the Fox Shocks and people just deal with it as the fox are great off road. So I'm thinking to myself this is just what I have to live with if I have a winch on the front end. Tuning a jeeps suspension i guess has many factors involved... still learning.

I considered teraflex but met a guy who has the 3.3 falcons tell me its very stiff. But he wouldn't say more he had about $6K worth of teraflex on his car so I didn't press further.

Then I read (pressurized) forum member say Fox 2.0 IFP best shocks for the money.
He never mentioned nose dive or soft around corners etc.

He had me send him a side shot of the jeep and he did a mock up by drawing a vertical line and one that followed the fender lines and asked me to measure the difference from the bottom lug to center of hub cap. Its exactly dead nuts 2 inches.

So he tells me if I remove my 1.5 spacer in the rear I will get the stance I want....what??! After all that...

So I could have saved time, money, and grief by only installing the front 2" spacers. Damn!!

Reason why is because I have a soft top and no weight in the rear. The rake is actually 2 inches and not 1 inch. So if you got a soft top people, lift the front first and then check before you touch the rear.

So I guess I'm gonna try to remove the rear spacers, and then see how it sits and rides. But I think the ride will improve? Wouldn't what I think is nose dive due to 2" rake kind of go away if I go back to .5 inch rake by removing the rear 1.5 spacer? What say you?

JL Level.jpg
 
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So I called Teraflex about this issue and spoke with Taylor. He told me I shouldn't try to lift the front but instead to drop the rear. He made sense at that point but i felt like a fool because I didn't read anywhere saying about doing only a lift in the front, fuck me!

I told him the front felt heavy with the steel bumper and winch. He says its the shocks. Fox shocks are amazing off road shocks but on the highway its gonna be a little soft and around the corners, etc... then tried to sell me on teraflex shocks. I asked him if I put taller springs for a 2" lift then would that be beneficial? Would it ride better and stop the nose dive? He tells me nope the nose dive is because of the Fox Shocks and people just deal with it as the fox are great off road. So I'm thinking to myself this is just what I have to live with if I have a winch on the front end. Tuning a jeeps suspension i guess has many factors involved... still learning.

I considered teraflex but met a guy who has the 3.3 falcons tell me its very stiff. But he wouldn't say more he had about $6K worth of teraflex on his car so I didn't press further.

Then I read (pressurized) forum member say Fox 2.0 IFP best shocks for the money.
He never mentioned nose dive or soft around corners etc.

He had me send him a side shot of the jeep and he did a mock up by drawing a vertical line and one that followed the fender lines and asked me to measure the difference from the bottom lug to center of hub cap. Its exactly dead nuts 2 inches.

So he tells me if I remove my 1.5 spacer in the rear I will get the stance I want....what??! After all that...

So I could have saved time, money, and grief by only installing the front 2" spacers. Damn!!

Reason why is because I have a soft top and no weight in the rear. The rake is actually 2 inches and not 1 inch. So if you got a soft top people, lift the front first and then check before you touch the rear.

So I guess I'm gonna try to remove the rear spacers, and then see how it sits and rides. But I think the ride will improve? Wouldn't what I think is nose dive due to 2" rake kind of go away if I go back to .5 inch rake by removing the rear 1.5 spacer? What say you?

JL Level.jpg
I say whatever nose dive you’re experiencing won’t change, unless you change shocks, which I wouldn’t do, because once you drop the rear, it will feel like it changed.
Being jacked up is enhancing the feeling so when you’re back level, it won’t be so dramatic...
 
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I say whatever nose dive you’re experiencing won’t change, unless you change shocks, which I wouldn’t do, because once you drop the rear, it will feel like it changed.
Being jacked up is enhancing the feeling so when you’re back level, it won’t be so dramatic...
That was my thinking. I want to keep my shocks if possible, but I was thinking that the rear jacked up was making it worse feeling on the front heaviness...

But now, if I remove the rear 1.5 spacer and only keep the 2" front spacer am I effectively just level Rubicon height and that's it no lift? So means I can put on 35 and it might rub??

Even if I move to an Enduro sport lift kit with my soft top and steel bumpers/front winch I am concerned that I will still experience the extreme rake/droop in the front???

The whole reason I went with the spacer in the first place was I wanted some lift to add bigger tires later on with no rubbing and get extra clearance on the trail...
 

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That was my thinking. I want to keep my shocks if possible, but I was thinking that the rear jacked up was making it worse feeling on the front heaviness...

But now, if I remove the rear 1.5 spacer and only keep the 2" front spacer am I effectively just level Rubicon height and that's it no lift? So means I can put on 35 and it might rub??

Even if I move to an Enduro sport lift kit with my soft top and steel bumpers/front winch I am concerned that I will still experience the extreme rake/droop in the front???

The whole reason I went with the spacer in the first place was I wanted some lift to add bigger tires later on with no rubbing and get extra clearance on the trail...
I would remove spacers in the rear first, or at least an inch of it and see how it looks, and rides, then make plan from there. If you rub in the rear , it won’t be bad, just run in inner liner, and that probably only at full flex, not sure how often you’ll do that. Or you can add some bump stop in the rear to help out with it.
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