Drop pitman arm & steering box brace.

[Dann]

Are these items necessary or recommended for 4.5" to 6" of lift, with the stock steering set-up?
TIA, Dann

[juicexj24]

Steering box brace is a good idea, the dropped pitman arm is something that I haven't needed with 6.5" of lift and the stock Y setup. I have talked to Rubicon about it, they said you don't need it. I know someone runs a ZJ pitman arm which drops it .5" or 1" but not sure. Juice

[mattk]

I don't think there are to many on this board who would recommend a drop pitman arm. This is mostly because of the leverage and increased stress on the mounting points through the unibody, even with a brace. For 4.5" -6" you really don't need to change the steering that badly although many have done it. Better to raise the axle end mounts of the drag link and track bar.
mattk

[M. Lake]

Umm, I thought that I seen a post (time u/k) that the box brace put stress on the frame when flexing and causes cracks.

[Jes]

I don't think there are to many on this board who would recommend a steering box brace.

Jes

[Beezil]

I ran a MORE steering brace......

that didn't prevent me from de-laminating the steel layers around the steering box area. I thought my front bumper bracket would help reinforce the area......I was dead wrong.

in my experience, steering braces do not work, and frame rail side-plating does not work, since there are interior layers that cannot benefit from bumper bracket reinforcement.

imho, the only way to reinforce the area, is to "bridge" the outside and inside of the frame rail.....you have to "section" the layers, outter and inner wall.....essentially "I-beam" the damn thing.......

[Jes]

Yep, and this works nicely at that...click this. (http://www.orgsmfg.com/product/sbs1.htm)

Jes

[Paul S]

What Beezil said, & do it right the first time. I plated the frame inside & out last year, & I'm now in the middle of cutting out my welded steering box spacers & opening the holes to add the ORGS sleeves/spacers. What could have been a simple job is now a big PITA.
Paul

[rpili2001]

I've run a dropped ZJ pitman arm for years with no steering box brace or reinforcement. But this summer I pulled the upper bolt through the frame, broek the two lower bolts and broke the aluminum spacer into three pieces. It was a big PITA to get off the trail with out steering.

I looked at the C-ROK plates and the OFGS SBS plates before deciding on the SBS. The C-ROK was pertty nice but for the damage I had the SBS was the only real fix. I have pictures of the install if you guys are interested (I got to find them first).