Silentj

I'm looking for feedback from people running the Rough Country Long Arm upgrade. I am building a 4.5 lift and want to use this long arm upgrade instead of adjustable short arms. I have read that the bushings and joints wear out fast, but that is all feedback from 3 years ago. Any current owners out there that can give me some honest feedback. It will be 70% road 30% trail.

aj2494

I would stay away from Rough Country lifts. They generally get poor reviews, and that feedback from three years ago is very likely still accurate. Aftermarket manufacturers tend to almost halt development on products for vehicles that haven't been sold in 15 years. My personal suggestion would be Rubicon Express. I have their 3.5" (nets around 4.5") short arm kit and have been very happy with it. Their LA kits seem to get good reviews too.

Fred/N0AZZ

One of our older members here on the Grand Cherokee forum has ran the RC long arm kit for quite a while on his ZJ and well pleased with it. He says that it hasn't given him any problems so far.


There may be others that I do not know, but I know he does for sure. If you want a better quality kit have a look at the B. Lee ones very nice setup.


I have a 4 1/2" adj. short arm kit and this year plan on going to a long arm finally I hope. The RC, RE, and so many other kits are not to my liking like yours I pieced mine together using the parts I wanted not ones included in a kit form of what they think you need and has to be upgraded later.


There are several high quality kits on the market do your research, I know the RC is the cheapest and some have good luck with them so everyone has to make his own decision on whether to "buy once, cry once" or have to buy several different times and then cry that many more.


I have "only" owned a 4 1/2" RC lift kit that I got on a trade new in the box and my opinion from it was that it was lacking from what I had in quality but that was just me. I sold it to someone else quickly enough and it looks good on his XJ I must say.

Xj88

The jeep I purchased last month had a 1 year old 6.5" RC long arm lift on it with the 2.2 shocks

After putting about 1k miles on it, im fairly impressed for what its worth..
Very quiet, no pops, clunks, etc..floats down the highway, no hard jarring when you hit bumps..

With all that being said I am still replacing the entire rough country suspension with higher quality stuff (rubicon express coils, custom 3 link, etc) but for what it is its a decent kit.

V69_XJ

I've had the RC long arms for a little more than 5k miles. Daily driven, a handful of wheeling trips including a week in Moab. I've had no issues with bushings whatsoever.

Cane

clearly this isn't based on personal experience and you're just assuming it's bad because the bandwagon says RC is ****.

funny how every single reply after that vouch for the product and no one that actually has the setup describes it like you do.

Silentj

This is my frustration sir. It's so hit or miss. I'm probably going to go with RC, based on the price and warranty.

Please keep the feedback coming though. I want to hear the good and bad from people with the lift.

Silentj

Great feedback sir. I do appreciate the honesty as it's hard to find these days.

I have checked out the B. Lees and it seems pretty stout and only has good reviews. I would need to do some serious negotiations with the wife to spend that much.

JeremyXJ

I have had a Rough Country 3" Series II lift for almost a year now, with full leaf packs, adjustable trackbar, and steering stabilizer. I have zero complaints. Their prices are great, shipping was reasonable, the parts are really sturdy, and the Jeep handles just fine. They will replace anything for free if it fails and their customer service is excellent.

I think they went through some engineering headaches a few years back and received a lot of negative press for it. In the meantime, they've replaced all of their defective joints and upgraded the quality of their shocks, and people are still holding onto the old news and pretending it's current. I'm telling you it's bull****. They make great kits for the price.

Having said all that, I'm running their fixed, lower short arms (really heavy duty), so I don't have experience with their long arms. I'm going to upgrade to their adjustable upper arms soon, though. Most of these lift companies use a universal thread for the ends of their control arms, so even if the Rough Country ends wear out, I'm sure it would be easy to replace them with a different brand if you want.

Silentj

Much appreciated. I hear ya on the old news piece. Like I said earlier, I can't find any current reviews of the long arms. It's all from 2011 and 2012. Most of those reviews were mixed reviews.

Rustypirate

i got the long arm upgrade a little over a year ago and i have been very happy with it no problems to report yet. i have just the long arms though.

Silentj

That is all I'm looming for. I have 4.5" Rubicon Express front coils and 3.5" Rubicon Express rear leafs with a 1" shackle. I'm piecing together my own frankenlift.

gleason51

I have the RC long arms and I have no complaints. Rides great for a lifted jeep and does great on the trails. So far so good.

Bustedback

I have the RC 4" long arm lift on my ZJ. I'm very happy with it and have had NO ISSUES with the lift itself. The bushings and joints are still as good as the day I installed the lift. The bushings are Clevite bushings, the same brand used by many other lift manufacturers. The only issue I have is not the fault of the lift, it's the fault of the weak factory upper control arm bracket on the right side of the front axle. The bracket got tweaked enough to unseat the bushing and now it pops and moves around. A Johnny Joint upper bushing upgrade will fix that issue. The quality of the parts is top notch and beefy for the most part. The hiem joint on the track bar looks a little puny, but hasn't caused any problems for me. The sway bar disconnects took a while to fine tune, but no big deal. The key to a trouble free lift is following the instructions and taking your time. Almost everyone that bags on RC lifts have never actually had an RC lift, they're just regurgitating what they have heard from someone else that is regurgitating what they have heard. You can not beat the price for a complete long arm lift, the RC lift is close to a grand less than any other kit on the market. The customer service was excellent and helpful. I would recommend Rough Country to anybody.

Rogue4x4

And I'm telling YOU that this is BS...

I wasn't even going to chime in until I read this post.

I have had their adjustable uppers and lowers for a few years now. They were junk right out of the box. The arms wouldn't even thread into the joints. I contacted them at that time, and they tried to tell me I cross threaded them on install. BS, but they finally agreed to send me replacements, and guess what? SAME ISSUE. Contacted again, and they told me to pound sand. I was in a pinch, so I got a tap and die for the pitch, and re-cut the threads on both parts, and my problem was solved. For about a month.

The joints then blew out. Contacted again, and long story short, I had to pay for new ones, they gave me the run around. Since that time I have replaced my joints 4 times, all out of my pocket.

This last time, when the joints blew out yet again, I said screw it, enough is enough. I have been piecing together my own kit for over a year now, and am currently installing said lift.

I'll just leave this here...


Sorry man, but I call BS on your BS. You get what you pay for. I could have done it right the first time, and been WAY ahead, in both time and money. RC sucks. Their customer service is worse.

OP, if you already have RE springs, do yourself a favor, and get a better kit. I'm the example of what happens when you don't do it right the first time. Learn from my mistakes.

Check out B. Lee...

Buy quality.

Cry once.

Also...OP...I cannot speak to their LA kit...but I cannot, and WILL not, recommend RC after my experience.

That is all...