Long Arm Review: Give your Pros & Cons

[jeepme]

Was there any modification of the parts required to make this work or mostly all bolt together? Any mods to the arms/joints at all?

T!

Nope. No mods at all everything fit together perfectly. The onlt thing that scares some away from the Clayton x member is that it is a weld on piece, but id rather have good welds holding my suspention on rather than bolts. Here is the thread I started with pics
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23583&highlight=clayton/RE+long+arms

 

[KSXJ]

this should be a sticky!!!

 

[HillbillyXJ]

As I have not yet run this "system" I'm using the TnT belly pan with the control arm mounts and welding on the UCA bracket to make a modified hidden 3-link. Pics will follow, but will take a while as I might have to leave home for a while for work.

 

[xj-grin]

I am likewise useing the TNT belly pan, but with homemade radius arms (didn't want to both fabing stock axle mounts on my Waggy 44) -- still under construction, but looking forward to being able to provide comments... I can say this, the TNT Belly Pan is mui stout!

 

[nhrocker]

I run the TnT LA's with 7" of lift and 33's. The flex, ride, and durability are amazing.

When I first installed it I was on tires that measured 30". I dropped or dragged pretty much every part of the lowers and the skid/member onto rocks with no damage. The install went pretty much as they said it would, and any questions I had they were more than willing to help me over the phone. The clearance is great. With my 33's at full lock I still have about 3" before the sidewall would touch the arms, plenty of room for bigger tires. They're fully adjustable, so you can easily correct your angles and even push your axle forward a couple inches if you wanted. I run 11" travel shocks, and can use the full 11" with no problem. This rig is my DD and it rides great on the road. It feels stable, even at highway speeds.

 

[Root Moose]

With my 33's at full lock I still have about 3" before the sidewall would touch the arms, plenty of room for bigger tires.

What is the backspacing on your wheels?

 

[XJflexer]

I am running the Rock Krawler 6.5" long arm. Onroad manners are great. I don't use this rig as a DD, but I drive it at least twice a week. On the trails, the system hold up great! Very durrable. I'm not a mud person, much like yourself. I enjoy rocks and hills, etc. This thing has taken everything I've thrown at it. I broke one of the factory lower control arm brackets earlier this year, but had no damage to the RK system. At Crozet, I managed to bend the hell out of my front tie rod and track bar. I called Rock Krawler to see if they would cover the track bar under their abuse gauranty. They just asked me to e-mail a couple of pictures of the damage. Three days later, I had a NEW trackbar on my front porch, for free!

I would highly recommend their system. I would definately buy it again.

 

[TheOtherSide]

I am running the Rock Krawler 6.5" long arm. Onroad manners are great. I don't use this rig as a DD, but I drive it at least twice a week. On the trails, the system hold up great! Very durrable. I'm not a mud person, much like yourself. I enjoy rocks and hills, etc. This thing has taken everything I've thrown at it. I broke one of the factory lower control arm brackets earlier this year, but had no damage to the RK system. At Crozet, I managed to bend the hell out of my front tie rod and track bar. I called Rock Krawler to see if they would cover the track bar under their abuse gauranty. They just asked me to e-mail a couple of pictures of the damage. Three days later, I had a NEW trackbar on my front porch, for free!

I would highly recommend their system. I would definately buy it again.

That's some good feedback! Thanks...

 

[addction]

I have 2 XJ's. The one I built about 2 years ago using the Rusty's 8" long arm kit. It has been great, I haven't broke anything as of yet. I wheel it very hard on rocks & trails. It had some little things that I had to redo, the brake lines were too short, If I turn the wheel & flex it up they would pull apart. (that was after dropping them down as far as I could) The upper arms use the stock bolts & the bushings were 1/2" so I redrilled the arms & installed 1/2" bolts it quieted it down a lot. I also installed his high steer at the same time & I dont like the way that he designed it, I've broke the pass. side bolt 2 time & left the jeep stranded on the trail. The rear need boomerang shackles, if you had any weight in the rear the stock ones would bottom out against the body.

The 2nd Jeep I used the Clayton 8" long arm with rear coil conversion. His arms & brackets are unbreakable. Way over built, but that good. Everything is built to bolt on the front, but you have to wield everything on the rear. The bad is for $3500 you think that they would have designed a kit that you can use a tailpipe. I had to cut off the cat & install a new smaller one & install a o2 sensor in it & installed a 12" long muffler on it's side & dump it down after that. I called them & asked what to do & they said that you cant use a tail pipe, just dump it after the muffler. (I live in Missouri, it's not legal to just dump it, it has to run out side the passenger compartment) So when I have to have it reinspected I'll have to rig up something. (They moved the pass. side shock to the rear of the axle and the cross member & 4 link is in the way) The other bad is that everything is welded to the body, if you want to remove it (swap bodies) it would take forever to do so. Cut everything off & grind off all the welds. I've all ready swapped the rustys stuff on to a 2nd jeep body (I rolled it) that only took a weekend to do so, So if you buy the Clayton kit, you better be careful with the body damage, or have deep pocket's to rebuy his hardware. I dont think that his kit is worth the $$ over the rustys kit with leaf springs. But that's my 2cents.

 

[RWKHausSupply]

well I decieded on the full traction LA kit. My initial decission was due to the fact that they are a true 4 link with track bar, and geometry at 6.5" of lift is very close to stock.

Install was very easy. Very straight forward. I liked how the TC Xmember can be removed still without the arms. Also liked the track bar and brace.

During install I ditched, what looked to be questionable means to attached to the frame, bolts. You knwo the ones that everyone gives ya to attach things to the unibody rails. And just plug welded every hole to the rails, and stich welded the brackets to the rails all the way around.

Now after wheeling it with 35's on 15x8 wheels with I think 3.75BS, I found that the tires did rub at close to full lock. So I installed a 1" quality spacer on each hub. SO thats fixed.

Now after wheeling it only a few times so far. That I really like the stability of it and the predictability. At any speed I have had it at, it really absorbs the malls speed bumps well :looser: .

But there are the down sides, like the lowers do hang down some. and the lower arms do find rocks to slide on. But I honestly belive that on one occation that saved me a few hundred dollars of driveline repairs and trail repair.

Pro's....
True 4 link with track bar.
Stability.
Predictable.
Very beefy arms.
Very nice track bar bracket with brace.
Geometry and design creates angle where the front axle cycles Over bumps without any issues, rather then slamming in to them or wanting to push the axle back Under the rig.
If you need to pull the Xmember you dont have to worry about the entire front axle coming with it or supporting it and aligning it all back together when done.
Easily ties in to the cage if disired.

Cons...
Lower control arm brackets hang down.
Tire clearances
Small hiem at track bar axle end.
The need to allow about 8-9" of service room at the end of the upper control arm and main lower bracket mounting bolt. It slides out towards the side of the jeep (one each side) and just clears the pinch seam. SO when doing rockers you just have to remember this.


All in all would I do the FT kit again. Yes. Would I ever Shy away from a TNT kit NEVER! I think I would be Just as happy with either kit. Would I ever get anyother kit. No. Not that they are not good. But for the $ these two I believe are the two to concider. Not to mention Rusty's is a POS company that I have never had luck with AFTER they take your $... And to me customer service when it's after the sell, is the most important Feature (if you will) of any part that will see abuse.

 

[ROBZ95Xj]

What is the backspacing on your wheels?

he's runnin 15x8 Soft 8's with 4"BS and 33" MTR's

 

[nhrocker]

he's runnin 15x8 Soft 8's with 4"BS and 33" MTR's

What he said... Thanks for catching that Rob.

I just went and double checked since I've made a few changes since the last time, right now on flat ground I've got 3 3/8" clearance on the drivers side and 3 1/2" clearance on the passengers side. Again, that's with 33x12.5 R15 MT/R's on 15x8 Soft 8's with 4" backspacing. The steering stops are still where they were from the factory.

And similar to what ROBERTK said, I run TnT's stuff and definitely would again, but I'm also pretty sure I would have been happy with the Full Traction or Clayton's kits. I've run with rigs that run both of those set-ups and wasn't dissappointed by their performance.

 

[RyanM]

im running 8-9" lift with Rustys radius la's. they're OK, but like one other guy said, if i had to build another rig, i would def go another route.
it flexes pretty good and is easy to install. i also think the mounting system is pretty effective for the lack of welding.

the treads to make noise, and its obviously bad design, but seem to be beefy.
in the future im going to cut the upper links off and make a custom 3 link with a Xmember similar to those shown by CRASH and Jes, and use JJ's.

btw this is a Daily driver with 4.88's. i love it, no problems ever since i installed the parts.(knock wood).

like with any complete kit out there, its never complete, you'll always need more (steering box support, steering, etc.) HTH good luck!

 

[blk88]

I have the RK 8" kit and with cutting I fit 37." I just had the lift and 4.88 gears intalled. I'm breaking the gears in for 500 miles right now before I take it out. The road manners are great. I have flexed it on stuff in the city and it seems to do good. The only thing I don't like about it is that the front tires rub on the control arms. I have been told that with RK's XJ kits the tires rub. Good thing the arms are round and pretty beefy.

 

[TheOtherSide]

So..... any more? Lots of great info here. I'll have to go back and re-read the whole thing again.

Seems the TNT system is high on people's list... but it seems that people aren't buying the full TNT system, but rather buying parts of it and making the rest with other brand items.

Still wouldn't mind hearing more from Rubicon Express LA users...

Thanks for the great info... keep it coming a bit more!

 

[xjj33p3r]

Well, I designed my own long arm suspension in the front, with 2 lowers, and one upper on the passenger side, and heim links all around. It rides much better than it used to, but do to having no give in the links, harsh bumps are felt a little more, especially on the trail when you end up hitting a rock when you didn't expect it. Flexes great, rides great, but eventually, I'd like to install another upper just to be on the safe side, or at least carry a spare.

 

[RyanM]

get the TNT. you'll soon realize, as did i and others, they are one of the few companies that 'get it.'

 

[XJSpencer]

I've got the RK everything up front with 6.5" coils, 35's, Bushwackers, etc.

It rides great, flexes great, and will take any abuse you give it.

I expect it to perform great so I focus on negatives a lot. I'm also very particular about little noises. It's pretty quiet other than the unibody by the TB bracket.(time to plate it all up)

I need to maintain my LCA joints better. I also wouldn't mind another upper arm and a few softer bushings. When I hit something small and sudden, the lack of shock absorbing bushings is obvious...not irritating, just apparent. The UCA mount will probably get some minor welds to reduce any possible movement also.

I love that I can remove my coils by disconnecting my center limit straps and using the Hi-Lift on the front bumper.

 

[Root Moose]

I just did some horse trading to get another XJ and a TNT lift. It's not installed or anything but I've been reading up lately.

The other lift I'd give a real hard look is the Full Traction I think. Particularly if you are going to be doing any high speed baja / JeepSpeed type stuff. It doesn't tuck as high as the TNT but I like the idea of four links controlling the caster curve with suspension articulation for high speed work as opposed to radius arms.

 

[wyrdvans]

The other lift I'd give a real hard look is the Full Traction I think. Particularly if you are going to be doing any high speed baja / JeepSpeed type stuff. It doesn't tuck as high as the TNT but I like the idea of four links controlling the caster curve with suspension articulation for high speed work as opposed to radius arms.

To me, the big players seem to be Rockrawler, TNT and Full Traction. I don't own any...yet, but have been considering my options for a future purchase. I originally was considering the Rockrawler kit because of it's beefiness, but after looking into Jeepspeed and seeing that they use mostly Full Traction kits, I started leaning more towards a 4 link design for better high speed offroad stability.

So here's how I see it:
Rockrawler for rock crawling...(duh)
Full Traction for high speed offroading.
TNT for rock crawling and all you clearance weenies.