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Good ideas and Bad ideas

Kinslayer

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Mission, BC
Remember, this is just my opinion - my opinion based on experience.

Good ideas:

Lockers
SYE's
Angle Shims (quick. easy. effective)
Spring overs
SMALL blocks (nothing beats stock spring ride quality!)
Drop link shackles
Adjustable coil spacers
Anti-Wrap bars

Bad Ideas

Transfer Case drop brackets
control arm drop brackets
DROP BRACKETS (in general)
BIG BLOCKS (lift blocks, not engine blocks ;))
Z shaped steering arms


Anyone else have any brilliant ideas?
 
You think Control arm drop brackets are Bad? But think Lift blocks are good?

:rolleyes:
 
swbooking said:
You think Control arm drop brackets are Bad? But think Lift blocks are good?

:rolleyes:

Yeah, SMALL blocks.. like 1 or 2 inches.

These items raise your vehicle up while insignificantly increasing axle wrap. Control arm drops are welding on peices of metal that lower parts of your truck. If you are raising your vehicle to a point were you need lower mounts for your control arms you should install a better solution, such as a long arm kit.
 
Really? huh, id beg to differ that, Ive seen MANY capable rigs with RE drop brackets.

and drop brackets are not just pieces of welded metal. Have you ever actually seen them before?

Take a peep at Ken's (4xSantas) rig, or Cal's (Cal) rig. Im pretty sure they do the most hardcore trails in California with their drop brackets...
 
Kinslayer said:
Yeah, SMALL blocks.. like 1 or 2 inches.

These items raise your vehicle up while insignificantly increasing axle wrap. Control arm drops are welding on peices of metal that lower parts of your truck. If you are raising your vehicle to a point were you need lower mounts for your control arms you should install a better solution, such as a long arm kit.

The only downside I have found is a little loss of clearance, They are beefy and greatly improve my ride.

My experience with blocks 2" and 3" are very very bad. So blocks no more! I agree with the rest
 
bcmaxx said:
The only downside I have found is a little loss of clearance, They are beefy and greatly improve my ride.

My experience with blocks 2" and 3" are very very bad. So blocks no more! I agree with the rest

What was your experience?

As for the mounts they'd have to be very beefy to hold up, and in my opinion if I was going to do that much work i'd do it right with a long arm.
 
swbooking said:
Really? huh, id beg to differ that, Ive seen MANY capable rigs with RE drop brackets.
Yep, plenty of rigs up here running DBs and almost all reviews have been positive. Sure, if you have the $1K to do LAs then rock on but for those with a tighter budget, I've always heard DBs are a great alternative.

- Jay
 
Kinslayer said:
What was your experience?

As for the mounts they'd have to be very beefy to hold up, and in my opinion if I was going to do that much work i'd do it right with a long arm.

With 3" blocks: bent and s shaped leafs, kept breaking add a leafs
With 2" on a buddies rig: really bent leafs, broken secondary, spontaneous loss and pretzeling of rear driveshaft.

If I notice any deformation in my drop brackets I'll make corrections. They are pretty thick and mount securely. I had so much into my short arm lift I couldn't go back and do it long arm. I and others are very impressed the flex it has now for short arms. We are going to do up the Mrs xj with longarms when the time comes, It is the way to go.
 
I notice alot of the "Bigger" trucks run Blocks, i've seen f350's runnin 8" lifts with atleast 6" of block in the rear!
 
nw-xj-scott said:
I notice alot of the "Bigger" trucks run Blocks, i've seen f350's runnin 8" lifts with atleast 6" of block in the rear!

4 inch blocks are factory on the Fords I think. The thing is with blocks is they are ok on the street, your not putting anywhere as much force on them as you are offroading. A truck used on the street will never spit a block or have the axle wrap like a jeep offroad sees.

-Alex
 
Ba-Riedo said:
4 inch blocks are factory on the Fords I think. The thing is with blocks is they are ok on the street, your not putting anywhere as much force on them as you are offroading. A truck used on the street will never spit a block or have the axle wrap like a jeep offroad sees.

-Alex

You answered my question even before I submitted it

Good Job :thumbup:
 
IXNAYXJ said:
Yeah, WTF? I know a lot of folks with DBs who do great off road; it's undoubtedly one of the better budget mods out there.

-----Matt-----

I'm sure they work fine - flatten out the arm and you get a better ride for sure and more down travel.. but what I mean is why goof around with a bracket that now needs to handle lateral motion as well as front to back motion when you are just going to chop it off when you realize you should have done it right in the first place?


85xj4dr said:
I saw this guy this weekend that lifted his fullsize chevy 3/4 ton with lift springs in front, but stock springs and 4 2'' blocks.:wow::wow::wow:

I thought that was more of a southern thing..

When I said 2 inch blocks were ok, I meant only one per side.

pSYChedXJ said:
Yep, plenty of rigs up here running DBs and almost all reviews have been positive. Sure, if you have the $1K to do LAs then rock on but for those with a tighter budget, I've always heard DBs are a great alternative.

- Jay


If you can't afford a grand for long arms you really shouldn't be lifting your truck past the limitations of the stock lower control arm mounts - the larger tires you can fit are going to blow up your D30 and you wont be able to afford parts for that either.


swbooking said:
Really? huh, id beg to differ that, Ive seen MANY capable rigs with RE drop brackets.

and drop brackets are not just pieces of welded metal. Have you ever actually seen them before?

Take a peep at Ken's (4xSantas) rig, or Cal's (Cal) rig. Im pretty sure they do the most hardcore trails in California with their drop brackets...

I'm sure with enough metal and fabrication you can make anything work.. Yeah i've seen them and they look rediculous. Have you seen or wheeled an xj with a long arm?

bcmaxx said:
With 3" blocks: bent and s shaped leafs, kept breaking add a leafs
With 2" on a buddies rig: really bent leafs, broken secondary, spontaneous loss and pretzeling of rear driveshaft.

If I notice any deformation in my drop brackets I'll make corrections. They are pretty thick and mount securely. I had so much into my short arm lift I couldn't go back and do it long arm. I and others are very impressed the flex it has now for short arms. We are going to do up the Mrs xj with longarms when the time comes, It is the way to go.

What BRAND of leafs? I have Rubicon Express 3 inch leafs with 2 inch blocks, and have run them for a year with no issues whatsoever. How much could you possibly have into a short arm kit that you couldn't recoup? 400 bucks tops for uppers and lowers..everything else works with a long arm kit..


Try doing this with a shortarm: (that's a 36 inch TSL, and those are 7.5inch RE coils falling out there..)

nicksxj.jpg


Not saying that shortarms are shit but when you get over 6 inches don't even bother with them..and adding a drop bracket is just prolonging the pain. a grand for a longarm kit is cheap compared to 400 for control arms and then however much more for these brackets, I don't know the price but if it's from Rubicon Express it sure as shit ain't cheap!
 
nw-xj-scott said:
I notice alot of the "Bigger" trucks run Blocks, i've seen f350's runnin 8" lifts with atleast 6" of block in the rear!
Ba-Riedo said:
4 inch blocks are factory on the Fords I think. The thing is with blocks is they are ok on the street, your not putting anywhere as much force on them as you are offroading. A truck used on the street will never spit a block or have the axle wrap like a jeep offroad sees.

-Alex

You arn't allowed more than 4 inch blocks up here in Canada, and no blocks in the front.

You see big blocks on superdutys because no one actually wheels them,they just want big heat-score drug dealer trucks to drive around in to look cool. No to mention with the leaf pack of a 1ton dually you don't really need to worry about axle wrap.
 
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