@GavinC " When I forget to remove the lift on the hard top I'll notice the tires making more noise and feeling weird. Probably related to the alignment. “

100%. Had mine realigned in normal height by the surprisingly amenable JLR Portland and that noise and weirdness went away. I can confirm.

Also @Darover2 . I do maintain that mine is the same ride quality - rods or no rods - in normal height. I’m not bull-ing you. Or exaggerating. I’d be the first to throw the lift rods in the trash and critique them if they resulted in a crap ride. I truly am curious why yours would give a different result. Lots of folks run rods and do not report a noticeable difference in ride quality -- in normal height. I know this is insulting to ask but are you 100% sure you were in normal height and not somehow stuck in off-road height?

 

No insult taken. Totally certain. As said, might be because where I live, as the rough road is at the end of my driveway. If someone adds the rods and gets back on perfect tarmac, they wouldn’t know/feel the difference until they hit a rough road and by then, they might not perceive it. But when the rough road is right there at the end of your driveway, it’s immediately perceived and comparison is undeniable. So I went to the gym, came back and immediately installed the rods and went for a test drive. Of course it was a matter of 15 minutes so I immediately fealth the new roughness. I came back home, rods were off in 10 minutes and I went back to confirm I wasn’t dreaming and sure enough, all was smooth again 🤷‍♂️ Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like night and day, but obviously stiffer.

 

Some other ways to offset the ride are changing to 18" wheels and running 265/70R18 LT tires at about 37 psi unless you're towing or on trips.

 

Can anyone here explain why the rear rods are about 1/4inch longer while the front are 1/4inch shorter ???

Is this normal??? Anybody else noticed that ?

 

I can’t explain why but I noted the same thing when installing my 1” rods and reached out to Lucky8. The new rear rods are noticeably longer but front rods are barely shorter. Lucky8 responded that this is correct.

 

I have no idea, so this theory might be complete BS. Maybe the car sense the tilt and auto levels the rear. So it doesn't really matter what size is there? Once again, just a wild guess.

 

If lifting using rods, then this kit will relocate the air ride system back to the factory position giving a better ride:
https://lucky8llc.com/products/proud...-Bn452UpiExEnP

 

looks interesting, I’ll look it up.

 

The rod length depends on where they mount to the arm and how rod movement is caused by a certain amount of suspension movement.

Lifting your suspension via rods or e-lift will increase the spring rate, raise the roll center, and add preload to all the suspension bushings, roughly on the order of 5-10%. All of these changes will make the suspension less compliant. Everybody perceives ride comfort differently, so some people won’t be sensitive to the specific ways this changes the ride, or might even prefer it, but it will be objectively stiffer.

 

I see this advice a lot but worry about lower gas mileage (which is already pretty bad). Any idea what the hit to mpg is by lowering pressures from 50psi to 37psi?