I have been on short arms at 4 to 4.5" lift for about 9 years. I ran drop brackets to improve the on road behavior but I did not like the rock anchor experience that drop brackets delivered. You can get short arms to flex tremendously well if you put some time into shocks selection and getting your brake lines long enough:
I found that the best money I ever spent was on good skid plates and then raising my rear shock mounts level with the axle center line. Cheap and a huge improvement in wheeling performance. Long travel soft springs (V-6 T-Bird) and good dampening (12" travel 1960 F-100 Monroe) shocks on short arms have been a great combo for me.
That said I am now installing long arms. I need more travel and I want to go a lot faster off road. With speed the steep angles of the short arms are unacceptable. Trail riding and crawling short arms at 4-4.5 was not a problem. Speed demands shallower control arm angles to keep the tires under control.
You might want to look at you spring rates and shocks before jumping off the long arm cliff. If your rates are below 180lbs/in and your ride is too rough for your tastes then your only answer is long arms. If your rates are over 200lbs/in you can easily improve the ride with less spring and more shock.
John
Edit: Dont get the metal cloak variable rate springs (I think they may be JK only, so it may be a moot point). Seems like a good idea but the small number of free coils at ride height give a stupid high initial rate.
I found that the best money I ever spent was on good skid plates and then raising my rear shock mounts level with the axle center line. Cheap and a huge improvement in wheeling performance. Long travel soft springs (V-6 T-Bird) and good dampening (12" travel 1960 F-100 Monroe) shocks on short arms have been a great combo for me.
That said I am now installing long arms. I need more travel and I want to go a lot faster off road. With speed the steep angles of the short arms are unacceptable. Trail riding and crawling short arms at 4-4.5 was not a problem. Speed demands shallower control arm angles to keep the tires under control.
You might want to look at you spring rates and shocks before jumping off the long arm cliff. If your rates are below 180lbs/in and your ride is too rough for your tastes then your only answer is long arms. If your rates are over 200lbs/in you can easily improve the ride with less spring and more shock.
John
Edit: Dont get the metal cloak variable rate springs (I think they may be JK only, so it may be a moot point). Seems like a good idea but the small number of free coils at ride height give a stupid high initial rate.
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