Rock krawler 2.5 flex vs evo overland

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Chrismendoza

New member
Ok guys need some forum wisdom. I'll be transferring overseas to Honduras and need help picking a lift. I'm stuck between these 2 lifts and wondering which would be best. Not much rock crawling in Honduras and dont think there will many shops available.

Currently on stock rims for a jlur and going to jump to 37 bfg ko2s. Wife will most likely be driving jeep since uncle sam provides me with an armored vehicle.
 

wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
Chrismendoza said:
Ok guys need some forum wisdom. I'll be transferring overseas to Honduras and need help picking a lift. I'm stuck between these 2 lifts and wondering which would be best. Not much rock crawling in Honduras and dont think there will many shops available.

Currently on stock rims for a jlur and going to jump to 37 bfg ko2s. Wife will most likely be driving jeep since uncle sam provides me with an armored vehicle.
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Being that you'll be in another country where parts will most likely be hard to come by, I personally would go with a kit that has the least amount of specialty parts.
 

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ubbb69

Member
For what it is worth I am running the flex kit with 37x13.5 tires. My wife is running 2.5”spacers and lower front arms to correct for it. She runs 35x12.5 equivalent. We have a lot if tight rutted back highways we travel weekly for her chemo treatments. She drove my Jeep the other day down one of the said roads and when she got home grilled me on why it drives so much better then hers with smaller tires. I have been very happy with the Rk kit and as soon as they make the 1.5” kit available I will order one for her Jeep.
 

wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
ubbb69 said:
For what it is worth I am running the flex kit with 37x13.5 tires. My wife is running 2.5”spacers and lower front arms to correct for it. She runs 35x12.5 equivalent. We have a lot if tight rutted back highways we travel weekly for her chemo treatments. She drove my Jeep the other day down one of the said roads and when she got home grilled me on why it drives so much better then hers with smaller tires. I have been very happy with the Rk kit and as soon as they make the 1.5” kit available I will order one for her Jeep.
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The problem your wife has with her ride is that she's running coil spacers. Assuming she's running shock extensions too, that's even more of the problem.
 

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ubbb69

Member
wayoflife said:
The problem your wife has with her ride is that she's running coil spacers. Assuming she's running shock extensions too, that's even more of the problem.
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Yep. She only wants to run 35” tires though so waiting on a good 1”-1.5” lift. Figure since everything is measured off a Rubi that will be 2”-2.5 on her sport.
 

wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
ubbb69 said:
Yep. She only wants to run 35” tires though so waiting on a good 1”-1.5” lift. Figure since everything is measured off a Rubi that will be 2”-2.5 on her sport.
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I would highly recommend giving the Dynatrac lift a look. I measured their 4-door Sahara and it came up to 2". One of the nicest rides I've felt bar none.
 

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ubbb69

Member
wayoflife said:
I would highly recommend giving the Dynatrac lift a look. I measured their 4-door Sahara and it came up to 2". One of the nicest rides I've felt bar none.
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Thanks I will give it a look. She likes the height where it is now with 2.5” spacers. So that sounds like a perfect fit.
 

J

Jesse_01

New member
ubbb69 said:
For what it is worth I am running the flex kit with 37x13.5 tires. My wife is running 2.5”spacers and lower front arms to correct for it. She runs 35x12.5 equivalent. We have a lot if tight rutted back highways we travel weekly for her chemo treatments. She drove my Jeep the other day down one of the said roads and when she got home grilled me on why it drives so much better then hers with smaller tires. I have been very happy with the Rk kit and as soon as they make the 1.5” kit available I will order one for her Jeep.
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How much air pressure is she running?
The 37" will have more sidewall flex which will also change handling characteristics.

The wife has a 2.5” spacer kit also before her 3.5” kit showed up. It was all over the road also.

The front & rear axles will probably be offset from each other width wise when you lift it with the spacer kit.

I put in adjustable track bars instead of brackets on her 3.5”.


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StingRubi19

StingRubi19

New member
wayoflife said:
I would highly recommend giving the Dynatrac lift a look. I measured their 4-door Sahara and it came up to 2". One of the nicest rides I've felt bar none.
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Did the dynatrac lift use the factory control arms as well? I know you got the evo ones on your rig but wasnt sure about theirs.
Are these 2.5" lifts not enough lift to worry about pinion angles and driveshafts and what not?

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wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
StingRubi19 said:
Did the dynatrac lift use the factory control arms as well? I know you got the evo ones on your rig but wasnt sure about theirs.
Are these 2.5" lifts not enough lift to worry about pinion angles and driveshafts and what not?
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I tested out the Dynatrac lift on their Sahara running factory control arms. At 2" of lift, there is no need to replace them as there simply isn't enough change in suspension geometry to warrant them. Your rear pinion angle would ONLY need to be addressed IF you installed an aftermarket u-joint style double cardan drive shaft. In that case, you would need adjustable REAR UPPER arms to set your pinion. Up front, caster angle needs to take precedence over pinion angle and IF you were to want more caster, adjustable lower arms are what you'd want for that but again, it won't be necessary with just 2" of lift.
 

StingRubi19

StingRubi19

New member
wayoflife said:
I tested out the Dynatrac lift on their Sahara running factory control arms. At 2" of lift, there is no need to replace them as there simply isn't enough change in suspension geometry to warrant them. Your rear pinion angle would ONLY need to be addressed IF you installed an aftermarket u-joint style double cardan drive shaft. In that case, you would need adjustable REAR UPPER arms to set your pinion. Up front, caster angle needs to take precedence over pinion angle and IF you were to want more caster, adjustable lower arms are what you'd want for that but again, it won't be necessary with just 2" of lift.
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Gotcha. Thanks for the quick response Eddie. I'm back and forth between this Dynatrac lift and JKS's lift. They include "Cam Caster Locks" in their lift? I've honestly never heard of those so I wasnt sure why they have those and others do not?

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NFRs2000NYC

NFRs2000NYC

Member
If their cam caster locks are cam bolts, I'd run in the other direction at maximum velocity. Honestly, not to sound like a fanboy, since I don't actually own anything dynatrac, but if they are willing to stick their name on something, that does mean something to me personally. It is a company with a stellar reputation in the offroad world and is basically THE standard, I doubt Jim and the rest of the company would want to screw up decades of trust and being #1 all over a budget friendly lift. Bad business decision when your bread and butter is selling $10000+ axle packages.
 

wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
StingRubi19 said:
Gotcha. Thanks for the quick response Eddie. I'm back and forth between this Dynatrac lift and JKS's lift. They include "Cam Caster Locks" in their lift? I've honestly never heard of those so I wasnt sure why they have those and others do not?
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Cam bolts are NOT something you want. They are simply a cheap way to add in a bit more positive caster after lifting your Jeep but in order for them to work, you need to notch out the square holes on your lower control arm mounts and make them into rectangles. If you never go wheeling, this is a viable solution but if you do take your Jeep off road, the bolts can work themselves loose and leave you with control arms slopping around. The PROPER way to address caster is with drop brackets or better still, adjustable control arms. However, with just 2" of lift, and that is what you will get with the Dyntrac lift, you will NOT need to address this.

NFRs2000NYC said:
If their cam caster locks are cam bolts, I'd run in the other direction at maximum velocity. Honestly, not to sound like a fanboy, since I don't actually own anything dynatrac, but if they are willing to stick their name on something, that does mean something to me personally. It is a company with a stellar reputation in the offroad world and is basically THE standard, I doubt Jim and the rest of the company would want to screw up decades of trust and being #1 all over a budget friendly lift. Bad business decision when your bread and butter is selling $10000+ axle packages.
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Tony, the guy you see in our video with Jim used to work for FCA as the product planning manager for the 2018 Jeep JL Wrangler. There's nothing coincidental about him working at Dynatrac now. Dynatrac has hired other people from Jeep in the past as well and the last time, do so to develop their ProGrips Brakes. In other words, they mean business here and stand behind their products.
 

StingRubi19

StingRubi19

New member
wayoflife said:
Cam bolts are NOT something you want. They are simply a cheap way to add in a bit more positive caster after lifting your Jeep but in order for them to work, you need to notch out the square holes on your lower control arm mounts and make them into rectangles. If you never go wheeling, this is a viable solution but if you do take your Jeep off road, the bolts can work themselves loose and leave you with control arms slopping around.
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I read that part about the notching and thought "wait a sec... I gotta make the hole bigger for the bolt?!... Well I dont really wanna do that!"...
I mean if I upgraded control arms down the road wouldn't that pretty much ruin the bolt hole?




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wayoflife

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
StingRubi19 said:
I read that part about the notching and thought "wait a sec... I gotta make the hole bigger for the bolt?!... Well I dont really wanna do that!"...
I mean if I upgraded control arms down the road wouldn't that pretty much ruin the bolt hole?
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Yup! Sounds like you understand things perfectly :yup:
 

U

ubbb69

Member
Jesse_01 said:
How much air pressure is she running?
The 37" will have more sidewall flex which will also change handling characteristics.

The wife has a 2.5” spacer kit also before her 3.5” kit showed up. It was all over the road also.

The front & rear axles will probably be offset from each other width wise when you lift it with the spacer kit.

I put in adjustable track bars instead of brackets on her 3.5”.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...

We always use a chalk test to set pressure. It showed 28psi. I have went up and down from there with no success on rutted roads. I am going to install the same lift as mine as it works perfectly for what we are doing with the sport. She has no interest in rocks and loves mud. Mostly my fault as about 10 years we rolled violently and even with harnesses she was bruised badly.
 

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