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(Mar 06)

A Serious Matter on the RUBICON
Full-Traction's 6-inch Lift Handles Better Than Stock, While Offering Hardcore Rock-Crawling Performance

The folks at Jeep don't mess around. They understand that Jeep loyalists demand a certain level of performance from this legendary off-road utility vehicle, and they know just how to give it to them.

There are six different models of the Jeep Wrangler available, starting at around $19,000, and any one of them can be taken off-road. For die-hard untra-serious 'wheelers, however, Jeep offers the longer, taller, and more rugged Rubicon Unlimited. Right off the lot, this is a more serious off-road vehicle. It comes standard with a 4.0-liter Power Tech inline-six engine, Rock Trac 4WD system, heavy-duty Dana 44 axles with a 4.11 gear ratio, and a longer wheelbase, which all add up to some serious off-road action.

Of course, even with all the options piled on a $30,000 Rubicon Unlimited, there are still trailblazers who want more, and this is why there are magazines such as ours, to provide those technical options. To do this, we found ourselves at Super Duty Headquarters(SDHQ), where the folks were installing a Full-Traction 6-inch long-arm suspension system on a showroom-fresh Rubicon Unlimited. It turns out that this is a lift kit which is as serious a suspension system as the Rubicon is an off-road vehicle. Boasting a staggering number of parts, the Full-Traction 6-inch lift kit is a long-arm system that completely replaces the Jeep's suspension. For a true and correct caster curve throughout the range of linear wheel travel, the assmbly utilizes four-link front axle mounting. In the rear, a three-link long-arm triangulated upper bar pivots on a high-misalignment uniball joint, and this elimintates the need for a rear axle track bar. The result is incredible linear wheel travel and axle articulation without the binding caused by a rear track bar.

We were there for the three days that it took to install this kit, and though almost all of it bolts right up, this is a serious job for a professional shop, or at the very least a hardcore homebuilder with a lot of custom suspension experience. Regardless of whether you install it yourself or have it installed, the Full Traction 6-inch long-arm suspension system and the Jeep Rubicon Unlimited make a great combination, one that nobody on the trail will be laughing at.