Have a slow day at work, and always love reading through build threads on forums. So hopefully if someone is bored at home or work, they might find this enjoyable!
So my JK has been going through a few changes with hopes that some bigger ones are on the way. In an effort to try to answer "why", our last big trail ride in the last jeep we had was the Rubicon and Dusy Ershim with our daughter, who was about 4 at the time. She didn't enjoy the off camber stuff too much, so when we got the current jeep we turned more towards "off road capable, but more on road compliant", so I turned my attention to AEV. For the last couple of years, it's worked great. But with more playing in the rocks, Emma getting more brave along with a few trips without my wife and daughter, changes need to happen. I have stock drivelines, both of which have recently developed some noise thanks to torn boots on the slip joints. With Jeeps, the answer is double cardan driveshafts and adjustable control arms. I started pricing options without a "band aid" approach and without compromising the on road handling, I started looking harder at long arms. After a ton of research, I ended up with Evo. I'll post a few pics below, but if someone has questions about what exactly happened in certain areas, I took a ton of pics.
Here is one last pic, trying to "will" some warmer weather
Got everything ready to weld in...
The rest of the install was basically just unbolting and bolting. The one tons are quite a bit heavier. I have a pneumatic table that I picked up at harbor freight with a 1000lb capacity. It worked like a charm.
Out with the old....
In with the new....
Not pictured, with the new axles using Ram 3500 brakes, I had to switch to a larger brake booster and res. The front went in without drama
Next up was to get a little help with the steering. Installed a PSC steering box and a ram. Tabs welded...
Old and new box.
Ram and lines in
And that pretty much finished it! I posted in the trip reports, but about a week later I drove it to the Las Vegas area for a run in the Mojave and a fun trail day. It's worked perfectly without any drama!
About a year and a half later, I made another big jump. I was extremely happy that mid-pandemic we received some very large crates at work.....
Ultimate Dana 60's, 5.38 gear ratio and Elockers.
The axles would be totally plug and play for a normal spring/shock combo. The rear coilovers use Evo Rockstars since that mount no longer supports just the shock, but the entire weight of the rear. As soon as I got the axles unpacked, I started cutting and grinding.
Very nice! That's some big boy stuff for sure. I imagine its a night and day difference from where you started.
So, about a month and ten days later and the second part of the suspension upgrade is complete. I haven't done much to "fine tune" the ride height and timing rings, but the ride is phenomenal! Here are a few pics.
Here is a close up of the mount. Yes, I had to lose the inner fenders which I replaced with something else. The mounts are quite a bit higher than the factory shock mount. Lots and lots of cutting with a dremel, especially on the passenger side.
Getting weight off to adjust pre load:
After roughly setting in some pre load to get a baseline.
Here is the rear before the coilovers.
So far I have only taken it down a few forestry roads near my home and driven to work. It's really pretty amazing how fast it doesn't seem like you are going over bumpier roads.
i researched this for a few months before I decided to go this way. I know of one other guy that had a 3.5 AEV lift who went to long arms and never looked back. It was a pretty good chunk of money for just this “upgrade kit”, not to mention the price to install it if someone were smarter than me to pay someone else. Plus once you go here, it’s not like I could get my factory brackets back on without a ton of fab. I’d be really curious how many of the AEV guys have actually had seat time with both.
The fronts look pretty much the same but the back is way more of a flat angle now. It may still be a placebo effect but on road the back feels more “planted” and the chassis seems so soak up bumps quite a bit smoother. Anither bonus is a couple inches of wheelbase back at ride height. The next step is coilovers and about 12” of travel, with the new pivot point being further in the middle, the axle should have less tendency to “walk” under. Fingers crossed! Lol
Sorry about mistaking who you are. I went on one of the hole in the rock runs last year and then to Douglas creek the next day. Maybe I’ll get on one of yours if you’re leading again. Oh, and regarding Brutes.... this one has the hemi!
(The jk6 behind it has a hellcat engine in it)
No, the wife (Judy) has a 2dr Rubicon and I am playing around with a Gen 3 4Runner (Had a bee flag on the CB antenna last year at the rally, led the Sugarloaf runs on Friday then, the Swakane on Saturday).
I had talked with some of the AEV folks a couple of years ago and their take on the drop brackets was that long arms are at about that same elevation from the frame at that location so it's effectively a wash for clearance. Was never sure I agreed with that. They are probably the best at maintaining the stock geometry and characteristics. Sure wouldn't mind if someone happened to drop off a Brute for me :-)
It's a bolt on kit that they recommend welding (if that makes any sense) I ended up burning them in and bolting.
You drive an FJ, right? I think I have a few pictures of your rig from a trail run from the rally last year!
Very cool. That first cut must have been a real leap of faith. Once that one's done, you're committed so they're easier. All bolt-on (with a lot of cutting and grinding)?
Been driving it around for a few days and it's been really nice. The front feels really similar to what the drop brackets did, but the back feels way more planted. I also gained back about 2 to 3 inches of wheelbase thanks to the arc it travels on now. As I said up at the start, there are some other projects coming with it. This was the platform to get those next things going!
After the fronts were mounted I got to setting the length on the control arms. I did the front first and here I am half way through the back. I had adjustable control arms on my last jeep, but if you're not familiar with them, they obviously require some tuning to get the axle square to the frame. One step that I think a lot of people miss is to actually pull the springs and check everything at full bump. That is what I am up to here. Before the tires went on, I ran the axle up to the bumpstop, centered them on the bump, measured and wrote down the figures to the first and second body mounts. With tires on, do the same and check clearance. I also ran each side of the axle up to try to simulate "twisting". Everything cleared just fine.
With both sides up it looks like a lot of clearance, but when you drop one side, everything gets a lot tighter to the fenders and frame.
Same pic again. Watch the white sticker and the bolt above the lower control arm mount....
This is the other side after cutting off the factory mounts. The only part left is the outer portion of the factory lower control arm mount, and the bolt that I mentioned in the picture above. The passenger side came off with no drama whatsoever. The driver's side is a different story. These mounts are on a radius of the frame, so it's tough to get a cut off wheel in there. Sawzall was easier but if you look at the top of the frame, those are hard but fragile brake lines. Scary cutting using a blade in there.
White sticker is gone! It's behind the mount between the upper and lower control arms.. The bolt that I mentioned is now directly below the new upper control arm.
So here is a pic of the front. This is one of the smaller reasons for the change in suspension. AEV uses drop brackets to get the control arms more "flat" for a more compliant ride. It's an awesome idea for on road and can totally attest to how well it rode. As I have been playing a little harder recently, I did have an instance where the bracket that used to be on this side took a pretty hard hit coming off of a rock and taking pretty much the full weight on just the bracket (high centered coming off of a rock on the passenger side so both front and rear off of the gound. Needed to use the lockers to get off of it). It is a bolt together bracket with steel spacers in it, and not the strongest design. I know that AEV doesn't design it for that kind of usage, but if you are on forestry roads or anything like White Rim Trail or Mojave Road, they are a great option. To AEV's credit, they sent me a replacement as soon as I emailed describing what happened and a pic of the bracket. We still made the trip home from Norcal as it was just the bottom of the bracket, but I didn't trust it afterwards. Back to the install
I have a ton of pics of what happened in the hours before this, but it was mostly test fitting, grinding, test fitting grinding and so on. Rather than the hearing about the labor, I'll just show the baby. Rear completed. This is before I adjusted the lengths and just had them all of the way in. I was eager to get the back end on it's wheels so I buttoned it up and got ready for work in the five hours after this. i had a couple of long days at work, but then managed to negotiate to get an extra day off following. Front to follow!
Carnage pic! What you don't see in the pic is the five sawzall blades, two cutoff wheels, a grinding wheel and a couple of flap disks. It this point I am sweating bullets because I was about a day in and all that I had accomplished was having a jeep on a total of six jackstands without any way to attach a rear axle to it. Eh, no big deal because there's no gas tank in it either so it's not like I could run to the store in it.
Here is a pic of the factory driver's rear lower control arm mount halfway cut off (gulp). No turning back. Just for the sake of not posting a bunch of pics, at this point I have pulled the rear driveline, fuel tank, all four rear control arms. The exhaust came out shortly after this all the way to the y pipe.
and this is the passenger side after I got done with the saw, grinding wheel and starting to use just a flap disk. The body mount had to get cut for the new control arm mount. For perspective, the lower arm is about a foot longer than the factory.
Here's what she looked like with factory control arms and the 4.5 springs from AEV. I totally regret not taking really any pictures from directly on the side, but you will get a good idea of the changes in the coming pictures.
Old factory control arm on top of the long arms. Soooooo much longer!
Just leaving work for a three day off stretch. The plan was to try to get the back done in those three days and then get the front done the next week.