duffman

Took delivery of my Rubi Monday afternoon and the first thing I noticed on the drive home was that this thing needs more caster! There is a slight wandering feeling was evident right away which is probably added to by the high lugs of the BFG MTs.

My original plan was to add a teraflex 2.5" BB and 34" maxxis bighorns or wranlger mtrs on the stock wheels and call it good as I felt this would be a good compromise between a daily driver and still be a very capable off road machine. However, I could see how adding 2.5" of lift would exacerbate the wandering feeling by some of the caster at stock height. Would I be able to gain enough caster by just adding the teraflex adjustable upper control arms? Or would I also have to add longer lower control arms as well? I would want more caster than the jeep comes with stock.

Rubimon

Not sure how short the teraflex arms go. The Full Traction shorten to 3/8" less than stock and I think I need some more. I am gonna get the lowers too! I have a 3" lift and 35's. The ride is much better though but maybe only back to stock. ( I think the stock length was 18 or 16 and 3/4, the new ones adj all the way in were 18 or 16 and 3/8.)

Hope I was some help.

duffman

Thanks Rubimon. I found the lengths for the Teraflex arms:

stock length= 18-3/4”
min. length= 18-1/4”
max length= 20-1/2”

So it looks like they will go 1/2" shorter than stock. Maybe with a 1/2" inch less of lift and another 1/8" of shortening I might be able to squeeze out a little more caster. I'm also thinking of using the full traction adj front track bar to center the front axle. Does anyone sell a rear track bar relocating bracket for a 2.5" lift seperately?

Rubimon

It is woth a try. You can always add the lowers if it is not enough. But it will improve your ride.

Rubimon

Yeh, we maxed mine out based on the measurement you gave me, and I wished we could get a little more. Heard some rumor along the way that someone that does these lifts said the uppers alone wouldn't get enough caster angle. I guess they were right.

Rubimon

No I didn't think to do that with the nut. Just seems like it should be there, don't know why, it can't go anywhere. Maybe the threads would wear from flexing.

I am going to do the lowers, they should be available pretty soon. I will probably leave it as is and just wait for them.

huskynox

I noticed my Rubicon when new wandered pretty terribly on the highway too.

I intalled a 1.75" Daystar/Procomp lift and 33" BFG mudders and it actually seems a lot better, so it could be a lot to do with the factory 32" tires. If you look at BFG's or the TireRacks web sites you will see that the 255/75-17 mudders are a different style than any other mudder they sell.

Here are the differences between the 32's and 33's.

Load Rating - 2405lbs vs. 3305lbs
Speed Rating - "C" vs. "D"
Max PSI - 50psi vs. 65psi

As you can see the 33's are a beefier tire, so I imagine the sidewall is much stiffer. Is this the cause of the wandering, I don't know? But, I would think a "mushy" sidewall could cause some weird habits?

The only thing I noticed with the bigger 33's (285/70-17's) is the ride seems a little harsher when I hit something ubrupt. I'm sure this is due to the fact the sidewalls are beefier.

I'm running the factory recommended 37psi in the 33's now, but I'm going to try lowering it to 32psi and see if I can get rid of the ubrubtness. I dropped them to 20psi last weekend while 4 wheeling and it made a HUGE difference in ride quality.

End result - even with the small 1.75" lift, with the new 33's my Jeep doesn't wander nearly as bad.

husky~

duffman

Interesting findings Husky. I would like to get this right the first time but I'm having my doubts if that is going to happen. I really think a 2.5" bb and 34" tires would be a great compromise for my daily driver/weekend warrior. I don't think I would really need to swap gears with the 34's and the spacer lift would allow me to keep the stock ride.

However, I really don't like the idea of piecing together a lift from 3 or more different companies to get my caster to a reasonable level and center the axles. Rubimon or 100dollarman, how would you rate the ride of the 3" FT lift as far as harshness goes, especially compared to stock?

I'm basically torn between trying to decide between a 2.5 teraflex bb with the FT adj track bar, teraflex front adj upper control arms, and skyjacker rear track bar bracket along with possibly longer rear links and move the rear swaybar links to the front. My other option come tax return time is just to say "F it" and go with the FT premium lift and add adj front control arms to correct the caster slap on some 35's, and somewhere down the road correct the gearing.

Ahhh, such is the life of a jeeper

Rubimon

I am sure the arms in the premium kit are made to theproper length you need to bring your ride back to stock. I wouldn't add the adj arms until you see what the kit itself will do.

Many of us feel the stock caster was a little shallow side though.

Rubimon

My ride is a little firm on the wash board freeways we have around here. The stock Rubicon ride was a little stiff also.

I also have tires with a stronger sidewall than the stock ones, so the comparison is a little tuff to make.