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Articles > General - Product Reviews > Brown Dog Offroad Ultra-Flex Rubber Bushings |
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General Articles - Product Reviews
Brown Dog Offroad Ultra-Flex Rubber Bushings
Article written by Dr. Jones
Date Added: 01/24/2010
Brown Dog Offroad?s 1? motor mount lift comes with either polyurethane or rubber bushings, but which is better? |
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 We?ve been running the Brown Dog 1? motor mount lift with poly bushings for a little over a year now and have been extremely pleased with the product. The durability has been amazing. As you can see, the poly bushings show absolutely zero signs of wear after thousands of miles of daily driving, dozens of wheeling trips, and no maintenance whatsoever. Because of that fact alone, I am still a big fan of the poly bushings. So why question the decision?
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It happened after someone else drove my Jeep. I?ve been driving on the poly mounts so long that I don?t notice them anymore. But when someone used to stock mounts drove my Jeep, he came back with ?Man I don?t know how you drive that thing. The engine vibes are terrible.? What?s he talking about? I don?t have engine vibes! Naturally I jumped back in my Jeep to prove to myself that he was wrong? But he wasn?t. The vibes are there, I was just, frankly ignoring it.
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A quick call to Brown Dog confirmed that they, of course, are on top of the problem (and have been for some time). Their high performance motor mounts are available with either polyurethane or vibration dampening omega replica rubber bushings. They rushed us out a set of rubber bushings to swap into our existing 1? lift motor mounts and see just how much of a difference they make.
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Our unofficial side-by-side durometer testing (squeezing both bushings really, really hard by hand) shows just how much softer the rubber bushings are. We expect the rubber bushings probably won?t last as long, but to be fair the poly bushing will probably literally outlast your Jeep.
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Because everything was still in such great shape, swapping the bushings in was a quick job.
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After reinstalling the motor mounts with the new rubber bushings, we fired up the engine. The difference? wasn?t immediately noticeable. Honestly we weren?t sure they did anything at all. In some ways that was a good thing. For instance, the motor was still held firmly in place which was what we liked most about these mounts when we first installed them a year ago. The motor doesn?t twist under load any more than it did with the poly bushings. At idle speed, and revving it up in the driveway, the engine felt the same. We were beginning to think we wasted our time with these bushings? then we took it out for a drive.
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Driving slowly around town, the difference is subtle but definitely noticeable. But when you open it up a bit and drive like someone enjoying himself, the difference is night and day. The 4.0 revving over 3k is substantially smoother with the rubber bushings. I didn?t realize what I was missing. Revving the engine up with the poly bushings is just unpleasant enough that I?d gotten so used to avoiding that rpm range. And in the process I?d forgotten just how much better then engine performs up there. For that reason alone, the rubber bushings are worth the time.
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 Final Thoughts
But what about the price? The 1? lift motor mounts with rubber bushings cost $25 more than the poly bushings. If your Jeep is a dedicated trail rig, by all means save a few bucks and get the poly. If you daily drive your Jeep at all, spring for the rubber bushings. Just do. They?re absolutely worth it. And don?t worry, you can buy just the replacement bushings to swap into the Brown Dog motor mounts you already have. |
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Thank You's!
Thank you Brown Dog for making another great product! |
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