sajohnson05

Guys, I have a 4.5" Zone offload lift with new lower CA's and stock uppers. I am wondering as title says if I should just get adjustable upper and lower or CA drop brackets or third a combination of both.

I know some of you will say go with long arm but I think for right now I want to stick with the short arms

1998blackXJ

the way I look at it, drop brackets aren't bad, but they are adding more stress on the suspension and less ground clearance. For the price of go Adjustable arms.

srb53150

go adj. arms , why limit grd. clearance.

sreeb

For much improved ride and flex. Adjustable uppers only allow controlling castor/front pinion angle.

If his new longer lowers are not adjustable, they may not play well with the drops which will require control arm lengths close to stock.

Fred/N0AZZ

With a 4 1/2" lift Adj. U/LCA's are a good investment and you should reinforce the mounts on the passenger side. LCA Skids are a good idea also the weld on ones not the bolt-on's.

Each to his own on the drop brackets, I didn't want to lose the clearance with them YMMV.

cdn_xj

I went with drop brackets and braces along with adjustable UCAs and LCAs.

I don't rock-crawl so the ground clearance issues are not as much of a problem. I can, and I will if I have to but I'm long past the point of seeking out rockgardens just because they're there. so I'm not as concerned with getting hung up on my DBs. Besides, for what I do, the advantages of proper control arm angles outweigh the disadvantages of the lower mounts.

Also, I am not particularly interested in going the long-arm route.

In other words,
There's nothing wrong with DBs. Providing they work for what your plans are.

As far as adjustable control arms go, well built adjustable control arms are always preferable to fixed-length arms as they allow you to fine-tune axle location and orientation.

yarom

I would do both. You will have a much smoother ride with a flatter LCA angle..

1998blackXJ

x2 this is actually true

sajohnson05

Thanks guys for the great input. Who makes the best drop brackets. I think for the adjustable CA im going to go with IRO for them.

timamybrown

Buy the time you spend the money on adj uppers and lowers and drop brackets. You can buy a long arm upgrade.

1998blackXJ

this is probably true..

yarom

The RC and RE kits are very similar. RE has a longer support brace. Both work well.

sajohnson05

If I go with a LA upgrade what company should I go with? I was looking at IRO but it appears that they make a wear LA upgrade.

1998blackXJ

I'd go with RE

timamybrown

I run the IRO long arms and haven't had a single problem with them. I did upgrade to a flex joint for the upper mount on the axle side which I recommend . It flexes great runs good down the road.
There are a lot of great long arm upgrades out there I went the IRO because they are local to me and I had the chance to see the kit in action.