Building Long arms, have a question

[DrPepper]

Im building a set of long arms.
My setup would be as follows
I am reinforcing the entire frame rail with 3x3 3/16 angle iron.
Then mounting my sliders and long arms to that
The long arms will mount just in front of the t-case crossmember.
I am going with 2 long lca's and 2 short radius arms.
My question has to do with what to put at the end of each.
I was thinking of using monoballs at the frame end of the long arms.
Factory style rubber bushings at the axle end.
On the radius arms I couldn't decide between rod ends and rubber bushings.
I know that carolina rock shop uses all heims, but I think that is overkill. and clayton uses rubber on all but the frame end.
Then I would mount the other end of the radius arms to the uca mounts on the axle.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[shimmy]

i would do something similar to the clayton set up. seems like a mixture of johnny and regular bushings makes for the most cushioned, least bumpy feeling ride on road. for flex, i would go all johnny joint,

brandon

 

[Nay]

Johnny joint on the frame end, rubber everywhere else is a nice setup. It has plenty of flex. I can drop my 5.5" RE coils about 4" off the isolator to the end of the shock travel - it's not binding as the rubber allows the necessary fore/aft travel.

If I were doing a custom setup I'd be looking at a 3 link with johnny joints all the way around (but I'd also be ditching the D30 in the process to expand my axle bracket options. The rubber is nice, but the taller the rig the more you want to remove any slop. I carry my family around - rubber makes things a lot quieter and the handling is good. Just one of a million compromises.

Nay

 

[XJoachim]

Depends on what you use your rig for and the height. On a daily driver use rubber allaround, maybe a RE superflex joint at the frame end. The higher your lift the less play you want in your setup. Then you will have to use at least poly bushings with heims at the radius arms. I'm currently in the process of removing all bushings and replacing them with heims except for the lower front arms which will have RE superflex joints at the frame and axle end.

 

[MrShoeBoy]

Carolina Rock Shop uses RE flex joints at both ends of the long arm not heims. I am sure that if you ask, Andy can probally change the flex joint to rubber or poly at the axle end of the long arms. I got poly at the axle end of my arms.

AARON

 

[DrPepper]

Are monoballs a bad idea at the frame end, then rubber at the axle and rod ends at the end of the radius arm where it links to the long arm?

 

[vintagespeed]

Sleeve the frame with 4x4x.188 tubing, it works much better than angle would as you can weld both sides & rosette it into the frame for a good solid anchor. I sleeved the front sections for my LCA mounts for my triangulated 3 link & it worked sweet.

-jb

 

[DrPepper]

The reason that I am doing angle iron instead of sleaving it is because it will give me some weight savings while still adding a lot of lateral stability to the rail. You can still weld both sides of it and it should be plenty strong. I will be sleaving the one place where the long arms will mount just to give that area a little more strength but for the rest of it once I mount the underbody protection it will link the two "frame rails" thus more or less boxing the frame together. It's gonna take a few months but I think that it will be nice when done.

I decided to go with RE superflex joints at the frame end as well as on the radius arm ends, and rubber bushings on the axle mounts.