liquidrock

Was hoping someone smarter than me could help me understand why some suspensions can get away with front upper control arms and others recommend front lowers.

I'm looking at the OME HD coils and trying to figure out which control arms are required and which would be nice to have - both front and rear.

Apologies if this has been covered though I was not able to find a thread that spoke directly to OME.

Thanks guys and gals.

wayoflife

technically, what you really want are adjustable uppers to set your caster but a lot of adjustable control arms available today cannot be shortened enough to give you want you need. adjustable lowers can be lengthend quite a bit and this will give you similar results to having cam bolts - but without having the problems associated with them of course.

Chris_CH

The front upper arms will fixe your caster angle, the front lower will move you wheel/axle to keep it in the center line position i.e. as factory spec. It is the same with the rear arms (adjust your pinion angle with the upper and the axle with the lower).

chuck45

Ideally you'd want adjustable upper and lowers. I would not run adjustable front uppers unless the lowers, while fixed, were longer than stock. My RE 3.5 kit has fixed lowers that are 1/4" longer than stock and adj uppers. So if you have stock arms now and just want to replace either the uppers or lowers replace the lowers with adjustable arms (even though it is the more expensive way to go).

On the rears I'd also replace the lowers if I was going to keep the uppers.

And I applaud your desire to get adjustable contol arms; to many people try to get by without them.

edwin907

I ran the FT front upper arms for a while before I got the lowers, and was pleased with the results. Set about 1/8" shorter than stock gave me 5.1 degrees of caster on each side and the Jeep drove very nicely.
However, with the lowers installed and caster at 7.1 degrees it drives terrific.
This is with the uppers 1/8" shorter and the lowers about 1/4 to 3/8" longer.

Go ahead and get the lowers first, the only downside might be reduced clearance between the differential cover and the track bar, but you will have sufficient adjustability to get desired caster. If it works out OK, and it should, I would get the adjustable uppers for the front last, after the rear uppers and lowers, now those rear arms really made a difference in how the Jeep drove and rear end grip.

liquidrock

Thanks for your input. I'm the kind of person that feels if your gonna do something, do it right or don't do it at all. So I will go ahead and get both upper and lower at the same time.

Probably should have mentioned that I will be going with JKS.

Thanks again. Drive safely.