Tj long arm kit

snipes243

snipes243

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Location
Huntersville, nc
I’m looking for options for my fathers rubicon. And I’m a little out of the loop on whats good these days. He currently has a rubicon express 4.5 and it is wore flat out. He’s been looking at a long arm kit. What does everyone recommend.
 
What you should go with depends on what he does most with the Jeep and what he expects from it.

where does the Jeep spend most of its time? Does he go OffRoad with it? If so how often and where?
 
It a pavement pounder or offroad rig?
 
I say just put new joints on the arms he already has, if unavailable, replace with hiems, enduro, or poly bushing.
 
Being that the jeep is up in salt country. Unfortunately Rubicon express's corrosion resistance is horrible, and all the parts are rusted out. I doubt they pre-treat the metal before they powder coat So it needs arms, shocks, and the coils need some work. So starting over seems to make the most sense.

He doesn't want to stretch it
 
I've installed dozens of the RE Long arm kits. They work great all said and done. But holy crap are they a bear to install with all the 1/2" and 1" drilling to do.
The Ironman stuff is pretty dang sweet and worth the coin.
Don't overlook staying short arm. It's worked this long just fine...
 
You can clean all that stuff up while it’s off and paint it before you replace the joints. For light wheeling I’d do that, or go with Rough Junky. I have an RC long arm on my XJ, it’s ok but could be much better.

The thing about a long arm is it’s actually a radius arm, this results in terrible wheel hop, and steering bind when it droops due to the fact that the axle is rotating forward. The joints are constantly being stressed in opposite loads so they wear fast. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good upgrade from short arm, and they serve their purpose well. But if I had it to do over again I’d have went straight to a real 3 link in the front of mine.

Not to mention if I want to service my transmission I have to remove the arms and that cross member. CavFab or someone makes a cross member with a removable center section for this.

But for the value, and light wheeling and beach driving, you may be better of just going with a Rough Country Kit.
 
Jody Treadway said:
I've installed dozens of the RE Long arm kits. They work great all said and done. But holy crap are they a bear to install with all the 1/2" and 1" drilling to do.
The Ironman stuff is pretty dang sweet and worth the coin.
Don't overlook staying short arm. It's worked this long just fine...
Click to expand...

This is true. Plenty of people still doing some good wheeling on a short arm. And Iron Man stuff is pure beef, and local.
 
X3 for Ironman. Have their adjustable arms on my LJ along with their track bar system. It’s heavy duty for sure..

I long armed my TJ, on 35s. Really wasn’t necessary. I wouldn’t do it again unless I had 37s or bigger.
 
I'm on Ironman short arms and 36's with 3" of lift. Keeping the COG low and wheeling with folks that know a butt-ton more than I do has done more for me than a long arm kit.....but then again, I'm just here for the likes :flipoff2:

20190809_115707.jpg
 
I'm not opposed to short arms, but the old man mentioned he wanted long arms. So that si where I started. But the only ones I have dealt with were the rough country long arm upgrade like @77GreenMachine had talked about. And the the older BDS poly bushing long arm kit.

I appreciate all the help fellows
 
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