Rock Krawler Kit Installed - UPDATE PG.2

Mike08Liberty · **Posted:** Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:32 pm

OK, the install went pretty good. The instructions from RK were good. The rear was easy and only took about 30 min per side. It's pretty straight forward.
NOW the front, that was a little more in-depth. If you get this I highly recommend 2 people for the front. I had a buddy with me and it made it a lot easier. The instructions for the front were ok, had to make some minor changes while trucking along but nothing major. The RK instructions get you to were you need to go. Over all the install went well.

Here are some before and after pics, as you can see in the after pics it started to rain so I didn't get to take a lot of after shots. I'll post up more pics soon.

BEFORE

AFTER

rav · **Posted:** Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:11 pm

Looks awesome, very soon you will want to go even higher. You have a nice, clean looking jeep.

Ravi

Boblemoche · **Posted:** Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:14 pm

looks great

did you measured how much longer the RK clevis are compared to the stock ones. Did you have to compress the springs to reassemble the front suspention. Did you check the rear brakes lines at full drop. just curious :wink:

Mike08Liberty · **Posted:** Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:11 pm

Boblemoche wrote:

looks great

did you measured how much longer the RK clevis are compared to the stock ones.
below is a side by side of the front forks.

Did you have to compress the springs to reassemble the front suspention.
NO, you don't have to remove the front suspension. You do have to separate the UCA, Steering Ball Joint & Sway Bar. Then you remove the old fork and put in the new one.

Did you check the rear brakes lines at full drop. just curious :wink:

I checked them when I did the install and everything looked good. The weather turned bad about 2 min (seriously, 2 min) after the install so I really didn't get a chance to play around yet.

hrogi · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:56 pm

The lift looks great.

Now in 5k and 20K miles I want to see if there are any issues.
once your long term testing is done I hope you are just as happy...

SkinInc69 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:54 pm

More pic's! :twisted:

tumanator · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:26 pm

mike I hate your avatar :evil:

I keep catching myself staring at that friggen thing, it's almost mesmerizing

Anywhoo nice lift

. I have to say I hate the looks of the newer liberties unless they have a lift, with a lift they look like an actual truck not just a mall crawler. :wink:

Albert · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:40 pm

The lift looks good.

Is that RK Lift the first lift kit made for the KK??

Mike08Liberty · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:39 pm

SkinInc69 wrote:

More pic's! :twisted:

I'm going to be doing a new photo shoot tomorrow and I might be doing some wheelin tomorrow night ... More pics to come!

tumanator wrote:

mike I hate your avatar :evil:

I keep catching myself staring at that friggen thing, it's almost mesmerizing

Anywhoo nice lift

. I have to say I hate the looks of the newer liberties unless they have a lift, with a lift they look like an actual truck not just a mall crawler. :wink:

If you think that was mesmerizing ... check it now :lol:

I agree, a lift makes the newer Liberty look 10x better. Even something as small as a 2" lift makes a world of difference.

Albert wrote:

The lift looks good.

Is that RK Lift the first lift kit made for the KK??

If you are referring to the first kit made for the KK, I don't know. As of right now there are about half a dozen options for lift kits.

Murphyman · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:42 pm

There's a few lifts for the KK. But you don't see many people going with RK, so good luck. I was being "different" and went with BDS, feels nice to do your own thing. Looks really good so far, I have no idea as to what problems the RK lift is said to cause (someone might chime in on that). Hopefully it treats you well, are you going any bigger on tires?

Mike08Liberty · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:46 pm

Murphyman wrote:

There's a few lifts for the KK. But you don't see many people going with RK, so good luck. I was being "different" and went with BDS, feels nice to do your own thing. Looks really good so far, I have no idea as to what problems the RK lift is said to cause (someone might chime in on that). Hopefully it treats you well, are you going any bigger on tires?

I might be switching to BDS shocks for the rear. The Skyjacker ones are OK for now but I'm not too impressed with the ride. The only issues i've really seen with the RK kit is that some people complained about the bolts that the kit comes with. I haven't seen any reports that they've broke just they think they should have come with better ones.

Murphyman · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:49 pm

Mike08Liberty wrote:

Murphyman wrote:

There's a few lifts for the KK. But you don't see many people going with RK, so good luck. I was being "different" and went with BDS, feels nice to do your own thing. Looks really good so far, I have no idea as to what problems the RK lift is said to cause (someone might chime in on that). Hopefully it treats you well, are you going any bigger on tires?

I might be switching to BDS shocks for the rear. The Skyjacker ones are OK for now but I'm not too impressed with the ride. The only issues i've really seen with the RK kit is that some people complained about the bolts that the kit comes with. I haven't seen any reports that they've broke just they think they should have come with better ones.

How hard would it be to upgrade to some better bolts? But I'd definately recommend the BDS shocks, they ride just fine IMO.

tumanator · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:56 pm

Mike08Liberty wrote:

If you think that was mesmerizing ... check it now :lol:

lol, i guess that puts new meaning to phrase "doing the lawn mower"

Mike08Liberty · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:58 pm

Murphyman wrote:

Mike08Liberty wrote:

Murphyman wrote:

There's a few lifts for the KK. But you don't see many people going with RK, so good luck. I was being "different" and went with BDS, feels nice to do your own thing. Looks really good so far, I have no idea as to what problems the RK lift is said to cause (someone might chime in on that). Hopefully it treats you well, are you going any bigger on tires?

I might be switching to BDS shocks for the rear. The Skyjacker ones are OK for now but I'm not too impressed with the ride. The only issues i've really seen with the RK kit is that some people complained about the bolts that the kit comes with. I haven't seen any reports that they've broke just they think they should have come with better ones.

How hard would it be to upgrade to some better bolts? But I'd definately recommend the BDS shocks, they ride just fine IMO.

Probably not hard ... RK gives you the size of the bolts. You would just have to take the specs to store that specializes in nuts and bolts and see whats better.

Here is the list of hardware they supply with the kit
(per side)
1 - 14mm x 120mm Bolt
2 - 14mm Washers
1 - 14mm Nylok Nut

Boblemoche · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:57 pm

Mike08Liberty wrote:

Murphyman wrote:

Mike08Liberty wrote:

Murphyman wrote:

There's a few lifts for the KK. But you don't see many people going with RK, so good luck. I was being "different" and went with BDS, feels nice to do your own thing. Looks really good so far, I have no idea as to what problems the RK lift is said to cause (someone might chime in on that). Hopefully it treats you well, are you going any bigger on tires?

I might be switching to BDS shocks for the rear. The Skyjacker ones are OK for now but I'm not too impressed with the ride. The only issues i've really seen with the RK kit is that some people complained about the bolts that the kit comes with. I haven't seen any reports that they've broke just they think they should have come with better ones.

How hard would it be to upgrade to some better bolts? But I'd definately recommend the BDS shocks, they ride just fine IMO.

Probably not hard ... RK gives you the size of the bolts. You would just have to take the specs to store that specializes in nuts and bolts and see whats better.

Here is the list of hardware they supply with the kit
(per side)
1 - 14mm x 120mm Bolt
2 - 14mm Washers
1 - 14mm Nylok Nut

just look on the top of the bolt and if it says 10.8 then its good. if its 8.8 then change for better ones

metric 10.8 = grade 8
metric 8.8 = grade 5

Mike08Liberty · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:22 pm

The top of the bolt says 8.8 ...

After doing a little research I found that Grade 5 bolts shear at just over 3600 lbs and Grade 8 bolts shear at just over 4400 lbs.

I guess I will look into getting new ones. There is a Fastenal not too far from my house, I'll check them out in the morning.

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:11 am

Yep, grade 5 :shock:

Either get a 10.9 which is basically a grade 8 or do a 12.9. All of the suspension parts are 10.9 with a few 12.9's IIRC

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 12:18 am

Mike08Liberty wrote:

The top of the bolt says 8.8 ...

After doing a little research I found that Grade 5 bolts shear at just over 3600 lbs and Grade 8 bolts shear at just over 4400 lbs.

I guess I will look into getting new ones. There is a Fastenal not too far from my house, I'll check them out in the morning.

Fastenal can get Titanium bolts also,was thinking of using Titanium instead of grade 8 or 10.9's but there is the cost issue.

Mike08Liberty · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:23 pm

Here are a few more pics ...

Murphyman · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 6:48 pm

It looks good. Just replace those bolts and you should be good to go. Not a very nice thing to do on RK's part.

Rock Krawler Kit Installed - UPDATE PG.2

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