wayoflife

this is definitely the route i would recommend and i can assure you that you won't regret it. when the funds become available, you can upgrade at that time and/or go the route i did which is short arms and coilovers. either way, with the cash you save going with a standard 4" lift, you will be able to get other things that you WILL need such as a new front driveshaft if you have an auto and a rear driveshaft if you have a 2-door. of course, wheels and tires would be nice too

TarboJK

I'm not real worried about our warranty. We have less than 10K miles left on it anyway. and the stealership (as I've seen some refer to them!) hasn't been helpful to us on other things.

allterrain

My 4" short arm kit has taken me all over Moab and elsewhere and back home again in total comfort. Last weekend I was on a 3 day S. Utah expedition with another JK and at a rest stop he he confessed that it was almost too easy and he felt guilty at how cushy the JK was. I had to agree. We have both built several hardcore rigs and wheeled together for 15 years and we laughed at how we now had plush JKs.

Jeep Hound

the guys I 4x4 always refer to my JK as the pretty jeep...lol..

its basically a hardcore 4x4 out of the box and has many luxury features that their home made rigs dont have. not to mention i can go basically anywhere they go and they seem to just hate that..lo..

I am always told "you may not want to follow us cus we dont think you JK will make it" 9 times out of 10 I am pulling friends out of the mud and other hazards..lol

Foo

I like all Jeeps..but that's kick ass!

JPop

Part of what seems to always be remiss from the long arm discussion is what it actually does. Pig, Planman and WOL will all sing the praises of a lower center of gravity and minimizing your lift, but the conversation rarely, if ever discusses how a long arm suspension under acceleration or braking effects your instant center of gravity.

As WOL suggested a long arm lift isn't going to provide anything more than a nominal amount of additional articulation. He's totally correct and there are hoards of evidence that you can get some pretty crazy flex with control arms in the stock position.

Pig has gone into great detail about the ride characteristics of his long arm lift, how it feels softer on road or off and how it feels more planted. Again, what doesn't often get discussed is why.

Under power if you were to draw a line through your rear upper and lower control arms the point of where the two lines intersect becomes your instant center. The longer the lower control arm is the further forward your instant center is. What this also does is create an instant weight transfer from your Jeeps center of gravity at rest, to where these two points intersect.

Under braking your front control arms are going to determine the instant center. This weight transfer is even going to be noticed when engine braking in 4wd.

Here's a diagram that in part explains what happens when you employ a long arm suspension.



Lastly for my tastes, and what I've learned here is that a 4" lift is too much height when you can get a 3" or even less to support 37" tires and the driveline component costs of doing a 4" lift right exceeds the cost of a 3" long arm lift.

Flaxbourton

I know "necro'ing" a thread is probably usually frowned upon, and this thread has a couple of outdated items like WOL's coilover is now a FT LA i believe.

That being said, I was searching the forums trying to research Long Arms and came across this old old thread which was a treasure trove of information for me. Just wanted to give it one hell of a bump for the useful info it contains.

rubi08unlimited

necro is okay as long as you're not a nymphopyronecrobeastiphiliac (someone who has sex with flaming dead animals) I appreciate raising the old threads when they have great info. I am soo stuck on the long arm and I need assurance that all this holding out for the right lift is worth going a year without a lift.

Sharkey

WOL had the FT LA with EVO coilovers, but now I think he is running a pure EVO lever long arm lift with EVO Envy control arms...very, very sweet setup.

Flaxbourton

lol, what is that, 4 lifts in 3 years...?

Rubi08, I feel ya man. On one hand people seem to agree that if ever there was a jeep where teh SA might be in the same league as teh LA, then the 4 door JK is it. on the other there does seem to be some consensus that the ride on the highway will be marginally improved with an LA. Even here though, some people seem to imply that if you are getting 8 flex arms then those plus the long wheel base of the 4door JK negates most of that "pro" for the LA.

Also, I have seen many posts of some very serious flex shots from SAs. One recent one that I will go dig up had a guy comparing pics of his OME HD flexed vs. his dads LA (I believe it was a 4" FT) and you couldn't tell which had more flex to save your life.

I just don't know...