Drop Bracket vs Long Arm

I am new to the XJ/MJ thing, and wondering what is the deal with the drop brackets?

In a TJ, if you want a more stable lift, you put long arms on it. But here, I notice a lot of guys just dropping the arms instead.

If I'm trying to put together a prerunner out of my 88 MJ (shortbed, if that matters), which would work better for me?

It'll see occasional rocks, but mostly street, desert, or <gasp> mud

I'm thinking 3-4 inches of lift is what I need.

Thanks.

IMO If you have the money, go for the long arm. But, not really that necessary for 3-4 in lift.

over2land said:

I am new to the XJ/MJ thing, and wondering what is the deal with the drop brackets?

In a TJ, if you want a more stable lift, you put long arms on it. But here, I notice a lot of guys just dropping the arms instead.

If I'm trying to put together a prerunner out of my 88 MJ (shortbed, if that matters), which would work better for me?

It'll see occasional rocks, but mostly street, desert, or <gasp> mud

I'm thinking 3-4 inches of lift is what I need.

Thanks.

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If you are only going with 3 to 4 inches of lift then you will NOT need Drop Brackets or a Long Arm Kit. The RE HD Kit (drop bracket) is 5.5" and almost all long arm kits are 5" and above. Plus that is a TON of money to spend for A. The height you want and B. for the type of wheeling you plan on doing.

If you only need / want only 3 to 4 inches of lift then a standard RE or Rusty's lift kit will do you just fine.

Hope this helps -

So you're saying the drop bracket is a band aid?

But if I'm tearing across the desert, or wherever...

Would it be better to reinforce the stock mount, get a drop bracket that reinforces it, or put a long arm on it.

I understand the money thing, but I'm concerned about making last as long as possible with minimal chance of blowing up.

And, if possible, not fabricating (ie, my own 4 link front). Reinforcing it is much easier than 4 linking it.

over2land said:

So you're saying the drop bracket is a band aid?

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Not really a bandaid. I don't have them but I have done a ton of research and the Drop Brackets are a way to decrease the angel of the control arms which in turn improves the ride quality and off road performance. Teh big complaint regarding them is that they may hang up on rocks.

Okay..here is what I've gathered over my years here...

First of all, I'd certainly go with drop brackets at 4 inches, I run about 3" - 4" and would love to have drop brackets, getting those arms closer to parallel to the ground is not a bad thing. One of the issues with long arms is the kit. Because it's a bolt on they don't tuck up far so tend to attract rocks. Also when running 3 - 4 it's a little silly to go long. If you want to get over excited I'd have somebody fab up a mid arm setup with tucked mounting points.

People talk about drop brackets being rock magnets but I've never seen anybody have issues with them, and I've wheeled with a lot of people who have them. They're so close to the tire that generally they aren't a problem.

My plans are about 4.5" - 6" (depends on what I net after putting my custom lift together), this is all waiting on control arms, track bar, and drop brackets.

If you do get the brackets spend the extra coin and get the braces too.

Oh yeah, one more thing talk to people with MJ's! The MJ's frame side LCA mounts are different than the XJ's, I'm not sure if this will interfere with the drop bracket braces.

Sequoia

over2land said:

But if I'm tearing across the desert, or wherever...

Would it be better to reinforce the stock mount, get a drop bracket that reinforces it, or put a long arm on it.

I understand the money thing, but I'm concerned about making last as long as possible with minimal chance of blowing up.

And, if possible, not fabricating (ie, my own 4 link front). Reinforcing it is much easier than 4 linking it.

Click to expand...

It sounds like you really wanna jump your rig yelclap:

I don't know much about pre-runners and desert play but long arms will definately re-inforce the front end. The long arm kit has a TON of travel so I am not sure if it would be the right set up for pre-running.

Maybe some folks who have more experience with pre-runners would best answer your questions concerning re-inforcement.

MJ's already have reinforced LCA mounts compared to the XJ. You should be fine with a decent 3" or 4" kit. Jumping is not good for the truck regardless of lift design.

GSequoia said:

Okay..

Oh yeah, one more thing talk to people with MJ's! The MJ's frame side LCA mounts are different than the XJ's, I'm not sure if this will interfere with the drop bracket braces.

Sequoia

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I second that. I have an XJ and the suspension is a little different (not much).

SharkXJ said:

....The long arm kit has a TON of travel so I am not sure if it would be the right set up for pre-running.

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I don't know much about prerunners...but I know that more travel=better traction and handling. Look at Walker Evan's ride. You will more than likely need a good bumpstop and limiter strap setup to control the long arm travel and not eat your fenders.

Well, fenders is the least of my worries right now. It'll go fiberglass, just a matter of when, and how much.

I'm asking about arms now, cause I'd like to slide some bigger tires under it now, and don't want to do it twice once I do go with the glass fenders. And, the only thing I got about the drop brackets was like Sequoia was saying, the parallel to the ground thing...

Yes, I want more travel. And, I know a guy with an MJ and a Skyjacker lift, with drop brackets, and he whacks em fairly regularly. But not broken em, that I know of. And, his truck rides ok, but he only wheels it. No commuting, nor he says would he really want to. For a variety of reasons.

Might jump it, dunno. I know it's not good for it, but if I do, I don't want the front end to rip off it. Not like I'm aiming to put a lift on it, then go jump it the next day. I'm just trying to plan in case of such event.

Also, I don't want it to ride like crap if I'm commuting 120 miles a day (min.) in it. And, the reason I'm not asking about leaves is that I have, and haven't found an off the shelf, sping under setup that will work for me. (if I'm off here, please let me know)

Thanks.

The Skyjacker stuff is essentially a mid-arm, and a great setup for desert pounding, just replace the big heims with something else, they seem problematic.

I believe the TNT longarm would also work with a smaller lift because of the bent arms.

nice shocks properly valved and air-bumps are what you really need if you're serious about this. for the rear, I would leave it spring under and get some custom packs made by Alcan or Deaver.

I'll check out the TNT thing, thanks.

Yeah, I plan air bumps before really beating it. Shocks are a must.

Gotta get it the right height, then play with other stuff.

over2land said:

Also, I don't want it to ride like crap if I'm commuting 120 miles a day (min.) in it. And, the reason I'm not asking about leaves is that I have, and haven't found an off the shelf, sping under setup that will work for me. (if I'm off here, please let me know)

Thanks.

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I used my rig daily to commute 110 miles daily racking up a total of >100k miles on my '90 XJ before retiring it to weekend warrior status. It's set up with ~4 inches of lift and I ran RE short arms and then later added drop brackets with the same arms. Drop brackets make a huge difference in your ride. The short arms transmitted every shock, bump, jolt straight through to the driver since the arms and the rotating assembly of wheel/tire had to move forward prior to and at the same time as they were moving upward. The angles with the DB's are basically back to stock and provide the ride that you are used to.

That being said about onroad use, my Moab and Rubicon experience confirms that in offroad use they will hit rocks and make big noises when you smack them dropping off of shelves and large obstacles. It's something you get used to. Mine are smacked up pretty well but they continue to function and you learn to "find" them when navigating an obstacle. You can hear them coming as it were.

Long arms don't have the abrupt clunking/rock magnet features that DB's do but do have some other inherent issues that you may or may not like. They flex well...sometimes too well requiring limiting straps. The other issue with a short lift is you may have a clearance issue and the arm will not be able to fully compress, depending on the setup. They do seem to work well with larger lifts.

Everything is a compromise. If it's going to be a primary daily driver, I would choose drop brackets for the cost benefit versus return you're likely to get. They're a bolt on application, most anyone can do it in their driveway and you can feel immediate results. You also aren't making a change that can't be reversed like most LA kits require in cutting of your LCA brackets.

GSequoia said:

One of the issues with long arms is the kit. Because it's a bolt on they don't tuck up far so tend to attract rocks. Also when running 3 - 4 it's a little silly to go long. If you want to get over excited I'd have somebody fab up a mid arm setup with tucked mounting points.

People talk about drop brackets being rock magnets but I've never seen anybody have issues with them, and I've wheeled with a lot of people who have them. They're so close to the tire that generally they aren't a problem.

My plans are about 4.5" - 6" (depends on what I net after putting my custom lift together), this is all waiting on control arms, track bar, and drop brackets.

If you do get the brackets spend the extra coin and get the braces too.


Sequoia

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TnT's kit is made for clearance, unlike others.


I must be one of the select few that got tired of hanging my drop brackets up.

TnT fixed LA kit is for 4" to 6" the Adj. is for larger lifts......
http://www.tntcustoms.com/CatalogItemDetail.asp?id=15

jrsxj98 said:

TnT's kit is made for clearance, unlike others.

I must be one of the select few that got tired of hanging my drop brackets up.

TnT fixed LA kit is for 4" to 6" the Adj. is for larger lifts......
http://www.tntcustoms.com/CatalogItemDetail.asp?id=15

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I dont' know why I didn't see this before.

but I went back and looked at the TNT arms again.

No springs, no shocks, just the arms and the skid.

What did you do about springs and shocks? How much lift did the springs claim vs how much did they measure at?

I am running Rusty's 6.5" coils and 6.5" STS leafs. I am actually sitting around 7 to 7.5". Most of the LA kits on the market are just add ons. the only one that I know of that sales a whole kit is RE, but I have heard bad things about their LA kit, big loss of ground clearance, pain in the arse install just to name a few. The TnT kit, IMHO, is the best thing going. Especially at that price.

Rusty's OffRoad offers a complete 6" long-arm, and Clayton's is finally offering a full suspension lift to go with their long-arm upgrade kit. Full-Traction and RockKrawler also offer full suspension long-arm kits.

T&T and CRSU are actually the only ones now that don't offer a full suspension long-arm kit.

Since prerunning is what you're looking at doing, do a search for JeepSpeed (desert race circuit for XJ's) on here, and google it too. You should find some good info doing that. Since XJ's and MJ's have the same front suspensions (only difference being the LCA reinforcement brackets on MJ's) most any info you find for XJ's will apply to MJ's.

jrs- how long have you had it on there. What about settling of the springs?

Jason- I am looking to prerun, but I don't want to limit myself to the same constraints that jeep speed does. I want it to ride well for prerunning type stuff, as well as commuting, but still be able to do rocks from time to time. Got anything specific in mind?