Anyone using JUST Clayton's Crossmember for long arms??

[88justin]

im runnig claytons kit with about 5" in the front. rides great. i do 90% of my driving on road. the crossmember does make a great location to mount a skidd. i took the center section of the cross-member out and welded four tabs on.. Two on the front side, and two on the back. i made them out of some 1/4" angle iron... also welded some large nuts on the back so that i could run bolts up from underneath w/o using a wrench on the other side.

http://in.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph...hink im safe for now. i dont romp that hard.

 

[RCP Phx]

I couldnt agree with you more!If you saw my post from this weekend,I wheel with alot of TJ's and Rubi's and XJ's.Well they all drool on mine and one of the guys rolled his new Rubi!By the pics from Carpenter Id say the kit is definately lower than stock,mine is stock!Plus as you already mentioned a possible need for,mine are mounted inboard of the frame rail.That equates to less binding also!

 

[88justin]

http://in.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph...ic&.dnm=Dsc00048.jpg&.src=ph&.view=t&.hires=t

 

[Carpenter]

I've never had any real problems hanging up on the x-member. It hangs down some (no more than RCP Phx's) but not much and the arms make a nice leading edge up to them. The only way to make a better design in my eyes is to inboard the arms and make the mounts/skid flat against the frame. That would take alot of forethought and fab work though and I can't see the benefits, at least out here on the east coast. You could spend all that time and effort to tuck the mounts but the arms themselves are still there to hang you up. The only time I have hit the x-member hard was two weeks ago on Rattlerock in Windrock OHV, quite possibly the most technical/difficult trail I have seen to date (in person). I have a piece of 1.5", .120 wall DOM bent into a hoop coming off the back of the x-member drop out section that protects my t-case. I hit the x-member hard enough once to dent the tubing and bend it noticeably upwards. The x-member didn't budge. Long story short, the Claytons x-member is well worth the money.

 

[Safari Ary]

Thanks Wes, I'm sold!

Ary

 

[Johann]

Funny you bring up the purchase of the crossmember separately- I had been contemplating the exact opposite! I had not looked close enough at his web site to realize he sold the parts individually.

I like Claytons kit, lots of good feed back here and elsewhere but:

I have a flat clocked D300 for a tcase and want to raise the crossmember against the frame rails to take full advantage of the clocking (and the giant hole I cut in my floor pan to fit it)

Making the crossmember, raising the tranny mount, mounting the arms inboard, all in one fab project is attractive. Doing all the long arm work is less so.

I'll have to see what the arms go for separately. I wonder if splitting a full kit would end up being cheaper? You don't know me but it's just a thought.

 

[MrShoeBoy]

Ary you have mail. If theres any questions let me know and I will answer them as best I can or I can go and get more photos

AARON

 

[Safari Ary]

Aaron's X-member pics(sorry they're so big, I couldn't get them to resize):

Those were the best ones I think. They're so big that I don't wanna post all 6 that Aaron sent me.

Ary

 

[MrShoeBoy]

Danm thoes are big! Ary, do you want me to resize them on my machine and then send them to you?

AARON

 

[RCP Phx]

Thanks Ary!!!!Those are some good pics,shows alot of different things.Looks very simular to the Clayton set-up!

 

[Safari Ary]

Aaron, if you want to, that's fine with me. Your design looks a lot like Claytons. Anything that makes yours majorly different from his functionality wise?? Thanks

Ary

 

[MrShoeBoy]

He uses square tubing and I used round But other than that, I dont think so. The only problem I have found is that it eats upper control bushings on the axle end. Or maybe becasue I had never changed the UCA bushings on the axle end ever (they where dryrotted and cracked before I installed the LA). I plan on budgiting $15 or so for bushings per year just for wear an tear. The UCA work against eachother when at full flex and it tends to do murder on the axle bushings.

AARON

 

[Safari Ary]

He uses square tubing and I used round But other than that, I dont think so. The only problem I have found is that it eats upper control bushings on the axle end. Or maybe becasue I had never changed the UCA bushings on the axle end ever (they where dryrotted and cracked before I installed the LA). I plan on budgiting $15 or so for bushings per year just for wear an tear. The UCA work against eachother when at full flex and it tends to do murder on the axle bushings.

AARON

I was referring to your X-member...

Ary

 

[MrShoeBoy]

I was referring to your X-member...

Ary

I think they are pretty much the same. As I had said earlyer, use 3/16" or 1/4" box tubing or buy his crossmember because the 1/8" stuff I had is slightly dented on the passenger side.

AARON

 

[woody]

Where are these $15 axle end UCA bushings? I paid $35 apiece at the stealership for mine this spring.

TIA & sorry for the hijack

 

[MrShoeBoy]

Where are these $15 axle end UCA bushings? I paid $35 apiece at the stealership for mine this spring.

TIA & sorry for the hijack

www.rockauto.com They have them for $8 something. So I guess I should budget $20-25 to include shipping. Also I thought that NAPA carried them for $6 each or something.

AARON