any positive/negative reviews on the BDS long arms?

M

MaxxXJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Bakersfield CA
i was initially looking at the Iron rock offroad critical path kit, it was a kit i saw that would work with a 4'' lift, then i was looking to go with clayton... well their actual 4 link kit requires 6.5" of lift and their radius arms are good for 4-8" BUT seems like everyone is anti radius arms... so anyway the local dealer seemed pretty adamant about the BDS suspension and how good it is... so after talking to him and seeing his side of why the BDS is good quality i ordered their coils and long arm upgrade... now yesterday a guy i know who has a grand cherokee has went through 3-4 cross members and chews through bushings from what he says... he just hates the lift all together, idk if it was setup poorly or what but who has this lift and whats your opinion on it?
 
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Track bar single shear is junk.... i have not had any problems with the cross member yet, have heard that some have. bushings yes you will chew them up keep them greased very well and none petroleum grease will help. as far as getting replacement bushings be careful and get extra washers as well they tend to cup. love the front coil springs. rear leafs are quieter than some others but mine are starting to sag after a 1 1/2 years. i got the 4.5 lift on my Cherokee if you have a 00-01 you have to get the older trans mount even if yours isn't bad if you don't it shifts the transfer-case and mis aligns everything.
 
cnshoot said:
Track bar single shear is junk.... i have not had any problems with the cross member yet, have heard that some have. bushings yes you will chew them up keep them greased very well and none petroleum grease will help. as far as getting replacement bushings be careful and get extra washers as well they tend to cup. love the front coil springs. rear leafs are quieter than some others but mine are starting to sag after a 1 1/2 years. i got the 4.5 lift on my Cherokee if you have a 00-01 you have to get the older trans mount even if yours isn't bad if you don't it shifts the transfer-case and mis aligns everything.
Click to expand...

I have an 89 and supposedly they changed out the poly bushings for the oem style rubber ones on the axle side, I have a double sheer now I just got the cross member coils and arms. I already have a 4" lift I'm just converting to long arms
 
nothing wrong with Claytons radius arms, dont belive all the internet bullshit. They also offer a nice 3 link too
 
I currently run the BDS 4 Link Longarm Upgrade kit with 4.5" RE coils, RE Extreme Duty Track bar/TB bracket and 33" tires. Parts are good quality, cross-member is stout. Plenty of flex (too much in my opinion), I need to improve my front bump-stops or get some limit straps as you can see in the pic below.
No complaints from me, been running this kit for more than a year now, joints are still tight and the bushings are still in decent shape--might think about replacing them next year some time.

 
josefxj97 said:
I currently run the BDS 4 Link Longarm Upgrade kit with 4.5" RE coils, RE Extreme Duty Track bar/TB bracket and 33" tires. Parts are good quality, cross-member is stout. Plenty of flex (too much in my opinion), I need to improve my front bump-stops or get some limit straps as you can see in the pic below.
No complaints from me, been running this kit for more than a year now, joints are still tight and the bushings are still in decent shape--might think about replacing them next year some time.

Click to expand...

What's the travel on your shocks? 10" 12"?
 
I have gone through and replaced just about every part on my kit. I tore an upper control arm mount off the cross member. The replacement cross member I received is 1/4" thick where the original was 3/16", let me know what they send you. Personally I hate the kit, it has a horrible fitment and is a pain in the ass if you want to do maintenance.
 
When their engineer told me "eh, no jeeps axle is centered. As long as its within an inch your fine." I lost all faith in the company. The cross member was flimsy (this was a year ago so maybe it was the thinner version?) Im not at all impressed with their components, and it drove horribly.
 
Well I ordered it before i asked about it thinking it would be ok, so if it don't fit right ill just take it back and be like this is crap now get me what I initially wanted to begin with. Ill wait before I cut off my stock control arm mounts off. If shit seems fishy i won't run it.
 
Direct from BDS regarding my questions about bushings and cross members

"Thank you for your interest in BDS Suspension Systems. I we are well aware that over the progression of time there has been failures to some BDS components. We do use the failed parts which are returned to us under warranty to make changes/improvements to our suspension systems. We now use more rubber bushings matched with a forged style flex end. We have gusseted our belly pans more and as we get feedback from our dealers/customers we will continue to improve upon an already well made product line. I can assure you with a life time no fine print warranty and high quality American made parts we are committed to offering the best suspension money can buy. "
 
The fine print warranty is nice but last time it took me over 5 months to receive my replacement parts. With my Jeep being my only vehicle, it wasn't easy trying to get around. All the replacement parts I received had no changes to prevent future failures except the crossmember which was made from thicker metal.
 
My local dealer wouldn't allow me to wait 5 months. I'm sure he would order a new complete lift just to give me the parts I need. Or just fabricate a whole new piece himself. I'd be pretty furious if I had to wait 5 months for anything...
 
Trust me i wasn't happy, I do not know if it was the dealer or BDS that caused the delay as I've had horrible experiences with them separately. But unless you are running tons, and beating the crap out of your rig I would only worry about the frame side track bar bracket and control arm bushings
 
Long arms just came in! Cross member is all 1/4" plate, it looks pretty beefy!
null_zps2b303e20.jpg
 
I cracked their crossmember twice. They said I could return it and they would send me a new one but I ended up welding it since it was on my daily driver and couldn't send it to them like they wanted. I also bent my passenger side lower arm pretty good.
 
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