The time has come... long or short arms, I can't decide.

Things I need:
New upper and lower arm bushings
Transfer case skid.

I just installed frame rail stiffeners and my rock sliders will be on next week... so I thinking of the next step after those.

I'm looking at Metal Cloak's short arms. Their Duraflex bushing sounds nice for both on and offroad. I could add a skid and probably be happy with that setup.

Or I could spend about the same amount and look at a TNT LA kit, or a Serious Offroad LA kit for less. The SO kit looks good in that I can service the underside a lot easier if needed. It has the Teraflex bushings (not sure how good those are)... the TNT looks like a PITA to install and service... so I'm leaning away from that one.

I like the sound of a nice smooth ride with the LA's. But I don't want it unloading if I get to that point.. I guess the SA will do that too? Not sure if that's even a big issue.

Thoughts on the topic?

Short Arms ride like crap.

Drop brackets do fix that, but still aren't great with more than 10-12" of wheel travel. Unloading can be addressed with a center hung limit strap, longarms instead of radius arms, or a suck down winch.

Do you spend more time on the highway being beat up by bad suspension geometry, or on waterfalls afraid of tipping over backward?

:roflmao: ^

Hey its a legit question.

My jeep spends more time on waterfalls that on the highway.

I'm not a fan of center limit straps or suckdown winches. they are bandaids for bad suspension design. not to mention they don't really do anything substantial. what are you gaining from sucking the front end down? or limit strapping it? with a d30 maybe 200 more lbs of front end keeping you down. its really not gaining you much. most people overlook the fact that a lot of suspension unloading comes from the REAR end not being setup correctly. weight transfer, shackle angle, spring rate, COG, etc. there is really nothing about the front suspension that can increase or decrease unloading.

OP if you are really wheeling hard enough to be worried about your front end unloading on steep climbs then you won't be happy with any off the shelf kit.

every bolt on kit out there has made some sacrifices for packaging purposes. the polyperformance longarm is the best thing I have seen so far, but it still has some drawbacks.

if you aren't wheeling that hard then get whatever longarm kit fits your budget and focus your resources on quality springs and shocks, which, dollar for dollar, will have a much more dramatic effect on ride quality than anything else.

also, I would stay away from the duroflex bushing as I think they are designed horribly and are nothing more than a marketing scheme as with most things metalcloak, but that's just my opinion.

i disagree with almost everything he said.

have you considered mid arms? brian at H.D.O. has brackets to do such a thing. torx in the nwchapter did a semi write up on his build thread of his mid arms.

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/Poly-Performance-Jeep-XJ-Front-Long-Arm-Bracket-Kit-p-20680.html

Start with these and work forward, I'm personally running a 3-link with brackets and I couldn't be happier.

Well if you want radius long arms I don't think there is any better kit then TNT IMO. Beefy and tucks up high compared to others. Install wasn't that hard and the service thing people try to make a big deal about is a joke IMO, how often are you pulling AW4s? I think the protection it offers is well worth it.

Anything over ~2.5" of lift I'd be looking at long arms or drop brackets.

Radius arms are fine. I did them (TNT) for the ride quality versus short arms at 5" of lift and I didn't want drop brackets. In retrospect, drop brackets would have been fine.

I'm not a hard core wheeler by any stretch, more set up for overlanding with lots of capacity if needed.


If I was building a new XJ I'd seriously look at something like the Notch Customs flares, a really small lift like OME or similar and then add a larger tire like a 295/70-18 or similar. I'd need to do the math on the specific combo.

Drop brackets at just over 2.5" ? Your arms would be angled the opposite way. And I wouldn't run long arms unless I was 4" +

Tnt long arm FTW!

RoyalXJ said:

Drop brackets at just over 2.5" ? Your arms would be angled the opposite way. And I wouldn't run long arms unless I was 4" +

Click to expand...

I wouldn't run drop brackets at 3"-4" of lift - not enough lift to make it work properly of course. If it had to be 3"-4" for whatever reason I'd run long arms.

cal said:

i disagree with almost everything he said.

Click to expand...

Everybody disagrees with almost everything he says.

We just installed a Clayton Long arm kit on my buddies Xj not long ago, it was very nice but he said it was kind of pricey.

Fwiw my short arm XJ at just under 4" rides great. In fact out of the 4 Xj's my friends have everyone seems to think mine rides the nicest. I got some very nice compliments from the local Jeep shop along the same lines as well. I will say if I was any taller I would want long arms though.
ymmv

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I need to start looking at more build threads.. if you like, leave a link here so I can find them easier.

I'm at 4-4.5" lift. I think I could get by with short arms, but drop brackets are a no go for me.. I just don't want to give up the clearance. Yes, my Jeep sees more daily driving, but I don't want to have regrets when I do go off road.

I've never heard of 'mid' arms... so I'll look for Brian's build.

Poly's brackets look nice, but then I'd need to configure a skid, Same with Clayton's setup.

FWIW, I have a 4 inch OME/DPG lift and use JKS lower control arms and stock upper arms. I could not be happier with the ride. It rides way better than my Dad's stock 4Runner. I asked Dirk about drop brackets etc. when bought the kit. He said try it first as you can always add them later. After I drove it I never considered drop brackets again. It did ride a little stiff until I added the armor. Then it rode great after the armor and bumpers were installed. Just my opinion.

Tony_SS said:

I've never heard of 'mid' arms... so I'll look for Brian's build.

Poly's brackets look nice, but then I'd need to configure a skid, Same with Clayton's setup.

Click to expand...

Brians setup performed very well at the Cherokee Crawl from what I heard and the pics I saw.

We are adding a looped piece of pipe off the Clayton crossmember and skinning it to cover the T-case. RamRod on here has the same setup.

That's why I like serious offroads setup... it has that t-case cover. Im just unsure about the tera-flex joints. I might ask if he will sell the kit with currie ones.

Here's mine, went from drops to long arms on about 4.5 inches of lift with 35s.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1076796