Matt's Garage

[Matt]

Another quick note- our suspensions are also maxed out with the shocks extended 28-29". After fixing the control arm and trackbar angles with the superlift brackets we can go up to 32" long shocks. Thats definitely a capability I want

[07JeepXK]

Adjustable arms arent a replacement for the brackets. Lateral motion increases linearly as the angle of the pivoting member increases. So you can adjust those arms all you want and it'll look pretty sitting there, but then when the suspension starts moving your axle will be swinging all over the place.

You want the control arms and track bar to be as flat as possible at normal ride height to reduce lateral motion throughout the range of suspension travel (side to side from the trackbar, front to back and pinion rotation from the control arms)

Running some quick numbers with both cases (yours without brackets and mine with brackets) and 8" of droop from ride height, your axle will shift forward about 5" vs my 2", and will shift to the driver side about 1.6" vs my .75".

Also, considering I want to run between 5-6" lift the brackets are definitely needed.

So you could order just the front kit... but I wouldn't recommend it. Get the full setup so you can maximize your rear suspension travel and minimize lateral movement.

Ummm with the LCA's Superlift provides for the rear you don't run brackets. Their old kits provided brackets for everything because it would cost them a hell of a lot more money to include rear UCA and LCA's with their kit. The only reason Superlift went to a fixed LCA in the rear is because to many people were complaining of the brackets hanging low and getting caught on everything. I spoke to Superlift years ago and they also said they provided a bracket for the rear track bar again because it would increase the cost of the kit to provide an adjustable.

When have you ever seen a wrangler that has brackets for the rear or front end? You don't. Either it's a kit with minimal lift where the brackets aren't required or it's a 4" plus lift that you add either new fixed or adjustable UCAs and LCAs.

My buddy jay has the BDS 4 inch lift with BDS adjustable upper control arms and Beefy Rustys lower control arms. His jeep was by far the best riding lifted vehicle I've ever driven in. He's been lifted like that for over 3 years now and his axle doesn't swing anywhere. All the brackets that Superlift provides in their kit is to lift the mounting point to where you can still use the stock control arms and track back and have the axle centered front to rear and side to side.

[Matt]

Looks to me like AEV's 4.5" JK lift uses control arm and track bar brackets (The RE 4.5" extreme kit uses both track bar drop down brackets as well as adjustable track bars, upper & lower arms brackets with adjustable arms). There's also other factors in play for sfa platforms that we cant take advantage of such as long arm kits that reduce the lateral movement for the larger lifts and added suspension travel.

Our XKs have very short links in the rear which make the effect worse than other jeep platforms as well.

Fact is you're going to limit the suspension travel in the rear because your uca is still going to hit the tank, adjustable or not, for no good reason since those 3 brackets aren't likely very expensive parts. In doing so you're doubling your side to side axle motion and more than doubling your axle forward motion.

Not worth it imo. Theres certainly no performance benefit to it and definitely some negative/undesirable effects. $.02

[Matt]

Damnit i wish I had an 08! Just had to order a new wiper motor/module.... got all excited when I thought it was only $80 (checked at work today using the 2008 parts manual i had). Just to be sure I checked my 2007 manual before ordering; the 2006-2007 models use a different wiper motor assembly, and it's almost twice the price. $150 gone

[07JeepXK]

Matt have you seen comparison pics of a 4 inch Superlift using brackets and the 4 inch BDS using both upper and lower adjustable control arms? The proof is in the pudding. As far as compression (stuffing the rear tire into the wheel well) the Superlift kit using the brackets pushes the rear tires into the door as the BDS using adjustable uppers and lowers with no brackets centers the tire at full compression in the wheel well. Can you guess what happens when it comes to flexing out the rear end? Again pictures don't lie.

I'm not sure where you get there are no performance benefits to the adjustable over brackets. I guess you would rather have your tires getting pushed into your doors at compression and flex due to the changed pivot point by using brackets. Still not sure what the negatives are because normal driving the axle will be centered perfectly side to side and front to rear and it's not going anywhere. Off road it still stays centered like on road which doesn't happen with the brackets supplied by Superlift.

[Matt]

BDS has its own design flaws, and rather than correct them they stopped producing the kit and rebranded it under their sister company (Zone).

Superlift, via the direction of the guys at 4XG took the first step in improving their design with the lower arms which helped with the compression issue. So that's a moot point.

My tire won't get shoved into the fenderwell at full flex, i can assure you that. To get our suspension to really function correctly we need the UCA brackets and adjustable arms; which is what I plan on running. You're welcome to run whatever you think is best. As long as we're modifying our rigs and having fun who cares?

[07JeepXK]

Don't get me wrong BDS definitely has it's design flaws. Honestly I think that kit is garbage compared to the Superlift. But I was referring to using adjustable upper/lower control arms compared to stock control arms and brackets. Hell even the BDS adjustable control arms were weak and had crappy bushings. But now we have available to us beefy Superlift fixed lower control arms and beefy Rustys adjustable upper control arms.

I guess I don't understand your reasoning on using brackets for the UCA's paired withthe provided Superlift LCA obviously with no brackets. Isn't this changing the whole suspension geometry as far as pivot points? What are the brackets going to do to make it better than not having the brackets

[Matt]

I guess I don't understand your reasoning on using brackets for the UCA's paired with the provided Superlift LCA obviously with no brackets. Isn't this changing the whole suspension geometry as far as pivot points? What are the brackets going to do to make it better than not having the brackets

The first reason is suspension travel. Unless you move the gas tank, you'll never get more down travel than we have now since the upper arm will hit the tank. The UCA brackets give clearance for another 3-4" of down travel.

Yes the geometry changes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Currently the superlift results in crappy pinion angles; adjustable UCA's help that but only to a point. With the UCA bracket the LCA will be at a steeper angle; which means as the suspension extends downward the lower link will move forward more than the upper link which will pivot the pinion upwards towards the trans, which is a good thing.

Ya know... the more I think about it the more I realize Jeep really never expected xk/wk owners to do what we're doing. I get the feeling the consensus was "eh, they'll just buy JKs" lol

[Core XK]

So I work (2) weekends in December but Sundays are usually good for me. Let me know when your putting the bumper on so I can hopefully come down and give you a hand. If we have to wait until January to do my suspension then that's fine. I ordered the paint and bump stops. I will be painting the springs within the next week or so!

And I guess we can just paint the UCAS and Struts before we put them on? lol

[Matt]

Sounds good man. I was hoping to see some black friday/cyber monday deals on JBA arms, OME springs or the 5100 struts to order some more parts.

Ill have to check with Jon to see when the bumper might be shipping so we can try to plan for a weekend. Maybe we'll do my suspension/bumper one weekend, and your rear suspension one weekend; then you take the front parts home, paint them and we do your front suspension another weekend?

.... Or i do the bumper the day it arrives and that's out of the equation lol