What Is The Difference Between Cheap and Expensive Off-Road Suspension?

Cheap Vs. Expensive Suspension and What To Look For

We don't know how many of you are like us when it comes to buying aftermarket suspension kits for your off-roader, but when it comes down to it, most of us are just looking for the most bang for our collective bucks. That means that we're trying to find the best-performing, longest-lasting, highest-quality suspension on the market for the cheapest price possible - but is that possible? And what exactly should we be looking for in our suspension kits to determine whether or not they're high quality?

That's what we'll be answering today - come with us as we show you what you should be keeping an eye out for when you're on the hunt for a new suspension system for your off-road truck or SUV. With this info, you'll stay safer, drive better, and go further than ever before.

Table Of Contents

-Do You Need To Buy An Expensive Suspension Kit For Your Rig?

-What To Consider When Buying an Off-Road Suspension Kit

-Should You Buy A Cheap Or Expensive Suspension Kit?

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Do You Need To Buy An Expensive Suspension Kit For Your Rig?

One of the biggest challenges when you're trying to pick out the right suspension is just that there's so many of them. Whether you drive a Jeep, Toyota, Ford, Chevy, Subaru, or anything else, there are huge amounts of options for you at different price points and offering different things in their suspension kits - though, naturally, the more expensive something is, the better-performing and higher-quality it is, right?

In most cases, that should be correct, but do you really need a $5,000 suspension kit for a daily driver that may see the dirt a half-dozen times a year? Probably not, but that's a whole other story for a dedicated rock crawler, though - a dedicated rock crawling rig might have five grand just in shocks alone.

What To Consider When Buying an Off-Road Suspension Kit

So, then, what should we be looking for in a suspension for the purposes that we're building our rig for? With suspension in most cases, there is a give and take to performance - if you're looking to keep it on the budget-friendly side of your build, then ride quality, articulation, and durability aren't gonna be as good as the kits that will cost more.

Shocks

But if you're looking to keep it budget-friendly and still maintain a good-quality ride, shocks are the biggest thing to look for there. At the minimum, look for kits that come with monotube shocks, as they will give you a smoother ride and are much more resistant to shock fade due to cavitation compared to their lesser counterpart, the twin-tube shock.

Some budget-friendly kits will come with shock relocation brackets or hardware and will repurpose the factory shocks too, so if you can swing it, we'd recommend ditching the factory shock absorbers and upgrading to a monotube shock, as most vehicles will come with the cheaper twin-tube shock. Plus, if you're gonna be replacing the factory shocks at some point anyways, you might as well do it right away. With that said, if your vehicle already has a newer brand-name shock installed, from Bilstein or Fox or something equivalent, we'd just keep running those until they're worn out, just to keep the costs down.

Lift Spacers

Other things to look for in your suspension kit that will cost a bit more are kits that don't have any type of lift spacers for coil springs, struts, or leaf springs. The reason here is that suspension kits that come with coil springs, struts, or longer leaf springs, will be engineered specifically for your exact situation, and will perform better than just throwing in a generic spacer that won't offer any kind of increase in performance, except for ground clearance.

Factory coil and leaf springs are designed from the factory to work with your particular vehicle without any other suspension modifications, like a lift kit. Once you start changing the suspension's geometry and lift height, you start changing the handling characteristics of your vehicle, and spacers won't compensate for that. Replacing your coil springs or leaf springs with ones that are designed to fit the intended lift of your vehicle, though, provides better handling and performance because they're engineered to compensate for the new handling dynamics.

Heavy Duty Track Arms and Track Arm Brackets

So what else should we be looking for to get the best bang for our bucks? Well, a few more things, starting first off with a kit that offers at least a new front replacement heavy-duty track arm, and heavy-duty adjustable track arm bracket. And, if you can swing it, you should be shooting for a kit that has both front and ready replacement track arm and adjustable track arm brackets.

Under constant use or extreme loads while off-roading, track arm bushings and brackets can become a weak point and eventually fail, which is one of the leading cases of death wobble. So, it's best to just upgrade them right away, since you'll be replacing a bunch of other components at the same time anyway.

Read More: What Is The Death Wobble?

Extended Sway Bar Links

You'll also want to make sure that the kit comes with extended front and rear sway bar links, extended brake lines, and brake line relocation brackets when applicable. The extended sway bar links will retain the factory location of the angle of the sway bars, and if you're gonna be flexing your suspension out on the trails, it's important that you don't stretch out or tear apart your brake lines because, well, you're gonna need them to get back home.

Extended Bump Stops

Keep in mind too that as you look for those extended sway bar links and extended brake lines, you'll want to look for suspension kits with extended bump stops as well. Extended bump stops will help keep new, larger tires from getting stuff too far up into the sheet metal, which can not only damage the sheet metal and fenders, but potentially cut your tires wide open on the sharp edges - cutting brand new tires is no fun, so make sure the kit includes these.

Replacement Upper Control Arms

Next on the list is a replacement control arm, whether it's a standard control arm for independent suspensions or lower and upper control arms for a solid axle rig. Control arms will adjust the suspension's geometry and adjust for additional ride height with the new lift, but they'll also offer more strength than factory control arms and be much more resistant to failure because of prolonged use and abuse. Some control arms will also offer better flex joins to help aid with better off-road articulation, giving less feedback and vibration to the drive.

Should You Buy A Cheap Or Expensive Suspension Kit?

The more extensive you go with your kit, the more parts are going to be included, and the higher costs are going to be. But if you plan on really putting your rig to work, regardless of if it's on or off the road or trails, then it's definitely worth it. Like we always say, plan for the worst and hope for the best - build your rig for the unexpected, but also be realistic with what you intend on doing with it.

Read More: What Is A Sway Bar and How Does It Work?

Shop Aftermarket Off-Road Suspension Kits Online at TrailBuilt Off-Road

Don't forget that if you're looking to upgrade your off-roader's suspension kit, we've got just what you need right here in our inventory, with all the top-tier parts and components that we've mentioned. Check out our suspension store today and let us know if you have any questions finding the right kit for your needs - we're always happy to help point you in the right direction and give you the most control and comfort for your hard earned money. We'll see you out on the trails!