Hey guys, I've spent months of half assed research on who makes what as far as lifts are concerned. I've read "my thoughts on lifts" multiple times, and love it (sometimes ill read it like a bedtime story). I love going fast in the sandy, and kind of smooth sections, and also love to crawl, I'm surprised i haven't broken or bent anything major yet. id like to run 37's and a three (ish) inch lift. Who makes the strongest, toughest long arm kits?

another question, what do i need to do to the axles to run 37 and beat the snot out of my rubicon?

 

It's not about strongest, its about the joints and the geometry and the springs and the shocks and how they work together. The vast majority of major manufactures are going to make individual components that can take a beating.

If you have done the research, a better approach would be to say to ask for pros/cons of two different specific lifts you have narrowed your focus too. Besides you don't mention anything about budget.

All you are going to get now, is a bunch of people saying... this company is good, I like my xxx lift, etc...

 

I have a 4" bds lift and I just upgraded to 37" tires

I did a lot of research on running bigger tires without having to worry about what was going to break next...

you say you want to beat the snot out of your Rubicon?

I came up with Dynatrac Pro Rock D44 up front and the Dynatrac d60 for the rear, as my best solution...it's going big, but if your trying to go beyond the Rubicon factory stuff

the back axles are Dynatrac's and the front axles are RCV's

if you haven't already beat up or bent your current axle sets, you can raise a couple of grand from selling those...

goto northridge4x4.com, look under axle sets

if you buy the pair with ARB lockers etc. you can get a pretty good deal vs trying to build them yourself.

matthew

 

I'm no Evo fan boy but I do have their long arm kit with high clearance arms it it is incredibly strong and shakes off rocks like nothing

 

Teraflex needs to be out the window. Their brackets do have a tendency of breaking though they claim it's isolated (yet have made design changes to address a problem like that......if it existed).

As far as your axles.....throw those away and start new. With a phrase like "beat the snot out of", you may as well look at something with 8 lugs and be prepared to fab your own brackets and everything else.


For what you make it sound like you'll be doing- go to a shop who builds buggys, buy a buggy, or build your own suspension and axles. You can dish out quite a bit of abuse and quite frankly if you just piece things together and replace them as they break (again, going with the 'abuse' theme) you'll be cheaper doing it right and doing it yourself with pieces and parts instead of a "one-size-fits-all" kit.

Look at Abendx and Thedirtman, vfireman, etc for inspiration of where you should be headed.

 

I have no firsthand experience, but up in the northeast people rave about the Clayton long arms

Especially at the Jeep Jamboree's

Quite a few of the extremely modified JK's had Clayton's

My mechanic has been telling me that my next step should be long arms

I know just last summer I managed to bend two lower control arms, one in front, the other the back

What's the advantage to long arm vs short arm? I mean if I change the length of the arms isn't something else going to have to be moved?

Matthew

 

I may have oversold my wheeling style, I'm not very rough in the rocks, i try to take those slow, but I really have a hard time staying slow in the sand, I haven't pushed it past the stock rubi limits, although i drive harder than anyone in the group I four wheel with. I was thinking more like sleeve and gusset the d44's
I didn't even consider teraflex.
what are the pros, and cons of clayton, rock crawler, and evo kits? did i miss any big names?

 

We don't have desert or dunes to go flying through here (damn do I miss it!) so I can't say much as to how it holds up to that but I have incredible confidence in rock krawler. We have put it through serious abuse in the rocks, flying down rough dirt roads, catching air a few times by mistake. Their control arms are solid and heavy, their joints are sturdy. The jeep also handles a heck of a lot better.
Ive installed Metal Cloak, BDS, terraflex, Rubicon express, zone (doesn't even deserve to be on the list) and still favor rock krawler. My friends metal cloak joint fell apart after 2 weeks, and their control arms don't seem anywhere near as solid.

 

Each of the companies you mention have websites that show the components they use and how the brackets attach, I would start there with your research. I would also add genright and synergy to your search. Do some research on suspension geometry and you will be better able to see the differences in how each company does things and what will be best for you. If you are going to be relying on dana 44's I would not be that concerned with "the strongest" long arm kit.

You will also want to decide on what kind of long arm you are going to run: 3 link, radial, 4 link, parallel or triangulated? Are you willing to run a fuel cell? how about a custom exhaust? Are you going to install it yourself or is a shop going to do it?

Once you can answer all these questions it will help you to narrow down the kit you want or if you want to go with a custom set up.

Good luck with the build.

 

Building a car that can both go fast and crawl isn't cheap and full of compromise. Just look at the KOH cars to see what I mean... first few years they were built as crawlers and did well in the rocks, but not so much in the open desert... lately the cars I see out there are becoming more and more suited to open desert racing; thus, having trouble in the rocks. You can build to do both decently, just might be expensive and more complicated than buying a kit and having your local Midas install it.

First thing you need to do is be honest with yourself regarding budget and requirement. Go from there.