Looking to get a 3" lift kit with shocks.... I know there is a lot in a name brand that helps drive up price. Any thoughts on Rough Country as opposed to Teraflex??

 

With lift kits there is a lot more of "you get what you pay for" than there is in the name brand. Research the components. I am an advocate against Rough Country just by the posts I've seen of broken parts.

 

Agree with Smudge above. A lot of the price differences between kits is due to the completeness of what is included. I can already envision the next 15-20 posts in this thread so all I'm going to say is don't think you can lift a jeep 3" or more for $400-$800 and be happy. You're going to head down a very long road that has a steep learning curve. I'd suggest reading, reading, and reading more. The questions are going to come up ..... what's the budget, what's the intended use, what size tires will you run, etc......If you explain how you're going to use the jeep people can tailor their responses a bit.

 

To take this a step further, it is not just the completeness (number of components included in a given lift), it is also the quality of those components, and the actual type of components used.

For example, with caster correction, a certain kit might include cam bolts, or drop brackets, or fixed control arms, or adjustable control arms, right? Or it might not include any of them. So you need to not only know what caster correction is, and why you might want it at certain lift heights, but you should also have an idea of what each of these components does - what are the pro's/con's between cams/brackets/fixed/adjustable? Which is right for you, at that lift height, with your budget and use?

Anyway, there are two threads stuck right to the top of this Modified area that might be a good place to start your research, rather than a long list of this brand vs that brand, no, I think I'll give with the other, no wait, I'll get ...

 

I would not buy either kit you listed.

 

Research, research, research. I spent 6 months or better reading about suspensions, reviews, and wading through fanboy opinions of why one is better than the other. Even if they only had one budget boost kit on their Jeep that never leaves the mall.

My first kit was a Rough Country 2.5" coil lift. The right side spring bowed so I got another, for free (good customer service), and it bowed too. I think because I couldn't adjust the control arms(didn't come with adjustable arms). I wont mention the ride, my butt is different from yours. I wouldn't put another one on my Jeep.

I have Metalcloak now, but with less than 1000 miles, and all on pavement, I don't have any review for it. Install was easy for me, but I have some issues to work out since I did an axle swap and changed some axle brackets at the same time.

Say NO to RC.

 

Best advise right there and I couldn't agree more!!!

I'm definitely not one to put a lot of faith in the "brand names" being worth all the extra money and hype and personally don't have a problem with RC's stuff. They've actually recommended by many TJ and XJ owners who just want a lift and not put a lot of money into their aging rigs.

I have a set of RC X-Flex adjustable LCA's. I originally wasn't sure if I wanted to go with Geo brackets or replacment LCAs for caster correction and decided to get the RC's due to their lower price and decided if I didn't like them, then I could go to geo brackets and not be talking myself into keeping the LCAs because I invested $400+ for them instead.

So far they've been great and I have no complaints. I posted this in another forum where there was a RC lift discussion and as expected, all the RC haters were the 1st ones to respond and comment about the lift without even bothering to answer the question that was being asked.

This set of lower control arms are made by a more recommended name brand lift vendor and cost $315 for the set, and are non adjustable. The owner of these used fluid film on them, to help protect against rust but even that wasn't enough.

This is how they looked after being on for just over 1 year in Indiana (ie a rust belt state).


There are the RC lower control arms I got. $125 for the set, they are adjustable, and additionally have flex joints which provide more flex, but also there's a trade off on ride quality due to the flex joints. This is how they look at being on for just over 1 year in Michigan (ie a rust belt state), and I never used any rust prevention on them.


Now with that being said, I've heard the more popular name brand vendor is looking at correcting the associated rust problems by changing their surface finishing material. That however, doesn't help those that trusted in their name brand, paid more for that name brand part reliability, reached out to them and were told "that is normal" and are now stuck with rusted arms that are an eye sore.

In comparison, before I purchased the RC LCA's I did some research on them as well and what I found in regards to associated problems was that the joint locking washers they used were not strong enough, and many were having problems with the washer bending and the joint falling apart. Additionally, those that experienced the problem when they reached out to RC about the problem, RC seemed to own the problem and sent them replacement joints or joint rebuild kits which included beefed up locking washers to fix the original problem.

When I ordered my RC LCAs they came with the stronger locking washers and I have not experienced the same problem.

See here RC control arm original problem and customer support correction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ixq2kOMAHQ&t=29s So take it for what it's worth. Whatever brand and lift kit you decide to go with, do some research to get a better understanding of what each of the component's function is for within the kit. Once you do that, then you can start researching if there are any known problems for the particular components, what has been done to fix that problem by the developer, what type of support they received after experiencing the problem. As well, you can come to this forum and ask more specific types of questions. Right now, your question is very broad which shows you're not at that level of understanding to ask those more specific types of questions and nobody's going to spend the time/effort to bring you to that point in a forum discussion. You ask about Rough Country lifts, but you didn't list a specific lift you're considering from Rough Country. Even with the more popular name brand lift vendors, they all offer multiple lifts and they will all vary in completeness and quality. Thus, the reason for the great advise from nthinuf.

 

Similar to Austin......4 years ago my jeep had a cheap pro comp lift. I had a very steep and expensive learning curve. Can't stress enough about reading up, ask questions if you don't understand, take your time making a decision, and do it right the first time. It's expensive to have to re-do it. I'd just stress again that lifting a jeep that high isn't cheap. I think people look at a lift that cost a couple hundred bucks and they don't even know what they don't know. I think you'll be hard pressed to find anyone suggesting either of the kits you originally asked about. If budget is an issue, throw out the figure and you'll get suggestions in accomplishing better build for the money you have to spend.

After reading up on everything, starting with Dirtman's stickies, if you still have questions sometimes the route to go is along the lines of "if I want to lift my jeep 3.5", what components do I really need, and what else will need to be addressed due to wear and tear down the line?" That way when you are comparing different lifts, you can make a check list and determine what kits may or may not be leaving out, or what else you might need to realistically budget for along the way.

 

Only 6 months? So that's why you jumped into a poor selection of RC lift on your 1st attempt. I'm on the over analyze and over research side of the spectrum. I spent 5 years in this forum doing what you described planning out my lift, deciding on the one I was going to purchase, and then installing it. Between, all the research, asking more specific question and getting great information and advise in this forum, and then actually installing the lift myself, I've come up to speed pretty well on understanding this suspension stuff that used to be such a foreign language to me. Still no expert.

I'll be honest though.....I also wanted to wait until I was out of warranty on my JK before doing any suspension mods since Chrysler hasn't been known for their "quality" in the past.

 

Being on these forums, I've come to the conclusion the majority fall into 2 types of learning classifications.

1. Jump in and learn from experience which comes at the expense of spending more money.
2. Hold off, research, ask questions, and learn more which comes at the expense of spending more time.

People always say Time=Money, so it all balances out. I fall into category #2, because I tend to have more time to spend than money.