About the toe change, I saw comments about bump steer and only wanted to clarify what "I saw and heard" in the video vs what was being discussed; I am glad that I did as this excursion has been educational.
I will be testing out the steering limits at full jounce on the TJ soon, I just did not have the time before my last trip. If any would like I will post the images of my findings.
I do understand most technical things, when it comes to modifying vehicles but am also aware of my limits; I am always attempting to learn from others and be better. I had no idea there are such long standing, strong feelings about MC on this forum; please remember the last time I posted here was probably 2013.
If my comments were seen as "trying to dazzle" that is my failing and was not my intent; please accept my apology.
This is gonna be wordy but I post what follows in good faith to help you understand what MC is up against in this little corner of the internet.
These aren't the guy that takes his rig to the local 4wd shop to get a lift put on and then takes it to the trail assuming it's set up, or even the typical guy that puts his own parts on in the driveway with shock part numbers and control arm lengths he found on a forum post and hits the RTI ramp at the next local 4x4 event. This group is usually blending together parts from multiple manufacturers based on extensive research, spending HOURS with the frame on stands, cycling the suspension and lining things up down to the smallest line on our tape measures to squeeze every drop of potential out of this almost 30 year old platform. Some of us are chopping up our frames to move body mounts an inch farther from the rocks or relocating our shock mounts so we can run high end shocks with custom tuned shim stacks, and running TJ's in places that some people would describe as buggy trails. We scoff at most longarm kits because most of them sacrifice clearance and doesn't make up for it in performance due to poor geometry that isn't a net benefit over shortarms. All this experience and tweaking has resulted in a philosophy that strongly emphasizes a balanced shock travel, which differs from a lot of the industry as a whole that seems to emphasize total travel and droop, while being satisfied with uptravel equal to or less than what a stock TJ had, which leads to a rougher ride with more bottoming.
Our bump stops are tuned to within a washer thickness to stop travel at the last possible point before two things make hard contact that we don't want to. We know the places that come close together as the suspension cycles and in some places it's only enough to slip in a business card. We know what would make contact first if we took our bumpstops out, and most of us probably know what would be second if we addressed the first. We know which rear track bars work ok for an LJ but aren't so great on a TJ because the axle has to be tilted farther to make the driveline angles work.
A handful of complaints I've seen about Metalcloak that run counter to the philosophy and have built some reputational momentum against them:
-springs have a lot of coils which is good for free length (down travel) but have a longer compressed length where they stack solid
-the shape of the front track bar doesn't clear the front diff cover as well as some other brands.
-the front fenders have been reported not to add meaningful uptravel capability beyond a trimmed stock fender, not comparable to a true high line
Some other things people complain about:
-the hardest wheelers don't get as much life out of the duroflex bushings as they do a Johnny joint before replacement. Personally even if true I don't think that means there's not a place for them if they can offer other benefits.
-the marketing around the duroflex joint is seen by some as misleading, whether or not it's intentional:
1. Nobody can sense a difference in NVH between a MC vs a Johnny Joint
2. The extra misalignment claimed by the MC sounds great but the JJ already has as much as we can actually use so there's no real world benefit.
The new steering which is a subject of this thread, from the photos, makes it appear that the drag link and track bar are different lengths, which will cause them to have different arcs and cause bump steer. The TJ track bar attaches pretty far inboard on the axle, which means most T-links and crossover steering will introduce bump steer unless paired with most likely a completely different axle that puts the track bar mount farther out (because if you're doing enough work to rework the track bar mount you could upgrade the axle). That's why the Currectlync is still an inverted Y and it works well enough to be popular. It has enough dogleg to address some clearance issues at big droops, and the toe change and its consequences are overblown. If it was a big issue, we can relocate the sway bar link mount and run the tie rod on top of the knuckle which would reduce the angle and therefore the toe change, but that's not even the primary reason we do it...it's secondary to getting the tie rod farther from the rocks. The most sketchy TJ's out there from a steering standpoint are the ones with worn out steering boxes, T-links and crossovers.
What I fully recognize that not all seem to acknowledge is that most business owners want to make money and want to grow, and Metalcloak has done that successfully even without this particular subset of Jeep enthusiasts and likely will continue to do so. Making the changes that would address the issues discussed above could very well price out your typical customer and actually result in a net negative impact to your business. There are players already in that niche of "build the best thing I can even if it makes me the most expensive" that serve us just fine and will probably never be as big as MC as a result and that's ok, too.
I do work at MetalCloak but I am also just a guy. My post was not prompted or requested by my workplace; it is just an honest question. I couldn't use my old login as my email account that was linked no longer exists since it was a RubiconExpress email, lol.
