Longarms- Radius or 4link at 3.5"+ lift for towing a trailer?

The plan for the build of my 98XJ is for Expedition travel. So this means many miles of highway travels with a fully loaded rig and a M416 in tow. I have a set of axles I am building off the truck to swap in when they are ready (D30 with WJ knuckles,etc. /8.8). The intent of this build will NOT be for climbing boulders and rock gardens. Mainly highway pavement and at most forest service/gravel roads at the destination.

Goal at this point to to get to 3.5" to 4" lift after adding armor(bumpers, skids, etc.). The kit i have in mind is from Full Traction http://www.full-traction.com/products-page/xj-jeep-products/jeep-xj-3-5-long-arm-suspension-system/. I will be using a different track-bar and sway-bar discos.

**My concern is when I get to a lift height of greater than 3.5"(want to use long arms for ride quality purposes) which is better for on road feel, Radius arms like Claytons or 4-link like Full-Traction? It seems like a 4-link design would work better to keep the front end feeling "solid" and responsive.

I don't know if I am over thinking this but I want to do it one time and spend the $ once.

This will probably turn into a "radius arm vs. 3/4-link" debate, but that comes with the territory. And to answer the first round of questions, YES I did search Naxja and a normal Google search. Could not find any convincing arguments one way or the other.

IMO, I think you are overthinking.

In theory the 4/3 link set up should give better road feel because the caster curve is not fixed to the radius arm.

That said, at highway speeds the range of motion will be small enough that you would never notice the difference, IMO.

The number one thing I did on my Jeep for better road feel and giving confidence at the wheel was WJ brakes and steering. Y-links are vague feeling when stock and the steering wheel feel gives a lot of feedback. The brakes make the Jeep feel so much more sure footed when braking.

FWIW, I am lifted about 4.5" with the TNT radius arm kit. I pull a ~3500lb Starcraft RT at highway speeds.

If I had my time over I would get a 4 link with bent arms like the TNT setup. I haven't looked at what is available lately since I've been lifted for about four years or so now. Maybe that combination is available?

HTH

philagony, I am in the process almost of the same thing. Except it'll be an Apache Eagle tent trailer redone for off-road use. I made up my mind and chose the Full Traction 3.5 longarm kit. Its here ready to be installed, all the parts for an 8.8 and dana 30 with 4.56 and trutracs and a few other odds and ends.

cemeyer said:

philagony, I am in the process almost of the same thing. Except it'll be an Apache Eagle tent trailer redone for off-road use. I made up my mind and chose the Full Traction 3.5 longarm kit. Its here ready to be installed, all the parts for an 8.8 and dana 30 with 4.56 and trutracs and a few other odds and ends.

Click to expand...

Excellent! I'll have to keep prying ya for feedback on the progress and thoughts on the components you chose for your build. I do believe we are on the same page here. atriot:

That said, Root Moose, I will have the WJ brakes and steering setup on my D30. So the feedback from the steering and brakes will make any situation I encounter feel much safer knowing I have a well set up front end. You have some valid points, they are exactly what I'm looking for from this thread.

One other thing, if I was to go with the Full Traction kit, I've read places that the bracketry does not work well with Frame Stiffeners. I'm wondering if it would be okay to just weld the brackets for the arms on the frame, then welding the stiffeners around the brackets? Seems like the best way to go about it.

I'll have wj brakes as well and I will be finding out how big of a pain the FT kit is with frame stiffeners.

Just looking at it, I don't think it will be to bad.

There is a solid sleeve for the upper control arm that goes through the frame that will have to be longer because of the stiffener. I'm probably going to cut it off and make a new one of the correct length.

The other question is, I also got a FT skid plate. It might be a little more difficult to get things to all line up, but nothing a plasma and a welder cant fix.

I was torn between TNT, Poly Performance(Synergy) and FT. I think the fact that the TEAM race jeep uses the FT kit is what swayed me.

The other part I'm still torn on is how to do the track bar. I want to build it like the Team Naxja did, but I'm not sure if 3.5" is enough lift to allow the front axle to be moved forward enough so the track bar sneak by the passenger coil spring. Plus I'd have to redo all of the bracketry on the Dana 30 to accomplish this.

Maybe just use a JKS track bar mount and leave coil buckets alone?