opening a can of worms! how to get more clearance on shock and control arm mounts?

[daniel_buck]

So yea, this is probably a huge can of worms, but in the future I want to eventually get some more clearance on the axles by moving the shock mounts and lower control arm mounts. While I was back home in Louisiana a neighbor gave me my first welding lesson, and as soon as I can get 220 put into my garage I'm gonna pick up a welder to continue learning.

But welding aside, it seems like it's fairly trivial to move the lower shock mounts on the rear axle towards the wheels, but what about the control arm mounts front and rear? Can anything be done about them without going crazy? Well, I guess crazy is up for interpretation, and since I'm asking, I guess my level of what "crazy" is, keeps moving farther and farther away. haha! Since seeing how easy welding is (It was not NEAR as hard as I thought it would be) The gears inside my head are starting to turn, starting to wonder what I can do about those mounts that hang down and keep grabbing on to rocks!

[aw12345]

You can re drill the rear axle mount holes higher in the bracket and trim them down to help reduce tire hopping.
The front axle mounts just weld a plate on the front of them as a skid and they will be fine. Outboard the rear shocks, trim as much metal as possible of the lower control arm frame mounts for clearance. You will find you hang up more on those than anything else.

[daniel_buck]

what do you mean when you say "reduce tire hopping", I don't think I know what tire hopping is. The only tire hopping I can think of is on a muscle car with alot of grip launching from a stop, having the tire hop up and down. How does this apply to jeeps?

Re-drilling and rear axel mounds sounds easy to me, and I could do that right now, I'm already setup to drill and grind.

[aw12345]

No worries, keep wheelin and you will find out on some steep climbs or trying to get over some big slick rocks what wheel hop is.
Tj's lifted with short arms are prone to it and flattening the angle of the rear lower control arms helps. to that you would either lower the frame side ( not so good) or raise the axle side mount.

[daniel_buck]

Ah, I have not had that problem yet, I've seen it happen alot, but not really on my jeep. However I have only been on 2" of lift up until now. Raising the axle mounts is what i want to do!

[curtis]

I did what they call a mid arm.,but it takes longer CA's . I think it is best in the rear to outboard the shocks, Replace the shock mount and CA mounts on the rear axle. And change the frame spring bracket. After that you can change the frame brackets and 4 link it. The front you can change the lower CA axle brackets, then 3 link it. Then all you need to do is coilovers. The thing is try and build it right the first time. After 40 some years I have never built one right the first time yet,so good luck. LOL.

[daniel_buck]

Yea, I hear yea, build it right versus keeping a tighter budget on it! And to think, when I bought my jeep, I didn't even think I'd ever want larger tires, thought fire roads and stuff was all I'd ever hit, haha! Boy was I wrong

So I'm gonna sit with what I have for a bit now, get some good trail use out of the setup, maybe weld on some skids for the lower control arm mounts. I know I eventually want to get rid of the factory transfer case skid, but maybe I'll just live with it for now, it eventually flattens it self out anyway, haha! Can't let this thing turn into to much of a money pit, hah! But now that I'm starting to get more and more into offroading, I know it's not gonna stop! So I guess it's wise to think about the modifications and ask around before I start buying parts, if they are gonna be replaced later on down the line! Like front control arms, I still have the factory control arms up front (JJs in the rears) If in the future long arms or mid-arms are the best, I'd best hold off on them.

This seems to be a very good resource for building jeeps, will definitely get input from the folks around here in the future

[DaK]

With the welding... please don't be a " I saw this done once", type person. Welding takes years of experience with the equipment and the material to be welded. In shop class we all thought we had good welds, the teacher came by with a chipping hammer and took out over 90% of our welds with a hit or two of the hammer. Chipping hammers don't weigh that much and he wasn't that big so that tells us the welds were crap! Also material burn through from not welding fast enough, welding too fast causes weak welds that appear good but aren't. Can't tell you the amount of material I burnt holes through.

[Tumbleweed13]

Welding is learn by doing, after some good initial instruction. The more stuff you build the better you'll get. Start with things that are not integral to you jeeps stability. Make custom bumpers and do some bracing here and there. When you are confident in your abilties, and willing to put your safety in the hands of your welds, then do suspension components,and other vital parts of your jeep.

[daniel_buck]

Thanks for the tips! Oh and yes, I plan on doing alot of practice welding before I do anything on the jeep. I'll probably be making some furniture items first before anything on the jeep.

[Gary]

Hey Daniel, If you want to weld some lower control arm skids on your jeep here at my place your welcome to use my welding gear. I've been planning on adding skids to my lower control arms also. If you want we can combine the welding with a Cleghorn run, Cleghorn is less then 10 miles from my place. Chris and Skylar may want to skid theirs at the same time?

[JK08]

Welding Easy… It is if you know what you are doing and been doing it for some time. Anyway yeah it gets easy with time and practice. Others have given you some ideas but anything is possible I have seen some weird things done with suspension and control arms. When you get all set up have some fun.

[jonah]

When I first started my project I hadn't welded in a long time and I wasn't great way back then anyway. So I read up, talked to a welder friend and got some tips, next I started practicing on scrap.

When I was ready to start welding the frame I still wasn't totally confident, so I would make a mock up joint for the actual weld I was about to do with the actual material I was using. I would weld it and try to break it. If it broke I would adjust my settings and or technique and try again. You will know when it is wrong, it snaps pretty easily. After a few attempts I got it dialed in.

The only thing I really know is it pays to make the metal clean and the joints tight!

[SkylarM]

Hey Daniel, If you want to weld some lower control arm skids on your jeep here at my place your welcome to use my welding gear. I've been planning on adding skids to my lower control arms also. If you want we can combine the welding with a Cleghorn run, Cleghorn is less then 10 miles from my place. Chris and Skylar may want to skid theirs at the same time?

I'm definitely down, but seeing as I've never even been a stones throw from a welder, I don't think this is something I can do on my own... I'm a hand tools only type of dude up to this point in my build.

[Gary]

I'm definitely down, but seeing as I've never even been a stones throw from a welder, I don't think this is something I can do on my own... I'm a hand tools only type of dude up to this point in my build.

I can get you started welding pretty quick with my 220 wire feed. Stick welding is harder, takes awhile to get the hang of that. Have to warn you though it can be addicting. You'll want to build stuff.