Fine...I'll play devils advocate...I'm bored and like to think I know what I am talking about 
Yup. You do seem bored.
I'd wager you'd be hard pressed to find much of a difference between 2.5" rough country lift (with coils) and an OME kits even with arms on the trail (hell even the spacer lift). All the Geometry is the same the only real difference is that the joints in the arms will last longer. Stock arms should last a couple years atleast if wheeled fairly regularly......mine where still fine and I wheeled a ton on them.
Sorry, wrong on a number of points. OME doesn't make control arms. Most of us just buy a pair of Currie or Clayton arms (upper or lower fronts) to adress caster and call it a day. And there is a definite difference on the trail between the OME long travel setup and an el-cheapo coil lift. Mostly that the shocks are better quality, and when set up properly with supporting parts (coil retainer clips and longer brake lines) the OME will get you more travel. You are however correct that three out of four sets of stock arms can be left in place on a JK that is running three inches of lift with no issues.
Ride quality is a different story....
The shocks on the more expensive kits will give a better on/off road ride. Coils too...that said if the cheapo kits get good reviews I'd probably buy them over a more pricey kit. Replace the shocks later....My twin tube cheapo shocks are still good after 3 years of DD and trail use....it rides alright...probably could be better but I don't really care right now.
my 2 cents you don't need to buy an expensive kit if a good cheap-ish kit will get you through. IMO your not changing enough suspension wise to justify a large investment..... That AEV kit is on a different level than these kits and more $$$
Sorry. Nope. The AEV is just aimed at a different segment of the market. As it's sold from AEV, the kit provides better on-road performance than an OME LT setup, but doesn't provide the same amount of suspension travel. If it did, they would be selling it with longer brake lines. If I tried to run stock brake lines on my rig with the OME setup, I'd lose my brakes about five minutes after I disco'd my swaybar.
You also sacrifice some clearance by using the control arm relocation brackets that AEV provides....but it may be worth it to you if you value the smoother ride gained by keeping the lower control arms closer to horizontal. Oh...and BTW....doing the OME LT setup properly won't save any money versus the AEV lift. They both use good quality components, built to perform at a specific level. Either way, you're looking at around 2K to do it right.
Zone makes some good stuff, good quality coils and shocks for the price, get the 3" with the Nitro's and LAUGH at all the silly guys running OME 
you will have tons o fun wheelin on the bolt in 3" lift for the time being, if you get serious enough to justify the expensive stuff go and purchase a more complete kit for a couple thousand that changes some things up.
See....here's the funny thing. That Zone kit doesn't adress centering the axles under the rig - if you ask me, an el-cheapo track bar bracket is a problem waiting to happen, not a solution. Just wait until the increased leverage applied to the stock track bar mounting location starts causing damage - or breaks off while you're on the trail. There's more to selecting parts than just finding something that'll bolt up - take the time to figure out what that part is going to mean to your rig's reliability. The Zone lift also doesn't adress the caster issues that will occur when you move the front axle further away from the frame. Sure, you could add a set of arms, a couple track bars, and brake lines to a zone kit....but what you'd end up with is a kit that's close in price to a proper lift, but still has cheap-arse coils and shocks.
**I don't like spacer lifts..they don't actually gain you any travel..they just bump the jeep up higher**
http://zoneoffroad.ca/default.cfm?fa=products&ProdCategoryID=3
I agree with you on the spacer lifts. On everything else....please limit your devil's advocacy to areas where you have the knowledge to do it properly.
Delco - to answer your first question....
If a spacer lift is all that your budget will handle right now and you aren't in a position to be patient and save the money to do a coil lift that'll get you good performance on and off the trail, then I'd look at Currie's levelling kit for the JK. It'll probably run you about $600 to do both front and rear, and you can run 33's with it.
Topic: What lift to use? (Read 4831 times)