Getting the Right Lift for Your Overland Jeep with ARB Old Man Emu
Find me one overland enthusiast who has never regretted a purchase. I’ll wait. Now find me one overland enthusiast who nailed their first lift. I’ll continue to wait.
A Lift Kit for a Jeep vs A Lift Kit for an Overland Jeep
Almost two years ago, we had our friends at Bull Run 4x4 install the first lift kit on our Jeep Wrangler JL Rubicon. At the time, we were just starting to dabble with the concept of overlanding, and it was limited to a rooftop tent and the odd weekend trip. We hadn’t upgraded to heavy custom drawer systems, a winch, full auxiliary power system, or any of the other goodies yet, so the Jeep was relatively lightweight (or closer to stock weight).
At the recommendation of Bull Run 4x4, we opted for a MetalCloak lift kit for that initial lift. Now — a year and a lot of upgrades later — it’s clear that we’ve outgrown the capacity and capabilities of that MetalCloak lift. We have nothing against MetalCloak — they make wonderful lifts that are running on thousands of Jeeps. The lift we got from them held up well… to a point… and when that point was reached, it stopped being the ideal setup. The MetalCloak kits are largely designed for rock crawling and off-road performance for a Jeep that is not weighed down with additional accessories. But with the extra weight of overland gear on our Jeep Wrangler, we knew our MetalCloak kit was overmatched and had given up the ghost. Driving over a speed bump would cause the rear springs to bottom out on the bump stops. You could look at the Jeep from a profile view and clearly see the back was sagging dramatically. The off-road performance was totally shot. It just wasn’t made for this weight abuse.
It’s important to understand that different lift kits have different strengths, and you should budget for a lift kit designed for your intended use. If you just want to lift your Jeep to look cool while parked in front of Target, then a cheap puck-style lift might be fine. If you want to go off-road, you should invest in a quality kit from a company like MetalCloak. Plan to do do more rock crawling? Invest in a kit for that. And finally, if you intend to carry heavy loads off-road as an overlander, you need a different type of kit for that too.
A Lift Kit for Overlanding - Old Man Emu
What makes a lift kit for an overland rig vs any other lift kit? Mostly it has to do with the springs and the weight they are intended to hold. Many companies will tell you their springs are dual rate, but they won’t go so far as to advertise the load rating of the spring. This is one of the places where ARB is different with their Old Man Emu kits; they offer springs at several weight ratings / capacities to suit the specific weight of the vehicle. What’s great about that model is that you can easily swap out springs if your rig gets heavier / lighter without having to re-configure the whole kit later.
Some people have other ways of compensating for the extra weight. One popular option is to put a taller spring in the rear — so a 2.5” lift might have a 3.5” rear spring. Personally, I don’t like this option. The spring isn’t getting any stronger, we’re just accepting that it’ll compress more under the added weight. I generally don’t want to get into a situation where I’m using a piece of gear in a way that it’s not intended to be used — and using a 3.5” spring in this situation just defies the basic design principal.
Finally, we need to consider shocks. While they don’t hold the weight for the vehicle like the springs do, they do control how quickly the suspension compresses and rebounds going over bumps, and having adjustability in those movements can be useful to help an overland rig feel more planted and comfortable. There are a number of companies that make dual adjustment shocks (being shocks that have adjustments for the softness/firmness of both compression and rebound) — names like Fox, Teraflex Falcon, etc come to mind. But in those cases, you’re often paying for the name and fame. But look closely at the shocks and you’ll see most of them only offer compression adjustments, not rebound. ARB’s Old Man Emu BP-51 shocks actually represent tremendous value for the price — they have an external reservoir, dual adjustability, and include mounting hardware for the Jeep JL that serve as skid plates.
After several months of research and conferring with the guys at Bull Run 4x4 and Bull Run Overland, we decided the ARB Old Man Emu 2.5” lift with HD springs and BP-51 shocks was the best fit for our overland Jeep.
ARB Old Man Emu Lift with BP-51 Shocks: Initial Reactions
A few weeks ago, my friends at Bull Run 4x4 installed the kit. We were able to re-use some of the steering and suspension components from the previous MetalCloak kit, including sway bar link arms, track bar, etc. We swapped out the MetalCloak springs for the Old Man Emu HD set, which is rated for 195lbs per spring, and added the BP-51 socks. In addition, we used trim packers on the front and back passenger-side springs to help take up the “Jeep lean” that is a byproduct of gas tank, etc being located on the right side of the vehicle.
With the old lift from MetalCloak — notice how the back sits much lower than the front
With the Old Man Emu lift. Now you can see the rear of the Jeep sits much higher and more level with the front.
When we drove into the shop that morning, you could easily see the rear-lean that existed in Lola’s suspension. We had less than 1” of travel before we’d hit the bump stops, and it just looked…. bad. Immediately after installation of the Old Man Emu kit, it was clear how much more level Lola stood. The back and front sat almost dead level with each other, which we hadn’t seen since the day we bought her. It was actually a little jarring to see her sitting so level, because we’d become accustomed to the sagging look of Lola!
One of the owners of Bull Run 4x4, took her on a test drive over some gravel roads behind the shop and couldn’t believe how smoothly she drove over the rutted and whooped road. He wasn’t wrong — Lola now drives with a strong stance and feels more firmly planted. The painful jarring that I previously associated with driving on a gravel road has been replaced with a smoothness that’s hard to put into words. Rough roads now feel more like glass than they ever did before!
I can also tell a significant improvement in day-to-day driving on pavement. Most noticeable is what happens (or doesn’t happen) when I approach a stop light. Before this new lift, if I had to brake firmly (or even hard), she would nose dive so hard that you thought like you might get thrown out of the driver’s seat. With these new springs and shocks, she maintains a near-level stance during hard brakes, and feels overall more grounded.
The BP-51 shocks are super easy to adjust for varying terrain; on sand I can adjust to dampen the moon driving effects, and then easily modify for pavement. Old Man Emu sends a special wrench that allows you to adjust the shocks on the fly, which is convenient.
Another added benefit is the mounting brackets for the shocks have built-in skid plates to protect the bottom of the shocks. The rear shocks also have a plastic rock guard that has drain holes to keep the shock from collecting piles of mud as you travel off-road.
Conclusion: Old Man Emu for Overlanding Win!
While we’ve only got a few thousand miles on the suspension thus far, it’s very clear that this setup is much improved over our previous lift kit and we’d give a hearty endorsement of the Old Man Emu kit to anyone looking to buy the right lift for their overland Jeep the first time. The pricing on the ARB Old Man Emu kit is very competitive and I expect we’ll find years of exceptional performance in this kit.
ARB is a well-known brand with deep ties to the overland community, so I expect they’ll back up their kits if an issue should arise in the future. And this setup is available for Toyota’s and other popular overland vehicle platforms too!
Be sure to visit my friends at Bull Run 4x4 and Bull Run Overland to order and install your kit!