Teraflex 4inch long arm vs evo long arm

rogerk93

rogerk93

New member
I've been posting and asking a lot of questions when it comes to comparing lifts. After a bunch of research teraflex and evo are the two lift I'm leaning toward. Now if we can compare these two lift and why one is better than the other and not just because it is answers I would appreciate it. One question I have and can't find an answer too is with a heavy rig. What lift deals with weight better than the other? My rig is not that heavy now but it will soon be.
 
If teraflex is top choice do more research.

Their coils are really stiff, their brackets suck and have been prone to breaking and ripping, their control arm bushings suck and they will tell you it's your fault and they are made in China.

Need anymore info?
 
I ran the Teraflex 3" LCG long arm kit on my old '08 JKU Rubi. I had a right rear Teraflex control arm mount fail and break off while on the trail, and also had signs of cracking in both Teraflex front control arm mount brackets. The rear failed in two places. Next to a weld,and at an angle where the upper arm attaches. The angle at the upper arm failed first, and the leverage applied to the other end of the upper mount ripped the weld and a chunk of my frame off. The front two Teraflex mounts were cracking around the bolt holes where the lower control arms attach at the frame side of the arm. Teraflex will lead you to believe that it was installer error, but that was obviously not the case.

Also, the frame side bushings on the lower Teraflex long arms would frequently fail by pulling out of the arm, or cracking. This was because they could not handle the twisting action applied to the arm when the axle side joints reached maximum misalignment, and applied a twisting action to the arms. That binding/twisting action would cause the bushings to fail. The Evo arms do not use bushings. They use Jonny Joints on both ends of the upper and lower arms on the rear, and the lower arms up front. Obviously the front upper arms use the oem bushings on the axle side, and the Evo front upper arms use Jonny Joints at the frame side. This leaves you with a very strong joint that is rebuildable, and by having them on both sides of the arms, gives you more degrees of misalignment and therefore, no binding. Even with a 12"-14" travel suspension that some coilovers can provide.

All of that aside, the Evo arms are also just significantly heavier and beefier. And the frame side control arm brackets that Evo provides are a much better design, and also beefier.

That is not the only Teraflex part I've had fail and snap into at least two pieces on the trail. So out of those two choices, definitely go Evo.
 
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highoctane said:
I ran the Teraflex 3" LCG long arm kit on my old '08 JKU Rubi. I had a right rear Teraflex control arm mount fail and break off while on the trail, and also had signs of cracking in both Teraflex front control arm mount brackets. The rear failed in two places. Next to a weld,and at an angle where the upper arm attaches. The angle at the upper arm failed first, and the leverage applied to the other end of the upper mount ripped the weld and a chunk of my frame off. The front two Teraflex mounts were cracking around the bolt holes where the lower control arms attach at the frame side of the arm. Teraflex will lead you to believe that it was installer error, but that was obviously not the case.

Also, the frame side bushings on the lower Teraflex long arms would frequently fail by pulling out of the arm, or cracking. This was because they could not handle the twisting action applied to the arm when the axle side joints reached maximum misalignment, and applied a twisting action to the arms. That binding/twisting action would cause the bushings to fail. The Evo arms do not use bushings. They use Jonny Joints on both ends of the upper and lower arms on the rear, and the lower arms up front. Obviously the front upper arms use the oem bushings on the axle side, and the Evo front upper arms use Jonny Joints at the frame side. This leaves you with a very strong joint that is rebuildable, and by having them on both sides of the arms, gives you more degrees of misalignment and therefore, no binding. Even with a 12"-14" travel suspension that some coilovers can provide.

All of that aside, the Evo arms are also just significantly heavier and beefier. And the frame side control arm brackets that Evo provides are a much better design, and also beefier.

That is not the only Teraflex part I've had fail and snap into at least two pieces on the trail. So out of those two choices, definitely go Evo.
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Thank you for elaborating. I was looking into rock kralwer but their springs are what turned me away, the top portion of the spring is fully clasped at normal ride height and that becomes like a puck. That can be helpful at full flex so the spring doesn't come out but less spring working is pointless.
 
OverlanderJK said:
If teraflex is top choice do more research.

Their coils are really stiff, their brackets suck and have been prone to breaking and ripping, their control arm bushings suck and they will tell you it's your fault and they are made in China.

Need anymore info?
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That gives me an idea of how bad it is lol. I know a few people who has teraflex and haven't had any breakage. I guess they don't wheel hard enough.
 
rogerk93 said:
Thank you for elaborating. I was looking into rock kralwer but their springs are what turned me away, the top portion of the spring is fully clasped at normal ride height and that becomes like a puck. That can be helpful at full flex so the spring doesn't come out but less spring working is pointless.
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I have no experience with the Rock Krawler, but they also use a bushing at the frame side of their arms. I can't comment anything about the quality of their bushings because I don't even know anyone who's run the RK longarms. I have seen what your talking about on the Rock Krawler springs. That's another thing about the Teraflex kit. My 3" springs gave me close to 5" of lift up front and about 4" in the rear, and they rode extremely rough with the Teraflex 9550 shocks and Bilstein 5100 shocks. Sure, it had a stock like suspension feel. But IMO even the stock JK suspension rides rough so a stock like feel wasn't any improvement. The Evo springs are designed to give you the advertised ride height, even on a heavy JK, while also giving a smoother ride when paired with a smooth shock. So a 4" Plush Ride spring should give you 4" of lift, not 5 1/2".
 
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rogerk93 said:
I've been posting and asking a lot of questions when it comes to comparing lifts. After a bunch of research teraflex and evo are the two lift I'm leaning toward. Now if we can compare these two lift and why one is better than the other and not just because it is answers I would appreciate it. One question I have and can't find an answer too is with a heavy rig. What lift deals with weight better than the other? My rig is not that heavy now but it will soon be.
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Exactly how tall are you hoping to lift your Jeep? I mean, are you sure you even need long arms? Also, long arms made by anyone won't do anything to help address weight. In any case, as others have pointed out, there's something to be said about a lift kit that breaks on the Jeep of the people who make that kit. This is a shot of Dennis from Teraflex after his bracket broke. To be clear, this is a TeraFlex Jeep that they installed their kit on.
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You just can't make stuff like this up.
 
wayoflife said:
Exactly how tall are you hoping to lift your Jeep? I mean, are you sure you even need long arms? Also, long arms made by anyone won't do anything to help address weight. In any case, as others have pointed out, there's something to be said about a lift kit that breaks on the Jeep of the people who make that kit. This is a shot of Dennis from Teraflex after his bracket broke. To be clear, this is a TeraFlex Jeep that they installed their kit on.
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You just can't make stuff like this up.
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Installer error :D
 
wayoflife said:
Exactly how tall are you hoping to lift your Jeep? I mean, are you sure you even need long arms? Also, long arms made by anyone won't do anything to help address weight. In any case, as others have pointed out, there's something to be said about a lift kit that breaks on the Jeep of the people who make that kit. This is a shot of Dennis from Teraflex after his bracket broke. To be clear, this is a TeraFlex Jeep that they installed their kit on.
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You just can't make stuff like this up.
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Do you have a link to this video? I want to watch it and see what excuses they come up with lol
 
I have the teraflex 2.5 inch coil lift. I would not use anything more than that from them, specially if it was their brackets and arms. This is due to the stuff everybody above me is posting about.

I went with their coil lift over a budget boost as I was worried about the factory springs starting to sag with just a budget boost and the bumpers, winch, and tools that my jeep has. That may have been just me and the thoughts in my head. So I went into their coil lift knowing that it was stiffer. On road/daily driving the jeep is fine. You can tell a difference between the factory springs and the teraflex springs but I don't feel it is that bad. I am running the factory rubi shocks with extensions so better shocks may even help that. Offroad however I do feel like it is a lot rougher than what I want. Again this could be due to shocks also but I'm gonna say the stiffer spring is that much rougher.

I went into that lift knowing those things so it wasn't a surprise to me. I still went with that lift because it was a pretty complete "kit" for what I was wanting at the time and it was relatively inexpensive. When I can finally do something different I should get a decent amount of money selling this one to somebody wanting something to clear 35s. As my main objective was to gain lift and clear 35s I knew this wouldn't be the last lift I ever bought so I wanted as cheap/inexpensive as possible with the intention of gaining as much money back when I do sell it. Most people around me don't really do much in their jk as there isn't a lot around us so a lot of them are just going for looks.

I wanted better but couldn't afford it at the time and wanted 35s ASAP. I did figure I would be on 35s a lot longer and probably will, I just already want 37s. Lol. But now I'm really looking at trying to decide which way I want to go as the next lift may be the last lift for the jeep. I feel like my priorities and aspirations for it have changed some and it won't be as big/much of what I originally was thinking/planning/hoping.

I will run the EVO long arms with high clearance brackets, my only choice now is their 4 inch enforcer coils or their bolt on coil overs.
 
jkwebbie said:
Do you have a link to this video? I want to watch it and see what excuses they come up with lol
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I'll have to look for it but you don't hear anything anyway. I mean, not like Dennis was interviewed about it or anything. It was filmed by guy who attended the Winter on the Rocks event a couple of years back.
 
wayoflife said:
I'll have to look for it but you don't hear anything anyway. I mean, not like Dennis was interviewed about it or anything. It was filmed by guy who attended the Winter on the Rocks event a couple of years back.
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Ahhh ok I gotcha bud. I would love to see the look on his face when it happened lol
 
wayoflife said:
Exactly how tall are you hoping to lift your Jeep? I mean, are you sure you even need long arms? Also, long arms made by anyone won't do anything to help address weight. In any case, as others have pointed out, there's something to be said about a lift kit that breaks on the Jeep of the people who make that kit. This is a shot of Dennis from Teraflex after his bracket broke. To be clear, this is a TeraFlex Jeep that they installed their kit on.
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You just can't make stuff like this up.
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I want to add a 4inch really want to stay away with anything lower. With a 4 inch I feel long arms would suit me better, I know long arms won't address the weight that's why I'm focusing on the springs offered by the company.
 
rogerk93 said:
I want to add a 4inch really want to stay away with anything lower. With a 4 inch I feel long arms would suit me better, I know long arms won't address the weight that's why I'm focusing on the springs offered by the company.
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Why do you feel your jeep will be so much heavier then any other jeeps out there?
 
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rogerk93 said:
I want to add a 4inch really want to stay away with anything lower. With a 4 inch I feel long arms would suit me better, I know long arms won't address the weight that's why I'm focusing on the springs offered by the company.
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4" is a LOT of lift. Is it safe to assume you'll be running 37" tires with full width factory fenders? What makes you sure you'll even need long arms?

OverlanderJK said:
Why do you feel your jeep will be so much heavier then any other keeps out there?
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Kind of what I was wondering too.
 
wayoflife said:
I'll have to look for it but you don't hear anything anyway. I mean, not like Dennis was interviewed about it or anything. It was filmed by guy who attended the Winter on the Rocks event a couple of years back.
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The funny part about this is Dennis didn't even do the repair to get back on the trail. Living in Utah I really wanted to be a Teraflex supporter. Hahahahhahaaha..... Guess that's why the first thing on my new rig was an EVO MFG sticker or two!!!!
 
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