That's what I'm saying. It's all hype. I mean I can see a backyard "fab" drop not being trustworthy but these are made by big name manufacturers that stand by their product. BDS even maintains a factory warranty. Go look at the fj's running these kits. Those guys put them through hell without issue. Saying it isn't trustworthy with nothing to back it up because you don't like the "thought" of it just adds to bad hype and makes people freak out. Do you really think your stock suspension is any stronger?
fj cruiser 6" install on a 4th gen.
- Thread starter slowteg97
- Start date
dkyleb
New member
Honestly, what bothers me the most about them is that for the same amount of money and work, you can clear 35s and have a heck of a lot more travel, less CV angle, much less weight and a lot more mechanical security.
You can absolutely do a drop bracket lift correctly. A nice set of front coilovers and rear shocks that are sized to eliminate the need for extensions. UCAs so you can make up for the extreme loss of castor. Differential drop to make up for some of that extreme CV angle. Maybe even LCAs?
But one should ask themselves when they get to that point: what's the point of the bracket? To get me another 3 inches at the sacrifice of added weight, worse geometry and lessened travel?
Why not get rid of the bracket, do a 1" body lift and do some trimming? You will end up with a lighter and safer vehicle that can clear the same size tires and probably have better clearance.
Then again, the majority of people looking at drop bracket lifts take their rigs off road a couple times a year...
You can absolutely do a drop bracket lift correctly. A nice set of front coilovers and rear shocks that are sized to eliminate the need for extensions. UCAs so you can make up for the extreme loss of castor. Differential drop to make up for some of that extreme CV angle. Maybe even LCAs?
But one should ask themselves when they get to that point: what's the point of the bracket? To get me another 3 inches at the sacrifice of added weight, worse geometry and lessened travel?
Why not get rid of the bracket, do a 1" body lift and do some trimming? You will end up with a lighter and safer vehicle that can clear the same size tires and probably have better clearance.
Then again, the majority of people looking at drop bracket lifts take their rigs off road a couple times a year...
I agree that some kits aren't necessarily set up perfectly. But the kits for the FJ give you longer much more heavy duty knuckles, you can buy extended travel coilovers that allow more flex than anything but an actual long travel kit, uca and lca geometry remains exactly the same unless you lift it further. You can lift just like stock suspension, so 3-4" more is feasible. They provide a front dif spacer to drop that back down like if you went with a toytec 3"+ or similar kit too. Cv axles remain at stock angles.
I have a 3" suspension and 2.5" body lift with 35's. I cut a ton to fit them. Someone running this kit could slap 35's on, trim the front liner and call it a day. Or get radflo extended travel coilovers and have more travel. They then could crank the coilover up and run 37's fairly easy. I was going to do that at first, but I'm going to hold out and sas personally.
For the rear, rough country gives you longer upper links offset for the lift and full lift coils, no blocks. Longer shocks are included and you get much more travel than stock and mildly lifted setups.
I guess the biggest point is this. These kits don't make anything weaker and provide extra strengthening parts even. Knuckles are included to keep all geometry stock. Spacers for the front dif as well to keep stock geometry. You don't need any more parts than what's in the kit or you can buy the coilovers and have much better ride, handling, and travel. For $1300 you can put 35's in it.
In my opinion I don't see the negatives. 3-4" suspension lift and a body lift is more expensive to get the same results. Bilsteins-$350
FJ coils front - ~$50
Rear lift coils-$200
Body lift-$150-$300 depending on size
Uca's - $250-$600 depending on brand
To run 35's you will need a minimum of 5" lift and a bunch of cutting. If you go cheap and get Bilsteins and lift coils you could achieve 3.5" of lift. Then you'd need a 1.5" body lift. For that much suspension lift you need uca's and dif drop. Already you are at $1100 minimum assuming eBay uca's. Then you still have stock, weak Knuckles, and have your rear arms at a high angle. Want to fix that? Buy aftermarket upper trailing arms for several hundred and the kit to gusset the spindles and you are ~$1500 minimum.
So really where is the debate? It's stronger, it keeps stock geometry, it's bolt on and off in the case of rough country, it's far cheaper, you get great travel all around and you can build on it. You could lift it more with coilovers or Bilsteins in the front and a spacer in the rear for up to 9" of lift easily. Sure, your center of gravity is higher. Offset rims and more careful driving, as anyone with a lifted rig should know regardless.
Negatives??? People that think they are cheap, poorly made, unsafe and haven't actually taken the time to look.
And if you look around you'll see DB lifted vehicles getting wheeled on a regular basis everywhere. Look at Keak's truck. He has 40's and wheels the shit out if that thing! Not exactly my style what he has going on, but it works.
I can respect that. My next lift will be sas. 1 ton axles, ORI-STX-Struts, and around 35-40" of flex.
Go for it man. I have yet to see any complaints from members with this lift. A lot of FJs are also running these lifts. Check out their forums for more info.
From what I've seen the only ones who bad mouth it are the ones who don't even have it.
FJ RC 6" Lift
I did a lot of reading on this because I was interested at some point. And I never saw anyone complain about these. The only complaints were on the install difficulty. Other than that, all the other complaints were from people who never even had one.
Here's an awesome pic of an FJ running running one of these 6" lifts
05T4Rsport
New member
So I've got the RC fj 6"lift and while off roading through some trails, one of my rear sway bar links broke near the top stud, I've contacted RC and they are gonna warranty it. Curious to know if anyone with this kit had that happen, also any options of extended rear sway bar links or quick disconnect rear sway bar links that would work with this kit?
I haven't heard or that before but anything can happen. RC claims to get a lot of travel out of the rear end, any thoughts?
There are several threads on extended sway bar links and another guy that sells them with quick disconnects. Go to the classifieds and you'll find his posting for them. As high as the coil rate is on the rough country rear coils I'd ditch the sway bar myself. More travel offroad.
Yes they are the same except the bottom bushing is slightly bigger. Just trim it down slightly and you're all set.
Sent from the drivers seat of my 05 4runner.
Awesome thank t-man i will be purchasing my lift in a month or two but i read somewhere that said i cant run my stock wheels and tires on it. is that true? and i know i can run 35's but was wondering if a body lift as well. would allow me to run 37's. or would i hit the body mount?
You will need spacers to run stock rims. Not 100% sure how much, but if you want 35's then you'd need 1.25" or bigger spacers to keep them out of the frame.
I'm also not sure on the 37's, you may be able to squeeze them in with your caster set at 5*, you will have to trim and of course do the body mount chop.
You going to regear? I have the V8 and 35's and its not bad at all, but I'm thinking going to 37's would affect it quite a bit.
Edit: body lift will only help rubbing in the fenderwells, not body mount.
Sent from the drivers seat of my 05 4runner.
I think you could, just not 100% would be best if you could try fitting a 37 to check clearance first. That's kind of hard to do though unless a tire place is willing to play or you have a buddy with a 37 that bolts up, chevy bolt pattern is the same. If I put the 6" lift on I'd run 37's.
Sent from the drivers seat of my 05 4runner.
