radius arm design question

Chuckman

Chuckman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2005
Location
Huntersville
:huggy:Ok heres the deal. A stock D30 for a TJ has a 5 link front. 4 arms and a trackbar. If you look at all of the radius arm setups that are offered aftermarket, they use the stock upper mounts cause they are there- and those uppers are mounted inwards. I understand why there are like that due to the way the spring/shocks mount up and the low stock stance, but is there a benefit to mounting them inwards if you were to lift one? I guess what I am asking is if you lift one 4" and were to do an axle swap, would it be necessary to mount the uppers inwards? I have mine setup with a radius arm and the uppers are in line with the lowers and it seems to work like a charm. But this was dumb luck as I did not have any other way to get around it- 60' chunks are biiiiigggg. I am looking at putting a HP D44 in a TJ and have a descent way to use a cast C axle, but I dont want to fab a mount for an upper on top of the chunk and want to use both uppers. I know about the whole binding deal with a double upper design, and I wonder would a set of uppers mounted inwards help this effect similar to a wishbone rear upper? But wouldnt they have to be touching in the center to benefit fully? Anybody have experience either way.
All of this assumes that I wont hit the uppers on the frame at full stuff and only 4 inches of lift....
 
Thanks guys, but thats not the question. Mine works VERY well thank you.
 
if you want to stay radius arm then just use 1 upper with very good mount it has been done many times if i were to do it id fab new links and have the upper welded to the lower link and gusseted well that setup does not bind and eat axle bushings. i understand that u may like your setup but my jeep was radius arm for 2 years and it finally ate the axle side bushings and when i pulled it apart to replace them i decided it was just a bandaid as all the other 3 links that i have done for others were just plain impressive and had much better bite and no bind so i tossed every thing and built a 4 link+track bar and ill never look back as that was the best thing i have ever done other than cutting up my d35 so it fit in my scrap drum.
 
So the Claytons suck because they use the radius arm design as well?
 
Mounting them with the uppers angled in ala every aftermkt jeep long arm lift actually creates bind and is not the best way to do it. It's just done that way because that's where the stock mounts are and there isn't much room on a d30. And as was said, radius arms aren't best (especially stock ford arms) but they've been proven many times over to work just fine.
 
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=568250 <<<This guy does a 4 link + trackbar. He says it doesn't bind...

When I 3 linked my YJ, I kept the upper parallel with the frame and have triangulated lowers. It does not bind. I thought about going with a radius arm but decided to do a real 3 link. However, if I would've gone with a radius arm, I would've welded my upper to the lower and ran a JJ on any contact point of the link.
 
Chuckman said:
So the Claytons suck because they use the radius arm design as well?
Click to expand...
I've had my clayton for almost 2 years now and the only thing that ive noticed binding is the tire hitting the top of the fender.
 
If you want to use the cast C on the HP44 Cage Offroad makes some nice arms/mounts with great flex.
 
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