Upgrade question

[Mike]

I remember saying that. I can now say in all honesty I will never go bigger the 40's

...this month.

(I thought that I should fix it for you)

[Guest]

LOL!!! Good point....I also said I wouldn't go bigger than a 3.5" lift. I should change my statement to ....any time in the super near future? HA!

I'm glad you talked about the currie arms, as I was considering them a front runner if I didn't go with a kit. I'm still leaning heavily toward a coil over and tri-link system though. I'll start putting money aside for the project and continue to gather info. Thanks guys!

HOOYAH!!!
Dan

[Dukes69]

What do I want to do with my rig? Continue to crawl! I'm running the RE 3.5" super flex lift on 33s now, and want to get more articulation and get rid of my shovel. I'm not interested in a body lift, and I dont want to build a monster truck. I will never go bigger than 35" tires. I'm in an LJ rubicon, and I am very happy with the stock drivetrain; I have no plans to change gears or lockers from stock. I just want to articulate more and drop the shovel.

I've been watching other rigs and I'm impressed by the tri link rear ends and coil over front.

HOOYAH!!!
Dan

Crawling is fun . . .

Don't rule out a body lift. Nothing wrong with a 1 or 1.25 inch BL. If you want to get rid of the shovel, look into the Savvy skid (http://shop.savvyoffroad.com/product...&categoryId=16). The initial cost is a little high, but for what you gets it's a pretty good deal.

You can do pretty much everything in socal, even a bunch of the hammers on 35's. You can spend alot of money on trick suspension and coilovers, but it may not be much of an advantage over using nice short arm components and some nice shocks.

-Chris

[Tumbleweed13]

What do I want to do with my rig? Continue to crawl! I'm running the RE 3.5" super flex lift on 33s now, and want to get more articulation and get rid of my shovel. I'm not interested in a body lift, and I dont want to build a monster truck. I will never go bigger than 35" tires. I'm in an LJ rubicon, and I am very happy with the stock drivetrain; I have no plans to change gears or lockers from stock. I just want to articulate more and drop the shovel.

I've been watching other rigs and I'm impressed by the tri link rear ends and coil over front.

HOOYAH!!!
Dan

I have a Rubi tj on 35's with a long arm kit. My jeep is very much like yours. Stock drive train, lockers and axle gears. I did upgrade the axle shafts. I have a 4" Full Traction LA kit. It flexes great, and the hwy ride is better then stock. I've wheel'd with 4" SA kits. I like LA's better. I felt less binding, and the ride is better, based on seat of the pants tests. I didn't have to change my front drive shaft, but I did change the rear. Coilovers would be cool, but as well as my kit works, I'm in no hurry.

An example of the kind of flex I'm get'n.

[Materdaddy]

Short arms can flex really well. Here's my previous Jeep with the 4.5" RE lift using the rubber bushings, properly bump-stopped with no limiting straps:

[aw12345]

I remember saying that. I can now say in all honesty I will never go bigger the 40's

Fourties are the new 35's lol. Doing a bellyup skid is a good start to get some clearance. With short arms of any kind you do not get rid of the axle jacking, with longer control arms that is a nice feature too loose feels so much better

[Tumbleweed13]

. Doing a bellyup skid is a good start to get some clearance.

I agree. If I did it all over again. I would look for a LA kit that works with a belly up skid. This will require a 1" body lift. But its a small price to pay for 2" to 3" of center ground clearance.

[Guest]

I gotta ask. What's axle jacking? I haven't heard that term before.

Thanks for the info on the long arm kit tumbleweed. If that's the route I chose for the upgrad I will seek out one that accepts or incorporates a belly up.

Dukes, sorry I wasn't really clear with my statement. I was referring to a BL just to stuff bigger tires under the fenders. There are only a couple of "no BL required" belly up kits, but I'm sure they require dimpling and increase the heat to the floor. I will do the BL for a good belly up for sure!

When I look at some of the long arm kits they look like they incorporate a belly up kit. I have so much research to do!

I get Some flex out of my 3.5 kit.

http://youtu.be/8uF1ADpXejo

[dirtman13]

Long arms can flex pretty well too.

[aw12345]

I gotta ask. What's axle jacking? I haven't heard that term before.

In the front as well as the rear the axles will try to walk under the Jeep, in the front it will lift the front up rather rapidly, in the rear when climbing the axle will walk under the body and forward, jacking the Jeep up and also causing or aggravating wheel hopping when climbing steep ledges. Long arm and midarm suspensions that have the control arms as close to horizontal as possible are a lot less prone to doing that

[Guest]

In the front as well as the rear the axles will try to walk under the Jeep, in the front it will lift the front up rather rapidly, in the rear when climbing the axle will walk under the body and forward, jacking the Jeep up and also causing or aggravating wheel hopping when climbing steep ledges. Long arm and midarm suspensions that have the control arms as close to horizontal as possible are a lot less prone to doing that

Thanks! I don't recall seeing that, or at least paying attention to it, before.

[mrchips]

I have an 06 LJ Rubicon on 35's and I have the 6" Full Traction LA Kit but I am using RE 5.5 springs with the Tri Link rear, and it is an awesome ride on or off road. Articulation is superb and I have the dropped pitman arm , but have had no steering or pitman arm issues in the 6 years I have had the kit on the Jeep. Full Traction has not seen any of there pitman arms fail, they have been mostly RE in my experience,, with friends that have had failures on the trail. Me personally I think the LJ only works best with a long arm kit over short, it is just the wheelbase thing. As for bushings I have replaced them with the ball joint style from FT and have had no issues. It is pricey, but I think in the long run it was worth it,,,had to replace the rear driveshaft, with a Tom Woods and you have to reconfigure the exhaust due to the bell pan.

[Guest]

Most people that know me know I am NOT a fan of 4wheelparts; however, after reading Hook&Ladder's post about the RE suspension I started looking at RE long arm kits again. It turns out that they make a long arm extreme duty upgrade kit with, or without, a tri link rear end. The kit is an upgrade from the RE super flex short arm and will cost me (for the tri link version) around $2200.

What are your thoughts about using this kit with 4" springs? With the Correct Link system I have I can go up to 4" of lift without a dropped pitman arm, so that's not an issue (in theory). On the surface it seems like a fair balance between cost, height and ability. I know I will need a new rear drive shaft and a high clearance cat back, but increasing my lift by .5" should not cause too many problems in other places....again, in theory.

Thoughts?

[Tumbleweed13]

I'm running 35's with 4" springs, on my LA kit. Rubbing in the fender wells is not an issue. At full lock and full stuff on the same side, up front, I do rub the frame. Thats with 15x8 wheels with 3.75 BS. Its a minor problem. Just make sure the hard brake lines (especially the drivers side) are out of the way. Move it up and fwd on the frame and your good.

[brokenujoint]

I went the Currie Short arm route about 10 yrs ago and couldnt have been more pleased. Probably the best it gets in way of short arm. However, I wanted more articulation and ANY short arm will only allow so much due to the geometry of the swing of the arm. As the arm drops down it will swing inward... imagine a C and your starting point is in the center of the C. Go up and it will swing inward, go down and it will do the same. Problem is, after a while, your brackets get pretty sick of that and will fail.

Notice post #20 with the short arm. Look how the springs are not centered. Axle housing is pulling back. Bad for the brackets. Look at post #24. LA. His set up isnt moving fwd or aft at all.

Both of my rear uppers did just that. SO, I went to a LA upgrade kit from RE. Now the ride from a maxed out SA lift at 4.5" to a somewhat lifted LA at 4.5" was night to day. But, we arent talking ride quality. Off road? Yeah the arms can and sometimes did hit and do hit on rocks. The flex is MUCH better. The ride is MUCH better.
Conclusion:
Ride quality=improved
Articulation= improved
Clearance= compromised at times.

If I were to start from scratch and do it again I would do a Clayton LA with the mounts flush at the housings and 3 linked front and rear.
We ALL build our jeeps several times over the course of owning them and we NEVER get it right the 1st time, but in my opinion thats what I would of done.
Whatever you do, try to get johnny joints on your ends and dont do sway bar disconnects or a skid drop or a body lift more than 1". I have a 4.5 inch RE spring set up, no body lift, 35's and a currie steering set up with antirocks. Works great for me!