Is Rough Country garbage?
 

I've been doing research on lift kits and I thought I was going to purchase this RC lift. The reviews are positive, but I went to go look around in other threads/websites to see if they're any good. The responses I read were overwhelmingly negative. They say the shocks are terrible, the leafs sag after a year, and the bushings are shot a 100 miles in. I know I am going to get what I pay for, but this made me think I should just save up and buy a different kit from another brand (not sure who though, would like some recommendations there). Does anyone have any input or personal experiences they can share? Thanks.

Odd that there aren't any threads here dedicated to suspension and lift recommendations...:confused1:

But seriously, it would help to know what you are wanting to accomplish with the lift, how high, off-road use, etc. I have no personal experience with RC, as I understand them to be more of a budget setup. I tend to stick with Bilstein 5100 shocks, which I have used on two different setups for DD and offroading in the San Juans. For my XJ at Upcountry lift height, I used Crown springs, leafs, control arms, sway bar end links, and bushings I bought through Kolak. And Spicer u-joints while I was at it. Kolak usually has good advice and good prices if you contact Nick (no affiliation).

Because this is the Stock Forum. Try the Modified Forum:

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f67/al...go-here-10579/

I was being sarcastic...:icon_cool:

Crap, I posted this in the wrong forum. Sorry guys.

Regardless I don't think I've heard anything great about Rough Country. Add-a-leaf makes the idea even worse.

Go with Old Man Emu (otherwise known as ARB) or Rubicon if funds permit. I've yet to hear any complaints about those manufacturers and will be using Old Man Emu myself when these Crown HD springs have served their purpose.

You’ll read negative on every manufacturer . I dont think RC . Rubicon , zone , etc have 10 dollars worth of difference between them in quality as a Kit. There are strong and weak points of every manufacturer . The perfect lift would be a concoction of the strong point of each brand .

I wouldn't buy springs or shocks from Rough Country, they don't ride that good, the shocks leak, and the springs sag. They do make some good products however, I have their control arm drop brackets, and rear shackle relocating kit and they both seem to be well made. For a lift kit Zone or Rubicon Express is the best bang for your buck in my opinion.

you are crazy if you don't think there is a bigger difference between those 2 kits and rc...i dealt with rc as a dealer for years when I worked at a shop until a few months ago. Their products are garbage lol

I moved the thread.

OP, for the most part, RC is garbage. I personally had some of their product on my rig early on, long story short, I'll never use nor recommend them, ever

Take your time, do your homework, and piece together your own kit, with quality components.

It might sound crazy but quality of parts is suffering dramatically with every company I deal with right now . Whether it be gaskets , sensors , modules , basic parts such as water pumps ... whatever you can think of... it has gotten VERY common to get defective parts out of the box . Myself and 11 other guys service a fleet of over 900 vehicles that get driven an absolute ton of hours . They get abused as bad or worse than anything you can imagine . Just for an example we have ran a plethora of brands of ball joints and all suspension parts ... I have yet to see a ball joint that is noticeably better than another or a tie rod etc . Everyone wants to believe their brand is good and what they paid for isn’t junk . You can’t convince me there’s a considerably amount of difference in price point as a manufacturer to produce any suspension part one vs the next unless we’re talking true Mom and pop shop.

I personally have rubicon express springs with rubicon express shackles. Which I would highly recommend. I haven't used their control arms, but would imagine they are good as well. I had their track bar with the track bar bracket and brace and would recommend it (only got rid of it because I went over the axle track bar, but still use their bracket and brace). I have a cav fab 3 link which works well and seems to be holding up alright, but it's hard to contact them if you need something. I'm also running bilstein shocks which do well. So basically to get the best bang for your buck you'll probably need to grab different parts from different companies, but if I were to get a single kit from a single company. Rubicon express would get my money. I've been beating on their leaf springs for a lot longer than I had the rough country ones and they have held up much better.

Thanks for moving the thread.

I think I am going to either buy the 3" Zone Offroad kit or end up piecing together my own lift. I am nervous about the second option though because I tend to forget things and then I end up paying to ship on a bunch of different objects. What combination of parts would you guys do? I'd have to say maybe $800 is my limit, but that still seems a bit much.

I am not planning to go rock crawling or anything too intense yet. I just want to get a solid base so when I get out of high school in a few years I can do more mods. I'll probably go mudding or something here and there, but it'll have to be a mall crawler for a little while.

The 3" Zone kit with the leaf springs would work fine.

I have held and installed other kits side by side with rc and i will tell you, theres a big differrence in quality.