2.5" Rock Krawler LCA Lengths

So interesting development in my lift install has me a bit stumped.

Set my LCAs as per RK instructions (which I know may need to be adjusted) but when I went for an alignment today my caster came in at 6.5 degrees. The one good thing was that in confirmed my fancy 'measure the pinion with the iPhone level' trick was relatively close.

So I came home tonight and took them back apart with the intent to shorten them up. When I ran out of stroke, I got a bit concerned as my iphone was still showing 0-1 degrees on the pinion. As a last ditch I put the stockers back on and low and behold that put me somewhere between 2 and 3 on the pinion.

A quick test drive did not reveal any problems. Steering was a little sloppier but nowhere near anything I'd call 'flighty' and the wheel returns to center no problem. Tomorrow's commute will help confirm this, but question is:

Is there any reason I should worry about running stock front LCAs on this kit? Is it common for things to work out this way?

I do like the idea of less maintenance on the stock arms, but I was just a bit surprised.

In the same vein I checked the rear end and there appears to be a 6 degree differential between rear shaft and pinion. This seems a kind of high. I do have rear uppers I can put on though to straighten things out.

RK's CA's are about an inch longer than most. Did you notice how much they pushed
The axle out ? RK was doing a thing where you could send the CA's to them and they would Cut
Them down for you, pretty sure but I don't know if they do that anymore.....

RK control arms as marketed as "mid arms" as if them being 1" too long makes them anywhere close to half the length of true long arms. What you are seeing is normal for them and running factory arms will NOT be a problem especially if you aren't feeling your ride to be too flighty at highway speeds. Your rear pinion doesn't need to be set UNLESS you've installed a new rear u-joint style drive shaft.

Huh interesting. That makes sense as it seemed they were about 7/8" too long when fully collapsed. Guess I'd need both uppers and lowers to get the angles set right. At 2.5" I can't imagine my axles are far enough off to warrant the need for relocation.

I was under the impression that the max travel kit they weren't as long as the x-factor which moved the rear axle back the 1". Might be misinformed though.

I'll need to look at my rear uppers sometime to see how they play into this as I haven't had a chance to even unbox them.

BlueBox said:

Huh interesting. That makes sense as it seemed they were about 7/8" too long when fully collapsed. Guess I'd need both uppers and lowers to get the angles set right. At 2.5" I can't imagine my axles are far enough off to warrant the need for relocation.

I was under the impression that the max travel kit they weren't as long as the x-factor which moved the rear axle back the 1". Might be misinformed though.

I'll need to look at my rear uppers sometime to see how they play into this as I haven't had a chance to even unbox them.

Click to expand...

I heard that before on the rear lowers too I wonder if that's true as I have the same kit.

Hot94Z8 said:

I heard that before on the rear lowers too I wonder if that's true as I have the same kit.

Click to expand...

My rear lowers on my X-Factor 2.5 were too long for my liking. I couldn't get them adjusted short enough to avoid the frame side rear track bar bracket hitting the bump stop pad. Shouldn't be an issue on 3.5" lift....

Sounds like there's definitely a difference in the rear lowers then between the X factor and mine. I've got my rear lowers extended about 1/2" to get to the length in the instructions and no interference on the back end.