link material question

[EricsXJ]

I already bought my link material which is 2.0" x .250" DOM for the lowers. Before I weld in my inserts I could sleeve the inside with 1.5" x .120 wall HREW that I have laying around. Is that worth doing or pretty much a waste of material and excess weight?

 

[rockclimber]

what size are your inserts? if you can't go full length with the sleeve, my .02 is that it wouldn't be worth it. especially with HREW, you wouldn't be adding much to it as far as structure.

but it depends on a lot of things, how long are your links, how low do they sit, etc etc. what kind of wheeling? for really long links, it might be worth it.

probably the only place where you are going to bend .250 wall is go-fast. thats where a lot of guys are running the double heat treat chromo, .188 wall. lighter and stronger than the .250 mild steel

then again, if you have the tube laying around, why not? the weight won't be much, for that size, the weight of the HREW is only 1.7lbs/foot. for a set of lower links thats like 6-8 pounds at most.

 

[EricsXJ]

Using 1.25" RuffStuff rod ends so 1.5" inserts.

that means the HREW would butt up to the insert. I would imagine a couple plug welds on each end would negate any weakness from not having the sleeve go end to end.

My lowers are a little long @ 44" eye to eye. They don't sit that low (axle mount is centered on axle tube) but any long arm lowers are going to be put on the rocks. This is a rock crawler / trail rig.

 

[rockclimber]

with links that long I say go for it. you're only adding 6lbs to each link. if you already have the tube, for the piece of mind its not worth not doing it.

 

[MoparManiac]

Sucks that you already bought the material.

Seen a few bent/banana'd 2" x .250" lowers.

I went with 2.250" x .375" lowers. Heavy, but my rig is a pig and to me LCAs are not consumables.

 

[Vanimal]

when my last control arms broke, they did it right at the edge of the internal sleeve, which was at the threaded insert.
After breaking those, i went to 2.0x.250" chromoly, which is quite a bit stronger than the DOM and not much more money. cost me $70 in material for 2 arms.

 

[garrett83]

By the time you grind down that 1.5" tube enough to get it Inside the 2", you could have gone out and purchased chromoly and been done with it.

 

[rockclimber]

when my last control arms broke, they did it right at the edge of the internal sleeve, which was at the threaded insert.
After breaking those, i went to 2.0x.250" chromoly, which is quite a bit stronger than the DOM and not much more money. cost me $70 in material for 2 arms.

but your outer was .120... his is .250... I don't see it breaking....

 

[shortxjdoug]

I already bought my link material which is 2.0" x .250" DOM for the lowers. Before I weld in my inserts I could sleeve the inside with 1.5" x .120 wall HREW that I have laying around. Is that worth doing or pretty much a waste of material and excess weight?

your all thinking too much....sleeve it if you got it, if i had it i would have sleeved her links.


the 2" .250 wall stuff is hard to bend. in almost three years she hasn't bent hers, and they've supported the weight of the jeep often. still....nobody regretted overkill. the weight difference should be negligible....

 

[EricsXJ]

By the time you grind down that 1.5" tube enough to get it Inside the 2", you could have gone out and purchased chromoly and been done with it.

Since its DOM I didn't think that would be necessary but after checking... sure enough that HREW isn't going to slide in freely. I am not going to take the time to grind down the HREW to make it fit. I think that answered my question.

While I don't consider LCA's to be consumable, its not the end of the world if I have to replace one. If it bends too easily to my liking I will consider Chromoly although I'm sure I will get raped as usual on the pricing. Around here its cheaper for me to buy my DOM online from RuffStuff and have it shipped over the hill than buy locally.

Thanks for the comments and opinions.

 

[RCman]

Sucks that you already bought the material.

Seen a few bent/banana'd 2" x .250" lowers.

I went with 2.250" x .375" lowers. Heavy, but my rig is a pig and to me LCAs are not consumables.

That's my front...
My front 2" x .250" wall DOM lowers are getting more and more frown faced every time I go out, they probably need to be replaced soon with something.
My rear 2" x .375" wall DOM lowers are doing fine, but are heavy as heck.

I wouldn't even bother with 2" x .250" wall DOM lowers again.

 

[MoparManiac]

I thought you had 1.75 x .375 lowers Bill...?

I could be remembering wrong.

 

[rockclimber]

Fwiw polyperformance sells the double heat treat chromo for a pretty reasonable amount.

 

[MoparManiac]

1.75" OD seems way too lame for LCAs...

Even if it is chromo.

 

[ROBZ95Xj]

No issues with2x2x.25 square tube lowers, when I 4 link the rear I will be using the same, maybee keep the 2" dom for uppers?

 

[MoparManiac]

How many times have you wheeled your jeep this past year?

 

[ROBZ95Xj]

More then you

 

[MoparManiac]

It's not nice to lie.

 

[ROBZ95Xj]

I don't need to

 

[MoparManiac]

Anyway, 2" DOM is overkill for uppers considering they shouldn't ever kiss a rock.

I used leftover 1.75 x .120 for my front upper and probably could have gone down to 1.5 x .120 (I believe Vetteboy used this for his front upper).