Long arms on a TJ

BigClay

BigClay

Knower of useless ZJ things
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Location
Winston-Salem
So what is your opinion on the best long arm manufacturer to put on a TJ? Three link the best route up front? What about radius arm four link in the front? Give me your opinions.
 
What are the goals? How much lift do you want to have, how much wheelbase, and how much do you want to spend?
 
If I were building a TJ I’d be looking at Clayton myself.
Rough Country/Rusty’s is good “off the shelf” stuff, but for any good wheeling and more than an occasional trail ride I’d look towards the quality of Clayton or the like. Could keep it local and go with @IronManAndy. I just ordered some stuff from him.

I say this with myself currently running a RC long arm and running other RC components in the past. It doesn’t seem to be the quality of others, but I also abuse it pretty bad. I tend to drive a Jeep off road like it owes me money...

There are also a few folks here that will build you a custom 3 link or Y link system at a fair price. I think @BUCKEYE PERFORMANCE INC. is one of them, nice guy.
 
I ran the Rubicon Express Extreme Long arm 5.5” with the triangulated rear on my last TJ and it worked good and is still under it and going strong 10+ years later. I’m not sure of their quality now that they’ve been bought out though. I highly recommend Chris @BUCKEYE PERFORMANCE INC. as he did the 3 link on my 06 Rubicon that’s spot on and works better than the Rubicon Express ever did on and off road.
 
shawn said:
What are the goals? How much lift do you want to have, how much wheelbase, and how much do you want to spend?
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Goals are to be able to keep up with the rest of CTBers that are going all out haha. Seriously, going from the ZJ to the TJ has been great for most things, but I miss the wheel travel of the long arms, and in all honesty, for the rear I think a stretch will be order to get a little more back to ZJ. As far as spend, @CasterTroy said he was footing the bill so budget is unlimited :D
 
shawn said:
It requires 4-6" of lift. :eek:
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Those are amateur numbers...you need to get those numbers HIGHER...like 8" (Yeah.....not liking that aspect)




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shawn said:
It requires 4-6" of lift. :eek:
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I had the Clayton's on the ZJ and it recommended 7" springs... I ran it on 3.5" and 4.5" with no problem, so I am sure that TJ kit can be run with smaller springs too.
 
Long arms with 4" lift and less than 37s will wind up getting you stuck more than helping on a TJ. You will wind up catching the arms on a ton, even 37s will get hung on the arms.

If it were me, I would do mid arms. Or if I was doing long arms on a TJ I would get a vendor on here to custom build me a set, off the shelf long arms on a TJ leave a lot to be desired.
 
It comes back to
BigClay said:
Goals are to be able to keep up with the rest of CTBers that are going all out haha. Seriously, going from the ZJ to the TJ has been great for most things, but I miss the wheel travel of the long arms, and in all honesty, for the rear I think a stretch will be order to get a little more back to ZJ.
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So is it safe to say that the fundamental design challenge is that you want more wheel travel, but you're sticking with your current axle and tire size?

Have there been circumstances on the trail where you were limited in what you could do because of a lack of wheel travel?
 
shawn said:
Have there been circumstances on the trail where you were limited in what you could do because of a lack of wheel travel?
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For me, yes

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DSM Turbos said:
If it were me, I would do mid arms.
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I'd love to know more

What are you thinking @shawn ?

I don't want to go 37's. nor 4+" lift, and I'm not considering a stretch (way too damn much involved)

I'd like more options though.
 
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CasterTroy said:
I'd love to know more

What are you thinking @shawn ?

I don't want to go 37's. nor 4+" lift

I'd like more options though.
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Long arms on a short wheel base TJ will get hung up on things, its not like a WJ. Rokeman and Savvy both make mid arms. Pretty sure the Savvy mid arms have been on some of their KOH cars, I can't remember now that I have been out of the Jeep life for a year almost now. In the pics you are showing, I doubt long arms are going to droop enough to get your tire on the ground, assuming you are looking for more downtravel, as in the pics you can't really get more up if you are already into the fender with the tire.
 
shawn said:
It comes back to


So is it safe to say that the fundamental design challenge is that you want more wheel travel, but you're sticking with your current axle and tire size?

Have there been circumstances on the trail where you were limited in what you could do because of a lack of wheel travel?
Click to expand...

More wheel travel, and tire size will stay in the 37" and less range, rear 8.8 is staying, front d30 is on bought time.
 
DSM Turbos said:
Long arms on a short wheel base TJ will get hung up on things, its not like a WJ.
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I am by no means an engineer, so you may have to dumb it down for me. How does the shorter wheel base of a TJ make long arms more of a hindrance than on a WJ (I had long arms on a ZJ and loved it)
 
DSM Turbos said:
In the pics you are showing, I doubt long arms are going to droop enough to get your tire on the ground, assuming you are looking for more downtravel
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Yes. I've cut the bumpstops to where the tire JUST touches under compression

20170129_153825.jpg 20170129_153811.jpg

I followed @josh$$ up that line (in the previous pics) and while he IS stretched....he's also long armed and no tire left the ground

 
CasterTroy said:
For me, yes

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I'd love to know more

What are you thinking @shawn ?

I don't want to go 37's. nor 4+" lift, and I'm not considering a stretch (way too damn much involved)

I'd like more options though.
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Looks like you made it, you just carried a tire.
BigClay said:
More wheel travel, and tire size will stay in the 37" and less range, rear 8.8 is staying, front d30 is on bought time.
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So if not a D30, then what? You're going to have big issues with packaging with 4" of lift, and belly clearance issues with less than 38" tires.
 
CasterTroy said:
What are you thinking @shawn ?

I don't want to go 37's. nor 4+" lift, and I'm not considering a stretch (way too damn much involved)

I'd like more options though.
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Honest question @CasterTroy. Aside from feeling tipsy there, what is holding you back? Assuming you have lockers, there is plenty of available traction to keep you going.
 
shawn said:
Looks like you made it, you just carried a tire.
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I'm not looking to follow Mosteller up bounty hill, but if I could get a little more stability, I'd take it. Not gonna just piss away money though, so that's where I'm hoping you'll share your thinking
Jody Treadway said:
Honest question @CasterTroy. Aside from feeling tipsy there, what is holding you back? Assuming you have lockers, there is plenty of available traction to keep you going.
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Just curious if there are benefits to doing a mid/long arm

Sounds like more drawbacks to LONG arm if I stay low and on 35's
 
BigClay said:
I am by no means an engineer, so you may have to dumb it down for me. How does the shorter wheel base of a TJ make long arms more of a hindrance than on a WJ (I had long arms on a ZJ and loved it)
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You will high center on the arms and drag them all over, your belly is much smaller, so you will be fighting the belly vs arms on what you rub and get stuck on.

@CasterTroy I don't think you will feel much more stability in the places you showed pictures with having long arms.

It is always a trade off of what you want when you go to long arms on a TJ.
 
DSM Turbos said:
@CasterTroy I don't think you will feel much more stability in the places you showed pictures with having long arms.
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If that's the case...then not wasting the money. I think Clay needs to do it though so I'll have a better comparison than Josh...(since he's stretched too) :flipoff2:
 
CasterTroy said:
Just curious if there are benefits to doing a mid/long arm

Sounds like more drawbacks to LONG arm if I stay low and on 35's
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I'm no TJ geek :flipoff2: or anything. But I see nothing lost going with a long arm AS LONG AS the crossmember allows better LCA geometry and the mounts are frenched into the skid/crossmember. So what if you belly up on something as long as it is easy to slide off of?
Look at 99% of buggies out there with a subframe. They appear to be losing valuable clearance. But the trade off is substantially improved suspension geometry when the link mounts are moved off the "frame" rails and placed in such a manner the link angles improve climbing.
Just food for thought
 
Just a hunch but I bet most off the shelf long arms the geometry if you ran the numbers isn't that great. I'm not sure if you can find somebody that has done though them on the off the shelf kits.
For the price of off the shelf, I bet though somebody on here can build and design you a better working system for about the same amount of money.
 
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