(Picture)Advice PLEASE long arm or ? what else?

Here is my current set up. I hope that you can see from the picture it was w/ my camera phone. I have a digital at home but im at work and i dont have time after work
for a couple days.


BUT MY ? is. Is the the stock arm? I have not hat the time to look at a stock jeep yet. Yes as many of you know i purchased the Jeep with the lift because it was such a good deal i could not pass it by. I REALLY want to convert it to a long arm. What do you think that i should do? I can only really save about 100$ dollars a month right now because im still paying $489 / month on my Grand Cherokee that was totaled and I did not have insurance enough to cover the whole thing but that is another story. ANYWAYS should I go w/ a drop arm kit? How do those work? Would that cause any other problems? If you all think that would be a good way to go then i will. I like the look of the long arm kits better but they are so frekin expensive right now and I need to do this before i get married in October because i know after that it's going to be like pulling teeth to get parts for the Jeep talking to my Wife. Thanks allot and I look forward to your anticipated help =) Dustin- San Diego. (El Cajon)

No That is not a stock arm.
Why do you want to change it already?
As far as what you should put on it, that would depend on how tall you want to be and where you wheel it.
I'd say spend that hundred on gasoline and maybe a hotell room so you can get out and use it to find what you want to change.

You must have long arms.

All the cool kids are running them.

Call URF, they are having a spring sale right now, including free install!

Seriously, if you don't know why/if you need a radically revised suspension design, then you probably don't.

CRASH

fdsa487 said:

Here is my current set up. I hope that you can see from the picture it was w/ my camera phone. I have a digital at home but im at work and i dont have time after work
for a couple days.

BUT MY ? is. Is the the stock arm? I have not hat the time to look at a stock jeep yet. Yes as many of you know i purchased the Jeep with the lift because it was such a good deal i could not pass it by. I REALLY want to convert it to a long arm. What do you think that i should do? I can only really save about 100$ dollars a month right now because im still paying $489 / month on my Grand Cherokee that was totaled and I did not have insurance enough to cover the whole thing but that is another story. ANYWAYS should I go w/ a drop arm kit? How do those work? Would that cause any other problems? If you all think that would be a good way to go then i will. I like the look of the long arm kits better but they are so frekin expensive right now and I need to do this before i get married in October because i know after that it's going to be like pulling teeth to get parts for the Jeep talking to my Wife. Thanks allot and I look forward to your anticipated help =) Dustin- San Diego. (El Cajon)

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NO i have a credit card for gas i'll keep my hundred. It has a 6" Rustys spring in it and im pretty sure that it's a 5.5" RE Kit. It rides rough on the road and i would like the ride of a long arm kit also i wheel in the desert and also various places out here in the San Diego area (there are lots) and it's a daily driver.


Beautiful, isin't she.

I would seriously think about getting some lower springs for it. Yank out what ever you have and go with a 3" spring. Those angles look pretty bad.

Basic long arm you are looking at something between 900-1200 in parts alone. You will also need to weld everything in place.

Take a look at Claytons kit for some ideas.

Get some drop brackets for the control arms to correct the steep angles, that will fix the ride.

hackedxj said:

Get some drop brackets for the control arms to correct the steep angles, that will fix the ride.

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i second that

are you sure it is not the roads in san diego that make it ride rough espically on taft. just kidding but adj arms would help at the very least.


mark

sintax said:

Basic long arm you are looking at something between 900-1200 in parts alone. You will also need to weld everything in place.

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Weld? There is a complete bolt-on long arm upgrade out there www.tntcustoms.com

fdsa487 said:

It rides rough on the road

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I would have to agree with the rough ride. Two things: A) Those shocks have NO down travel, so they'll over extend when you hit bumps or go around corners. Ouch. B) Those swaybar endlinks are WAY too short...which makes your swaybar less effective. Fix those two things before the control arms at the very least. A good shock like a Bilstein or Rancho RSX would be well worth it.

ECKSJAY said:

I would have to agree with the rough ride. Two things: A) Those shocks have NO down travel, so they'll over extend when you hit bumps or go around corners. Ouch. B) Those swaybar endlinks are WAY too short...which makes your swaybar less effective. Fix those two things before the control arms at the very least. A good shock like a Bilstein or Rancho RSX would be well worth it.

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I second that. Get some JKS Quicker Disconnects for a 6 inch lift. I would suggest Rubicon Express control arm drop brackets and braces to fix the bad ca angles.

I recommend running long arms...there is night and day difference...I ran the Teraflex long arms on a TJ I used to have and it was the best decision I ever made...when I sold the TJ and bought my XJ first thing I did was upgrade to the Teraflex kit for a while and then moved on to the RE kit...pricey but virtually bulletproof... and I will tell you that I would highly recomend it for any lift over 4"...the geometry makes sense...

Try mepco for a decent price thier shop is right next door to Teraflex

http://store.mepco4x4.biz/techlokitl.html

LAXRegular price: $500.00Sale price: $449.00

Rock Yacht said:

Weld? There is a complete bolt-on long arm upgrade out there www.tntcustoms.com

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This kit is worth every penny. Full belly pan w/integrated tcase skid, high clearance LA's and just a all around great kit. Here are a couple pics of mine.

mark91xjbeef said:

just kidding but adj arms would help at the very least.mark

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Adjustable arms won't do a thing for the angles!

ECKSJAY said:

I would have to agree with the rough ride. Two things: A) Those shocks have NO down travel, so they'll over extend when you hit bumps or go around corners. Ouch. B) Those swaybar endlinks are WAY too short...which makes your swaybar less effective. Fix those two things before the control arms at the very least. A good shock like a Bilstein or Rancho RSX would be well worth it.

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OK I already knew that the shocks we're too short. That is one of the first things that im going to do when i get some more money. I was thinking about the Bilstein 5150's (i think those are the ones w/ attached reservoir ) I like those.

Regarding the sway bar end links. Thanks for the advice on that. Would it fix my problem to get longer Quick Disconnects??? If not is there somewhere to purchase longer sway bar end links or do i have to get a whole new sway bar??? Thanks for the advice

NHextremeXJ said:

I second that. Get some JKS Quicker Disconnects for a 6 inch lift. I would suggest Rubicon Express control arm drop brackets and braces to fix the bad ca angles.

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Would JKS Quicker Disconnects fix the "short sway bar end link problem"? ALSO does anyone have a picture of the control arm drop brackets on the vehicle? How much lower to the ground will the arms be after those? Im just worried about clearance but w/ the rough ride that i have on road maybe i shouldn't be, ya know!

haven't we talked about most of this stuff already? I swear there's already been a thread or two about what the issues and thoughts were about the front end of that XJ...

Anyway, yes, JKS disco's will solve the endlink length issue, you're going to want the JKS2001 model (longest ones).

RE DB's and braces:



They lower the arms about 4" and push them forward about 3/4".

Could also think about the Rock Krawler Long Arm upgrade, I just got one for under $450 shipped from TRC Offroad!! Its the arms and the mounting brakets.

I must say its a VERY nice kit!! I helped a freind fix his old RK setup(the scary one that fell apart alot) and the new one doesn't even compare, its Eleventy Billion times better!!!

Its worth checking out, its basicly the price that you would pay for drop brakets and ajustable arms!

I'll have pictures in a few days!

That Rock Krawler kit sounds pretty good does anyone else have an objection on that?

ALSO if i was to get the Drop Control Arm Kit from RE is this ALL I would need or do i have to get adjustable arms too? I dont think that mine are adjustable







HEY does anyone live in the San Diego Area that would want to hang out saturday evening? Im off work Saturday at 4:30 p.m. =)

Cut those swaybar links in half and weld in enough material to make the sway bar sit right. From the picture it looks like you need 3 to 4 more inches. For the sway bar. Probably cost about $10 bucks in material and an hour worth of time start to finish.