PDA

View Full Version : Rubicon Express products and support



Converted96XJ
10-01-2011, 08:18 PM
So I recently lifted my 96. Doing alot of research and pricing I built my kit to get what I wanted and to save the most money. I combined RE and RC products. Since this is my RE thread I will stick to that.

I purchased the following from www.seriousoffroadproducts.com. FrankZ on cherokee forum owns it, he is second to none with customer service and satisfaction. I will always turn to him for whatever I need for my Jeep that he can get.

RE 3.5 SuperRide Coil Springs
RE 3.5 Superride Full Leaf Springs
RE 1600 ADJ. track bar
RE TC drop case
RE Ubolt kit for D35

All the products are pretty beefy, I have no complaints on the leafs, they are a 6 leaf pack, with bushings installed. The coils are just as nice, with a nice silver finish. The thing I will note about these springs is they are a rate of 241 lbs. Rustys for instance is 150 or 180 for their HD. I am not sure on other companies but I am going to guess around the same. It does ride a little stiff. But this will let you put that heavy duty bumper and a winch on with little to no drop. I notice no rake on my XJ as others will say they have to put spacers up front. Now I have a heavy speaker box in the rear which could be leveling the rear.

TC drop is what it is, 4 1" spacers. It was however one of the cheapest drop kits I found online. U-Bolts are U-Bolts.

The thing i want to talk about is the Adjustable track bar. While design looks very solid, the one thing to take note on is the fact you have to drill out the unibody mount to 5/8". If you dont have a 5/8 drill bit plan on 17 bucks or so for that. Once thats drilled you can now forget about running any other track bar up front should you so desire, unless you replace that bracket.

I had a steering pop at first, that was my fault as I didnt have the bolt torqued completely. A week went by and a more prominent tick tick tick came while turning, and a creeeeeeeaaaaak if turned slow. hunted down with a buddy to the trackbar area again. so to rule out the unibody having a crack i put a bit of PB in the heim... noise went away. They are supposed to have a teflon insert that is self lubricating. This is where I called their customer service. And long story short RE pretty much told me to buy a new heim at around 30 bucks, on a bar that was only 3 weeks old.

I was also told the heims are only good for about a year or so. So plan on a replacement at the tune of 30 bucks every year or 2.

Frank saw a post of mine on it and contacted me and is sending me a new heim for free and I am sending mine back in, so its getting taken care of. I have read from research that others have the same noise issue and have to oil them about once a month and some do everytime before they wheel it.

Knowing this now and the maintenance I would have bought a totally different trackbar setup.

RE makes good products otherwise from what I have experience with, the trackbar I would search elsewhere for. Their customer service is not good at all from my experience.

Hope this info helps someone out there wondering about RE kits pieces and products.

prerunner1982
10-02-2011, 12:57 AM
Good post. I have always heard that RE was the way to go, however since they are under new management I am curious if they are still as good as there were known to be prior.

bluedragon436
10-02-2011, 01:00 AM
According to their new management they are still using the same manufacturing techniques and the same fabricators they were using before.. the only thing that changed was who was in charge and signing the paychecks.. So I would assume that would mean it is all still the same product and quality.. but I guess we shall see in the coming months!!

Skipper51
10-02-2011, 01:22 PM
Well I just ordered a RE1600 from 4x4 Group Buy and it is in the mail. I did not know about the heim needing to be replaces every year and the noise coming from the front end. :bang:

I am replacing the Rough Country-fixed LCA because where the bolt goes through the end the brass bushing is just a flat bar that they have bent where the ends don't even meet. There is space all around the bolt and my rig clunks every time I hit a bump. :thumbdown:

I will let you know how these two "upgrades" work for me when I get them installed.

I thought going RE istead of RC would help my DD. :sad0147:

Converted96XJ
10-02-2011, 05:50 PM
I cant believe about the heim joint either, that statement came from RE, every year or so due to wear. One thing to mention that just came to me last night. While trying to hunt down the steering noise I noticed that my axle was shifting while turning with the jeep stationary. I then looked and saw my Control arm bushings were toast, the uppers. Now what came to me last night is that with the axle shifting its pushing and pulling on the heim joint at the frame/unibody mount. This would cause premature wear and may make it rub in places it normally wouldnt if everything was tight. I ordered bushings today, and I have a replacement Heim coming so we will see what happens.

Although as I mentioned when posting and researching the issue I found others that had noise from it as well. But they may also have had worn bushings or issues they may not have known about causing it.

Just wanted to put it out there.

Still I am dissapointed that I am going to have to do a 30 dollar maintenance on it about once a year.. not that much broken down annually, but thats not the point.