srunyon

WOL and Dave I appreciate both your opinions and love the pasiona behind the responses. It's very helpful. Personally, I'm a sales guy by professions so I can appreciate a good discussion.

On another note, one of the lifts I was considering, OME with Bilstien shocks might be a consideration as well.....the only reason I didn't have them in this discussion at the beginning is because I had a tough time finding all the right "parts" for a complete build and I'm not sure I can rely on a 2.5" lift to give me everthting I'm looking for: clearance, flex, articulation etc.....

Any thoughts? I might look at Full Traction again too. Man this can get confusing.....

wayoflife

the OME long travel kit that northridge4x4 sells comes with everything you need and in my opinion, it's a great kit. i have installed and run this kit for about a year and was quite pleased with it. best part is, it can be had for about $1500. the full traction 3" premium plus kit is a great option too.

srunyon

Thanks WOL. He's like me and only has experience with CJ's. Didn't know if the OME would travel/climb/crawl differently on a JK.

wayoflife

no kidding? what kind of CJ did you have? me, i had an old 81 with a 258 for the longest time. i love the thing to death but just had way too much trouble getting it smogged here in california even with a howell tbi installed. all the numbers would come out great but always had hell passing visual inspection

regarding JK's, what i can tell you is that they are no CJ and the OME would travel/climb/crawl way better.

NH-JK

If it helps, I had been set on the 3.5 inch premium AEV lift since I got my JK.......... (good marketing!!!!) since I have joined the forum and spent countless hours reading peoples experiences and reading about them trouble shooting problems. I have learned that castor angle and adjustabilty are very important and are the root of many problems if not adjusted right... Also it's inevitable you will tear a drive shaft boot. AEV looks and sounds great, but at the end of the day your stuck with what you have unless you want to drop a bunch of extra money on control arms( which control the ajustablity for your castor) also you can't replace your broken drive shaft with a better after market one. In the end, I have decided to go with a 3.5 inch from either Rock Krawler or maybe a tera flex kit... I'm not a rock crawler or extreme 4x4 guy, but I love playing in the woods on trails and as well as driving on the highway. I think that AEV would be a great kit for about half the price. The RK 3.5 mid arm and Tera flex kits just offer more for your money.... I just can't justify spending $1700 on a kit that reuses what I all ready have when I can get all brand new adjustable heavy duty parts for the same price. Keep researching, like me you will eventually see the light. Again... AEV, great marketing!!!!

srunyon

I had a '80 with a 304 V8 for a couple of years and just sold (last night actually) a '79 with a small blk 350 and Turbo 350 Transmission....they were both awesome, but the '79 was a complete monster....it had Dana 44's on the front and rear with a 4" Skyjacker lift. Here's a link to that one:

cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150604018947&viewitem= &sspagename=STRK%3AMEUSX%3AIT

wayoflife

very nice but, i think you'll find that wheeling a jk is oh so much nicer

Ryanc

Customer service plays a big part into my buying decisions. And I think given the nature of this sport customer service is a huge bonus. If you have a question, or warranty issue with teraflex, it will get taken care of in about 30 minutes if you utilize this forum. I have contacted AEV three times. 1st time was due to the low grade hardware with my beadlocks, I had to give a urine sample to get that rectified. 2nd time, I contacted about their driveshaft modification they do. I went back and forth with customer service about their design, etc etc. They then asked me what lift I am running, then I was treated like I had the plague. 3rd time, I asked again, went back and forth about their driveshaft, and I was asked about my lift, I was honest, and then they refused to respond to me anymore. I love some of AEV products, I love the Brute and their Hemi installs. They seem to have an elitest attitude. Take my opinion for what its worth, Im sure many folks have had good experiences.

TAIL RATED

great discussion thread! ...and almost 100% on topic.

Very good points on both the TF 3" kit and AEV 3.5 kit.

...my 2 cents. I have have helped install and have wheeled both kits/ freinds trucks, not mine though. I had the 2.5" TF kit on mine w/ lower control arms.

So, last fall, all 3 4door JK's were in Moab together. all trucks were also on 35's w/ F/R bumpers accept the 2.5" kit only had a front bumper. Loaded down with camping gear, tools, etc. The AEV kit sat the best as far as sag. Those coils do support a bit more weight without the sag that my kit did and the 3 TF kit did.

Ride Quality with fully loaded looked about the same though. So I don;t think handling was compromised much on any kit..although it's not like were were doing over 70mph much on teh way there and were mostly unloaded on the trails.

Trails: SteelBender. Moab Rim. Hells. Fins. Poison Spider, 7 Mile Rim. With the 2.5 kit, I got hung up a couple few times where the AEV and 3" TF kit did not on the same lines. A little more clearance at the rockers/ bumpers that they had made the difference. The 3TF and AEV kit were sitting at the same height from eyeballing them. vs my kit, the difference was very noticeable.

Both kits seemed to flex up nicely. I'm not sure on the bushing bind comments though. I have never actually studied them when flexed up. So I have no idea on that.

I can tell you that the 3 kits did survive 5 days of pounding on the trucks. The TF arms are beefy as hell over the stock ones!!!! Which one would I rather smack on a rock? TF arms for sure. The LCA brackets on the AEV kit do give that JK great handling. I can tell you that over my TF2.5kit/ lower flex arms and the AEV kit, I enjoyed driving that one better. It seemed to feel more stable (less body roll) in the corners on road and also felt a bot more sure footed on the high speed wash we did on 7 mile rim. I got to drive all 3 truck in that wash. The AEV kit "felt" the most stable to me.

In looking at the flexed up shots, it looks like that 3tf had the most. I do not have acurate measurements to support that, but looking at the pics on the same obstacles, it looks like it may flex more????

So did anything fail on the truck in Moab. I'm pretty sure all 3 of us trashed our balljoints. The one AEV kit was running a stock driveshaft. That boot got ripped off the 1st obstacle. LOL So make sure if you are going to do that in your 1st round of mods.

If I were building another JK soon (oh wait, I'm getting ready to ) I am considering a couple kits. Terra 4" with front lower arms/ rear uppers? AEV 4.5" premium kit/ high steer. With the type of wheel'n that I do, I will more than likely go with the AEV kit for the coils alone. ...maybe skip those brackets and run the TF lower Control arms. Cost is more and paying for the name, yes, I agree. But with a boatload of weight and offroad trailer sometime this summer, I'm liking the idea of their coils. However, I also like the idea of running the Terra 4" kit with "bombproof" arms and maybe some "helper bags" to compensate for the weight.

srunyon

Thanks for the info, and i think the biggest thing you hit on there were the coils of the AEV and their ability to handle load. Mine's a 2 Dr though. I will have both bumpers replaced with afterstock plus a 35" tire on the back with carrier.....I've seen TF lifts out there with a lot of sag in the back due to the tire. I'm sure there are precautions you can take to get by that....or are there?