Rough Country got its start making shocks for off-road applications and has developed into the go-to manufacturer of affordable yet high-quality lift kits and off-road gear. Once you have your Rough Country lift kit installed, improve your setup by including a proper suspension tune, sidebars and steps, and some upgraded tires and wheels from Morris 4x4. Read on to learn how these three additions will improve your vehicle’s off-road ability and everyday drivability.
Tuning Your Suspension
The suspension geometry of your vehicle was designed with a pre-established ride height in mind, so every angle of every part in the suspension is connected to the angles of the other parts. When you change your ride height, it can create all kinds of changes in angles throughout the suspension, and cause potential problems with camber, caster, and toe.
Camber
Your tire’s camber is the vertical angle of the tire in relation to the vehicle, when looking at it from the front. A tire with no camber (or zero camber) will be straight up and down, while a tire with positive camber will have the top of the tire leaning away from the vehicle. Negative camber means that the top of the tire leans in towards the center of the vehicle. Poorly adjusted camber can have a negative effect on tire wear, potentially causing heavily worn patches on either the inside or the outside edge of the contact patch.
Caster
Castor is the angle relationship between the upper and lower steering pivot points. With a positive caster, the lower point will be in front of the upper point, allowing for greater steering agility, but reducing on-center feel at high speeds. A negative caster will see the lower steering pivot point situated behind the upper and will result in more stable high speed handling characteristics.
Toe
The toe of your tire describes the angle of the front of the tire relative to the back of the tire, when looking at it from above. Toe In means that the fronts of the tires are angled towards the center of the vehicle, and Toe Out is the opposite.
Once you’ve completed your lift kit installation, you should always get a full alignment done on the suspension, to ensure that the camber, caster, and toe are within spec. Some experienced off-roaders even suggest an alignment after every serious off-roading session.
It’s also important to keep an eye on your tire wear, to check for unevenness in the wear pattern as a result of poor suspension tuning.
Adding Side Steps for Ease of Access
A good set of side bars & steps not only provide help when entering and exiting a lifted vehicle, but also provide impact protection for your rocker panels when you are on the trail. The other benefit is that they just look great on almost any off-road vehicle.
A basic side bar with built-in steps can provide great protection, as well as convenience, for a fairly low investment. If you want something a little bit more elaborate, consider automatic powered side bar steps that lower when you open the door.
Upgraded Wheels and Tires
One of the biggest reasons many owners upgrade their ride with a lift kit is so they can fit a larger tire and wheel combination in the wheel well. Not only do upgraded off-road wheels & tires look great, they also provide a larger tire contact patch and more grip in any given situation, and grip is what we're all going for whether we’re on or off the road.
Wheels
A new set of custom aftermarket wheels can bring a fresh look to your Jeep, while also providing a lot of practical benefits. Depending on the type of wheel you purchase, you can drastically reduce the weight of your wheel and tire combination, improving performance in pretty much every situation.
A set of bead lock wheels can also provide flexibility when it comes to lowering air pressures for extreme off-road environments. A bead lock wheel has an outer rim that bolts into the inner rim, pressing the outer lip of the tire between the two wheel rims and locking it in place. This allows for greater variations in tire pressure, without the risk of the tire unseating itself.
Tires
Your tires provide all of the contact your vehicle has with either the road or the terrain you are moving over, so it's important to invest in a good set of tires for whatever application you intend to use the vehicle for. A good off-road tire will have deep grooves and a pliable rubber compound to grip rocks, mud, and sand, so when it comes to off-roading, you’ll want to select the tire that corresponds to your most common driving environment.
Adding a Rough Country lift kit to your Jeep is a fun way to improve the looks and capability of your ride, and you can count on Morris 4x4 to provide all the accessories to help you create a unique and functional off-road machine.
