suspension ?

i was looking at suspension systems and have seen a lot of debate about them. i dont really know what is better or what exactly the differences are so some schooling would be appreciated. i know what a 3 and 4 link front setup is but what i was wondering what exactly a radius arm setup is and why alot of guys bash it. i was looking at iron rocks " iron y" kit and rk's kit and was just trying to figure out the differences. also why would u run a 3 link instead of a 4 link especially when jeeps are notorious for death wobble. im not looking to start a suspension battle im just trying to learn a little bit about each one and get a few experienced opinions about them.

Google will help you out more than this forum will. At least initially. If you want to know the basics of how a suspension works, please just search.

And I'm not trying to start a debate either, but if you have general suspension questions, stop looking at the IRO kit because it does not fit in any category of conventional suspension.

It might even help you to go to the Pirate 4x4 forums and check stuff out since their tech is much more advanced. DON'T POST, just read.

sunburned said:

Google will help you out more than this forum will. At least initially. If you want to know the basics of how a suspension works, please just search.

And I'm not trying to start a debate either, but if you have general suspension questions, stop looking at the IRO kit because it does not fit in any category of conventional suspension.

It might even help you to go to the Pirate 4x4 forums and check stuff out since their tech is much more advanced. DON'T POST, just read.

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How is the IRO kit not conventional? Its just another radius arm kit..

bails85 said:

i was looking at suspension systems and have seen a lot of debate about them. i dont really know what is better or what exactly the differences are so some schooling would be appreciated. i know what a 3 and 4 link front setup is but what i was wondering what exactly a radius arm setup is and why alot of guys bash it. i was looking at iron rocks " iron y" kit and rk's kit and was just trying to figure out the differences. also why would u run a 3 link instead of a 4 link especially when jeeps are notorious for death wobble. im not looking to start a suspension battle im just trying to learn a little bit about each one and get a few experienced opinions about them.

Click to expand...

Death wobble does not come from your arms, it comes from worn out parts or poor geometry. More often than not, it seems to be caused by bad balljoints.

Just to touch on these but not get into detail..

Stock XJ suspension is a 5 link, or 4 link with panhard (trackbar). When you articulate the suspension, the trackbar moves your axle left and right - depending on how your suspension is setup, it may move the axle several inches. With 4 control arms, the twisting, plus shifting sideways, causes the links to bind up and you will have your suspenion flex limited.

A 3 link with panhard removes one of those links from the equation and removes the binding. You get more articulation. Also, it is easier to package - if you aren't running a stock style setup, sometimes finding somewhere to put two upper control arm mounts can be very difficult - the driveshaft or exhaust get in the way.

A 4 link uses triangulation and not a panhard to keep the axle location in place. You dont get the side to side movement with suspension travel which can be optimal for go-fast driving, and there is very little binding so you can get a LOT of articulation - but the setup has its own drawbacks.

A Y link or Radius arm suspension hooks the upper arm to the lower arm (or just has one welded arm), so its effectivly a 2 link plus panhard. easy to package, and you don't get binding up up/down movement, but do get a lot of binding on articulation (the axle wants to twist a little, and this will not accomodate it).

You can learn a LOT reading on pirate. If you have questions, and articulate your (technical) question well, the responses can be a wealth of knowledge. Forget the forums for now, start with the BillaVista tech page. Read there for a couple of days - he does not answer the specific question you asked, but you will walk away more prepared to ask the questions you need.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/

@ cal... I would say you covered it pretty well :thumbup:

thanks u had the info i was looking for. i just wanted to know what radius arm was mostly. i understand how they work i just wasnt sure about the lingo. when i think radius i think bent arms or rounded. not uppers fixed to lowers. i have tried to search pirate but on that site i dont even know where to begin. there is so much information there. and there is always of bunch of assholes on there that talk shit and you end up with 20 bullshit posts and then an experienced guy gets one post in and schools them all. im not really that great with computers either so that doesnt help a whole lot. im not lazy i do try to search and find answers but man i dont even know how to navigate through pirate. i try to learn by looking up products from different vendors and do my best to differentiate them. im just glad that there are guys like you who dont mind sharing a little bit of their knowledge. thanks

bails85 said:

and there is always of bunch of assholes on there that talk shit and you end up with 20 bullshit posts and then an experienced guy gets one post in and schools them all.

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People get tired of answering the same 15 questions over and over again.

cal said:

People get tired of answering the same 15 questions over and over again.

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Very true! Your post explaining that shoud be in the FAQ section or at very least be a sticky somewhere!

There are much better posts covering it.

Hell, there are much better posts from *me* covering it. I wouldnt even know how to find them anymore, though.

cal said:

People get tired of answering the same 15 questions over and over again.

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for a while there I had a file on my desk top that had the answers to many common (aka over asked) questions... I was just clicking and pasting my answers for a little while there

wouldnt it be better to keep links to the posts you have already written? that way you dont have 48 identicle posts cluttering up the search results..