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Who's the best High Steer Arm Mfgr. ??

ArcticXJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Anchorage AK
So i just finished a search, and found a wealth of information on dana 60 swaps... The only thing is, I couldnt find many threads adressing the ups/downs of particular manufacturer's high steer arms. My axle is a an 89' ford kingpin hp60. So far Ive deduced this much:

Blue Torch Fab: Looks stout, but is a bit pricey, and has more parts to purchase.

Sky Manufacturing: Very Simple Design, Solid chunk with no kingpin caps, and built in zerk, middle of the pack pricing.

Crane High Clearance: Very beefy looking, worth the price, and beautifully machined, but has interlocking design so that they only work with "their" knuckles... I dont have an extra 700 bones for knuckles.

OTT: All around decent, good price, but not very trick and dont seem as strong as some of the others.

Dedenbear: Awesome stuff, stout as hell, but expensive to boot. Another company who wants you to use their "knuckle/arm" combo.

Poison Spyder: Seems like one of the best bang for the buck values, but the company has a bad rep in my local 4x4 community.

What other manufacturers are out there who i havent adressed, that are worth a look?

Mainly what I would like to know is... who's running what, who's broke what or has seen it break, and what would be the strongest, most reliable setup, without having to sell my organs to pay for 'em... ?????
 
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Good Question................I am looking for 44 High Steer Arms and would appreciate any views of those as well.
 
motorman, judging by your avatar, weve got very similar XJ's...
 
For the Dana 60 kingpin, get the Poison Spyder customs ones, most high steer arms do not address the fact that they mount on a twisted angle which already uses any angle in your rod ends, Poison Spyder has them machined so that the tops are level and flat so that your rod ends will be in the center position, I have them on mine and they work awesome
 
I agree with Richard about getting arms, for D60's or D44's, with the arms cut at an angle so the rod ends/tie rod ends are level. As far as quality, it's hard to have a bad peice of 1" steel with a few holes drilled into it, just check for the beveled top. You also need to be able to get the holes at the right distance from the center of the knuckle so the steering works correctly with your XJ pitman arm.
 
blue torch arms are 1.25" and not cut at an angle. They make a spacer/insert misalignment bushing for the, and supposedly the hole is drilled at an angle to keep the rod end all lined up. Soooo.....this is the same effect as machining off, plus getting theeh misalignment bushing already, plus there is no removal of material, plus another 1/4" of steel. From what I can tell, no personnal experience, they are the best out there.
 
For the guy looking for D44 high steer arms, take a look at BillaVista's writeup on Pirate4x4.com. He listed at least 10 different manufacturers. I know when I built my 44 I could only find about three places and now there are a BUNCH! Jeff
 
My buddy made the highsteer arms for mad4x4...they are what I use, they are pricey. a solid chunk of steel with the caps built in and are cut on a 10 degree angle so the holes can be drilled straight , he gets about $300 a set
Let me know if you want pics...
as far as 44 arms....I bent the crap out of shakerbuilt arms and was offered no help with replacement cost...
 
Thanks for the info guys. Yeah, Im really leaning towards the Sky-Manufacturing Arms right now, considering how beefy and well machined they look.
 
BIGWOODY said:
as far as 44 arms....I bent the crap out of shakerbuilt arms and was offered no help with replacement cost...

Shaker's arms are 3/4" and the consensus seems to be that if you're hard on parts, stay away from his arms. He's local to me, and a really nice guy, but I wouldn't buy his arms. When I built my 44 I ordered arms from Sky even though I was under a time crunch and could have driven over to Shaker's place and picked some up. In retrospect I think I would have gotten the parts mike arms(www.partsmikeparts.com), which I haven't seen mentioned to this point. I believe that the distance b/w the draglink hole and center of ball-joint on his 44 arms is correct for use w/ a TJ/XJ/ZJ pitman arm. I would confirm that impression before purchasing, but it's somewhere to start. The Sky's were too long, so I had to run the draglink in the tie-rod hole and leave the tie-rod over the knuckle to get full turning radius.

Hope that helps.

Ary
 
Thanks Ary.
What do you mean "too long" ? As long as both arms are the same length, wouldnt it not make a difference??? Im puzzled...
 
ArcticXJ said:
Thanks Ary.
What do you mean "too long" ? As long as both arms are the same length, wouldnt it not make a difference??? Im puzzled...

The distance between the holes on the pitman arm, center to center, should be the same, or longer than the distance from the center of ball-joint to center of drag-link hole on the high steer arm. If the measurement from ball-joint to draglink hole is longer than the distance b/w the holes on the pitman arm, you will run out of swing on the pitman arm before you have reached your full turning radius. When the high steer arm is substantially shorter, it effectively reduces the number of turns from lock to lock making the steering "quicker", but also adds stress to the steering box since it's doing more work with less movement.

Ary
 
AAAAaahhhh, okay...
I get it now. Damn i hadnt even considered that. Good stuff man, thankyou! Thats great information-- the kind of stuff you (well, I, at least) always end up figuring out the hard way unless someone enlightens you beforehand. I will certainly base my purchase heavily on that measurment. I guess that really brings the poison spyder arms into light, seeing as how they have many mounting positions drilled into their arms.
 
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