2014 metal cloak 3.5 lifted rubicon tilted towards passenger side after off roading
- Thread starter Jkandfreedom
- Start date
Well, they do. 90% of the vehicles one the road in the US have only one person weighing ~175# in the driver seat. Cars are aligned and designed for "nominal" applications which is 1/3 loading and one person (driver) in the vehicle.
I don't think the truck comparison is good either. Heavy truck suspension VS a "soft" Jeep one is far from “Apples-to-Apples”.
My bone stock JKUR had ½” lean to the passenger side when full of gas…. The “JK lean” isn’t far from unheard of in fact it is VERY common.
Jkandfreedom
New member
I ordered a spring compressor to give it a try.
I wonder if the springs on the passenger side is broken in faster than the drivers side because of the weight of a full tank while off roading?
Maybe the passenger side rear spring rate is softer because of the the weight of the the full gas tank?
But why only the rear passener spring?
I guess we will soon find out!
This point concerns me too... and you may very well have a bad coil. I will tell you that according to Will at MC the coils are able to go solid and not overcompress. My rear coils have such a firm rate that I have never gotten to my bump stops (2"). I've gotten very close but still never used all the rear travel. (I have carried opposite tires several times.)
I hope you get this figured out. When you have your coils out measure the free length... differences will be a smoking gun.
Jkandfreedom
New member
Talked to Will at MC, as expected very good customer service!
It was kinda strange to have such a pleasant experience with customer service that is related to jeeps.
I'm used to bunch of excuses, lies, BS, and the words "it's not covered", sound familiar?
Will at MC suggested that I try switching the passenger rear spring with the drivers rear spring and if the driver side sags at that point we know it's the springs, and at that point they will be happy to send me a new spring.
Also, Will says that they had a stock jeep in thier shop that leaned, they discovered it was a problem with the rubber body mounts that were smushed on one side. I can accept that over the gas tank theory.
I got my spring compressor and I'm going to be performing the swap this weekend.
I'll post my discoveries.
It was kinda strange to have such a pleasant experience with customer service that is related to jeeps.
I'm used to bunch of excuses, lies, BS, and the words "it's not covered", sound familiar?
Will at MC suggested that I try switching the passenger rear spring with the drivers rear spring and if the driver side sags at that point we know it's the springs, and at that point they will be happy to send me a new spring.
Also, Will says that they had a stock jeep in thier shop that leaned, they discovered it was a problem with the rubber body mounts that were smushed on one side. I can accept that over the gas tank theory.
I got my spring compressor and I'm going to be performing the swap this weekend.
I'll post my discoveries.
Jkandfreedom
New member
Yeah, you're right it wasn't a good example to use, but you know what I'm get at.
Jkandfreedom
New member
I asked Will at MC if the springs do go bad? His reply was not that of a Chrysler type of answer "it's your fault", Will gave me an honest answer, they can go bad because of a defect, but they were more than happy to work with me on the issue. It's really nice to have that level of service, I'm so used to the "Richards" at Chrysler, I feel like an abused child that got some love!
Just really cool to deal with Will at MC.
Jkandfreedom
New member
Just swopped the rear coils from passenger to driver, the passener side is now 1/2" lower than the drivers side opposed to 1-1/4 lower.
However, the overall rear height is now 1" lower than original height, it's is level with the front, but I prefer the rear slightly higher to compensate for cargo.
When I removed the springs and measured them, the passenger side spring was 3/16" shorter than the drivers.
I'm thinking if I get the new spring and install it on the passenger side and reinstall and the original drivers side spring, it will be level side to side, and 1" higher than the front.
I do think the passenger side spring did get softer faster than the drivers side because i have a full tank of gas most of the time, and it sits in the garage most of the time.
So when I went off-roading past Monday, I must have over compressed the spring on the passenger side.
However, the overall rear height is now 1" lower than original height, it's is level with the front, but I prefer the rear slightly higher to compensate for cargo.
When I removed the springs and measured them, the passenger side spring was 3/16" shorter than the drivers.
I'm thinking if I get the new spring and install it on the passenger side and reinstall and the original drivers side spring, it will be level side to side, and 1" higher than the front.
I do think the passenger side spring did get softer faster than the drivers side because i have a full tank of gas most of the time, and it sits in the garage most of the time.
So when I went off-roading past Monday, I must have over compressed the spring on the passenger side.
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What size bump stop extensions are you running in the rear?
Jkandfreedom
New member
3", metal cloak provided bump stop pads that were in increments of 1", my thought was 4" bump stop on a 3.5 was too much so I went 3" bump stop.
Also, there were no visual indication of bottling out based on inspection of the the bump stop pads.
So, how much "actual" lift did your coils give you? In theory, 3" extensions should have been adequate being that you were supposed to only have 1/2" more of lift but, if you ended up getting over 4" as MOST lift kits do, you very well could have over compressed your coils. Certainly, that would explain why you only noticed the significant sag AFTER you went wheeling.
JT Bone
New member
I had this problem when I installed my EVO coilover kit. I set both rear coilovers with the same amount of preload and the jeep looked level at first. As the shocks and springs broke in and I really flexed it off road, the right rear started sitting about an inch low on level ground regardless of fuel level. I simply rolled in more preload on the right rear shock but I thought this was really weird. When I hit the whoops out in the desert and I'm using the full range of the rear suspension I can feel the additional preload causing a slight kick on the right rear. The lean got exponentially worse as I added gear and passengers even if I loaded evenly. I never tried switching shocks but I plan a trip to the truck stop and I'm going to weigh each corner of the jeep fully loaded for the trail.
In all fairness, the "kick" you are feeling is most likely being caused by your track bar. This is a normal sensation especially when using the full range of the suspension due to the fact that one end of the bar is mounted on the frame (passenger side) and the other to the axle (driver side). A 3-link, triangulated 4-link or even something like the Full-Traction CRC setup will not have this sensation. Now, this is not to say that having to crank down on the passenger side coil to level you out isn't annoying but, it is normal. You might want to contact King and get a heavier spring rate as it will help.
JT Bone
New member
Good to know about the track bar. I am curious to know why the right rear of the jeep would be so much heavier that the driver side. Stepping the right rear king spring up 50 or 100 pounds would probably remove the preload but don't you think running different spring rates on the same axle at speed would make things not good considering the shock valving remains the same?
Sorry for the confusion, I wasn't suggesting that you run a different spring rate on the passenger side but rather, the same new rate for both sides. The coils that come standard on the bolt on kit is on the soft side and I ended up bumping them up to a heavier rate and that helped a lot and even with the sag. You'll still have to adjust your passenger side to be taller but, it won't be nearly as much as what you're having to do now.
jeepguy2014
New member
Just putting an idea or something to check is the gas psi in your coil over. At a few local meet and greets we have found a few coil over setups with uneven nitrogen psi. Something possible to consider.
jeepguy2014
New member
250-250 rate works well
silversurfer575
Member
Eddie
Do you happen to know what the rear spring rates are for your setup? Did you also go with a higher rate upper on the fronts? Did you also go with the different slider kit?
I have a heavy 2 door, and am contemplating a coilover setup, but would like to dial in the spring rate setup if at all possible.
TIA.
jeepguy2014
New member
A fellow Jeeper I trail ride with has a really heavy two door and he uses a 250/250 rear spring setup with AGM sliders on all four Evo King Bolt on kit