Strange LIFT kit idea....

There is a guy around town that drives a 2 door XJ around with 35" tires and stock gears. I found that to be interesting in itself. Anyways, He has a total of 6 inches of lift. 3 inches are from some sort of store purchased lift, and three inches comes from his own custom fabrication.

The three inches that he fabricated is something I've never seen before and I was wondering what you all think about this idea. What he did was literaly cut his upper and lower control arms in half and welded a 3" spacer into the stock control arms. The spacers follow the design of the stock control arms shape (ya know, the strange shape). This forces 3 inches of lift.

Here is what I think: Being that the weight of the vehicel now rests completly on the control arm bushings, I think that it is a weak link design. If he ever hit any good bumps off road, I would assume that the force would snap those welds on the control arms like twigs.....Am I right??? I would guess that he has never had this problem being that his XJ is never muddy.

I could be completely wrong in this due to the fact that I have never seen it done before, but I was just curios as to how you all felt about it.

Brian

wait how does the the control arms being cut and half and then adding a 3 inch spacer into the control arms, create lift. That would just push the axle forward, right?

I don't understand, lengthening the control arms will not get you any lift, he must have 6 in springs and just add length to the control arms to get the wheel base back. sounds spooky though.


Sorry Wondo, but looks like we have the same idea though.

I guess not because of the upper control arms pushing downward. Not sure exactly how it works but it does. He is sitting on 35" tires and plenty of clearence with minimal trimming and 3" lift coils in front. Somehow the force is stableizing the body upward.

Wondo said:

wait how does the the control arms being cut and half and then adding a 3 inch spacer into the control arms, create lift. That would just push the axle forward, right?

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Right, all a 3" "Spacer" put in the middle of the arm would do is push the axle forward 3". From what you are saying, he basically made a mid arm, but without moving the mounting point back, I don't know if you could even drive with that kind of setup. You sure thats what he did?????

HaZakated said:

I guess not because of the upper control arms pushing downward. Not sure exactly how it works but it does. He is sitting on 35" tires and plenty of clearence with minimal trimming and 3" lift coils in front. Somehow the force is stableizing the body upward.

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The control arms don't push down at all.
Are you sure he didn't just put a 3 inch spacer above the spring, that would give lift.

Unless his buddy and him are all out lying about the 3" coil springs. Iv'e heard XJ'ers around town talk of this lift and they confirm that this somehow provides lift. Has anyone ever heard of this??

After trying very diligently to visualize how any modification to the control arms could pssibly cause lifting of the vehicle, I gave up.

I'd say it's flat out impossible.

(Which means he probably did it and I'm too dumb to figure out how it works. But if that's the case, at least I'm in good company.)

I will let this thread go for a while and wait for someone that has seen this done. Mabey there is another step to this, but the way it was shown to me is that all he did was add the 3" spacer to the control arms. Don't see any reason why he would lie to me over something like that. Of course, I've heard some crazy shit in my life so anything is possible. He is younger so it is possible that he simply let somone else install his lift and doesn't know what he is talking about when he explains it.

HaZakated said:

Unless his buddy and him are all out lying about the 3" coil springs. Iv'e heard XJ'ers around town talk of this lift and they confirm that this somehow provides lift. Has anyone ever heard of this??

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i've also heard people insist they put a body lift on their XJ.

either he is lying or you missed something. it just doesn't work as you're describing.

Next time you see the rig, actually take a look at it and report back to us.......... :wierd:

The ride height is set by the springs and spacers, adding length to the contol arms shouldn't lift anything. Maybe if you only added the lentgh to the upper, but that throw off pinion angles so much that it couldn't work.

Something else is going on to get those 35's under there.

.02

Daryl

I am sure that he didn't put a spacer above the spring. The control arms were cut in half with an added spacer of which he claims gives him his lift. There is another forum user here on who is a mechanic that has also seen this XJ and checked it out. I talk to him on a frequent basis. I will ask him to try and explain it on this thread tomorrow. Mabey he can give a better description of how it works.

Now that the Eagle has spoken, I'm starting to lean towards the idea that mabey this kid didn't know exactly how his XJ was lifted and passes it off like he does. I have found much wisdom in Eagle since I have been here on Naxja forums, and tend to trust what he thinks about the matter.

Brian

91 Jeep Project said:

Next time you see the rig, actually take a look at it and report back to us.......... :wierd:

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same here, i'd like to know what he's done too, cause I don't get it

Def. take pictures the next time you see him/his XJ. I mean I could put on the longest control arms/long arms you can find, but all its gunna do is relocate the axle forward. I'm trying to picture it, but i just dont understand how it'd provide lift. Oh well if you see it, take pics so we can see.

-Wondo

Cutting all the MOUNTS off the axle (springs included) and using spacers to reweld them on higher will give lift (seen it done).



Cutting and re-welding stock control arms is begging for failure. The spacer will NEVER flex at the same rate as the stock chunks, so as it twists there will be alot of force on the area beside the welds. He would have to be a VERY VERY good welder to not have weakened the metal while welding, and if he was that good a welder he would have fabbed propper arms.
A guy I know had the same type of butcherd arm setup on his XJ and he was pissed that I refused to wheel with him. They are perfectly safe he claimed. To his credit the arms held up to hard use for 5 months, at which point they failed on the highway and put him in the ditch. He was lucky he was at a spot that had a field beside the road. On most roads around here he would be dead.

Chris S said:

Cutting all the MOUNTS off the axle (springs included) and using spacers to reweld them on higher will give lift (seen it done).

Cutting and re-welding stock control arms is begging for failure. The spacer will NEVER flex at the same rate as the stock chunks, so as it twists there will be alot of force on the area beside the welds. He would have to be a VERY VERY good welder to not have weakened the metal while welding, and if he was that good a welder he would have fabbed propper arms.
A guy I know had the same type of butcherd arm setup on his XJ and he was pissed that I refused to wheel with him. They are perfectly safe he claimed. To his credit the arms held up to hard use for 5 months, at which point they failed on the highway and put him in the ditch. He was lucky he was at a spot that had a field beside the road. On most roads around here he would be dead.

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Thank you!!! I was hoping that I wasn't crazy....LOL.

He either 1. Doesn't know what he is talking about, 2. Is trying to sound too technical for his own good

He may just have longer springs than he thought he did. With 3" springs, his control arms wouldn't need to be modified, and adding 3" to them just streches the wheel base too much for just 3" of lift. Take a closer look at it or some pictures to see what this dude is keeping secret.

there is no way for the control arms to lift a vehicle lets think about it for a second. The axle controls the vertical distance between the body by the coils = lift , all your control arms do is control where the axle sits in horizontal location to your body. if you move or change the control arms think about the bushings the control arms are meant to move so when you modify the control arms they will just adjust to whatever you have done. It hard to get my point accross using text but heres 1 more shot.

The control arm has bushings on both sides , the control arm uses these to so that its able to move adjusting up and down to the suspension to keep the axle where it is supposed to so if the control arms are sitting at a angle and you make them longer they are going to adjust the angle the arms sit at because they move.

If your still having a problem visualizing this I will draw up a picture. I have a great long arm system and i understand how the arms work (long arm or stock).