wayoflife

Nah, the factory mount may look small but that's not the reason it broke. If you look at the pics closely, the breaks were on the sides and just past the welds and not the bottom. By the look of things, this was most likely caused by the tall relocation bracket acting as a lever or pry bar rocking the axle mount back and forth until the metal finally fatigued and broke. IMHO, using a relocation bracket on the axle mount and not the frame is a design error and the growing number of breaks from people using this design is proof of it. To the best of my knowledge, no one I know with an adjustable track bar or a track bar relocation bracket on the frame mount has experienced any breaks or otherwise. People can blame Jeep all they want but if all the breaks were caused by their shoddy welds, axle mount design, thin metal or otherwise, why aren't we seeing any breaks from guys running other track bar solutions?

If it didn't, that would be a big problem for me and I would definitely not use this bracket.

captsam54

Recomendations... recomendations???? Looking at 3-3.5" kits

BLKRUBI

Oh, I agree, and you are right about not hearing it from anyone other than Skyjacker owners. Black Diamond uses a similar bracket, but shorter and I haven't heard of this from any B.D. owners. I definetly wasn't trying to shift blame from Skyjacker to DC because it's just common sense that shifting the location of the track bar mount point as much as Skyjacker does(3-4"), is going to create a problem, hence the reason that I don't understand why the would even produce a bracket like that when I look at the smallish factory track bar bracket. I know it's really an easy fix, but if I had known better (JK is my first Coil spring Jeep), then I would have gone with Skyjacker, but oh well. I planned on getting adj track bars later anyway.



Mine had one, but I don't see one in his pics.

BLKRUBI

Honestly, other than the relocation bracket, there's nothing wrong with the Skyjacker kit. The only other one that I have seen in person is the Black Diamond and I like it. Add an adjustable rear bar (it comes with a front)and you are done, for a while anyway. I know the consensus seems to be a Teraflex or Full traction, but I haven't seen any first hand, so I can't comment. As a matter of fact, until we (being our dealership) lifted an Unlimited with the Black Diamond kit, Mine is the only JK that I have seen in person lifted. Not too many people around here that have done that yet , I guess.

Jeephrog

No, you are correct. As a matter of fact it was missing a bolt, too, that I had to go purchase at the local hardware shop in the middle of the install.

Just to let everyone know what I am doing to fix the problem, I am getting the bracket welded today - hopefully - and trashing the relocation bracket. I ordered a Full Traction adjustable rear track bar from Quadratec which will hopefully be here soon since I paid for next day air delivery. I willl probably continue to use the original bracket location if the welder can assure me it will be strong enough. SkyJacker is supposed to send me a new bracket like what CaliGirl received "as soon as the get out of powder coating", supposedly next week.

I will keep the forum updated with pictures and everything as process ensues.

Tom

BLKRUBI

Unfortunately, that's what we ARE seeing. The "clump" of "x-styled" brackets belong to Skyjacker. Non of the blame may belong to DC, but in my opinon, I would like that bracket to be beefier(and welded better) from the factory, but I have no say, except on this forum, and since none of the unmodifieds seem to be failing, that's not really the issue, I guess.



Yeah, I made a preemptive call to Skyjacker last week and they told me another week to a week and a half before it was released.

captsam54

Thanks BlackRubi..
I* am taking it all in.... Anybody else want to throw their 2 cents in???

shrockworks

The factory bracket looks adequate in it's original design with the pivot point in the center of the bracket. Locating the pivot point several inches above the bracket increases the forces on it dramatically.

I installed an adjustable track bar and beefed up the bracket a lot. Since failure of that component is a very serious safety issue...I went belt and suspenders.

BLKRUBI

I agree that the overall design if fine, but in MY opinion, since it can be a safety issue, thicker metal and more/better welds would better that just "adquate".

shrockworks

Agreed. When safety is involved I tend to err on the side of over building things...like our recovery points.