I had this lift installed on my JK 2012 Rubicon. Did a lot of homework before picking this lift and selected it because of its supposed near stock ride quality and road manners. Quite to the contrary the jeep now rides very stiff on the road, markedly different from the stock suspension setup. The ride is so stiff that I do no know if I can live with it and I am considering removing the kit and going back to stock.
Does anyone else have this same experience? Any suggestions as to what would be causing this? Do the AEV lifts normally ride this stiff on the road? Anyone want to purchase a barely used AEV 2.5 DualSport XT? :banghead: Ha Ha..... not yet.
I had that kit on my 2009 Rubicon and found it to be quite plush... Did you change anything else? Often folks will change tires at the same time and that can have a dramatic effect...
Shocks will loosen up a bit... and springs take a few cycles to settle in... but I can't see why it would be so bad. With any lift, all the bolts need to be torqued with the full weight of the vehicle on the tires... that can sometimes have strange results if they torque them with the suspension dropped... it pre-loads all the bushings which could give you a hard ride...
Give it 200-700 miles to break in. Mine felt a little more harsh than stock at first (liked it) then it broken in around 400-500 mile mark. Now feels amazing.
if you got new tires, they might all be at wierd air pressures. after my 37's were put on, i drove home and it felt REALLY stiff. turned out my tires had about 50 psi in them!
The Bilstein 5100s are notoriously stiff but they will settle over time. I've driven 2 JKs with the AEV 2.5 kits and I found they settle a bit after the first 1500 miles or so...then ride almost plush after 15-20k. You may not want to wait that long to improve your ride, soooooooo....
Like others said tire pressure. I run between 28-32 psi on-road depending on tire. Makes a huge difference.
Also, the springs on the AEV kits are designed to handle a heavy rig with steel bumpers, winch, etc. If your JK doesn't have these you will net more lift and get a much stiffer ride since the 'ride' coils aren't compressed at ride height due to weight.
Currently have Duratrac 265/70R17 at 32 PSI. Went wheeling this weekend to thoroughly exercise the suspension. It may have softened it a bit, hard to say. Just does not seem right that the suspension is so stiff. The installer suggested I try it for another week then bring it back in. They plan to loosen the bolts and retorque them with the Jeep sitting on the ground. He assumed this was done during initial installation but could not confirm for certain. I'll let you all know the outcome of this little journey.
They use stiff springs. Swap them out for EVO plush rides or something else soft.
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