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long arm kit or drop brackets

wishihad1 said:
RK 3-link. got mine for about 550 shipped.

drop brackets seem like a bandaid, and you loose a pile of ground clearance. granted it isnt really in an area that affects your break over angle, but its still a lot.

my RK mounts hang down about 2.5 inches, and are narrow enough that if i ever were to somehow get hung up on it i could drag it over whatever it is.
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where did u get it for 550?
 
i took a buddy with me this week junkyarding. he rode in my jeep with the TnT Y-Link Upgrade. he was amazed at the ride quality and said that his mj with drop brakets rides like crap in the front. the y link has just jumped way up on his wish list.

the bad thing about the y link is the belly pan. if you want to do any trans or tc work you have to drop the belly pan- which the front axle is connected to. there sure are a lot of bolts to the belly pan, but the kit is 100% bolt on. and its beefy too
 
I was debating this topic with myself... being on a college budget, I think I'm gonna go with the RC drop brackets for now, I aint running more than trails so rocks aren't really a problem, and when I'm a full blown engineer a real RK 3 or 4 link isn't gonna be much of a setback.

Sound good? I think so... for now you know?
 
I debated this for awhile too. I wanted to be able to be able to fine-tune arm length and have some belly armor. When I priced: drop brackets, adjustable arms, and armor it was about the same price.

There is fab work with long arms so that may be an issue for some. I went with the RE long arms because I got a great deal on the parts and install and it works for what this particular rig is used for. The potential for the radius arms to unload does have me concerned and I plan to setup my existing winch for a suck-down.

With OME long travel shocks the street ride is amazing.
 
I run Rough Country's drop brackets on my DD/Wheeler and love them. They are great on the road, the ride is much better than it was at 3" and I'm now at 4.5" with the drop brackets, it's amazing. I beat the heck out of the thing on the trails as well and haven't once gotten hung up on them. The PO of the drop brackets said he had smacked them directly on a rock a few times and they stood up to the abuse beautifully. I say for 1/5 the money...drop brackets. My $0.02
 
I went re4.5 inch coils, 1" spacer, adjustables upper and lower with flex joints, and rc drop brackets. The ride is amazing, Very smooth and forgiving, whoops and crossditches are nothing anymore. And I can flex out really well. I cant believe I went without for so long
 
I just bought my RK 3 link and am just waiting for it to be delivered. I got it $700 shipped from Desertfab.com.
Apparently he hadn't updated his website in a while and the price had gone up. I ordered them for $600 plus $53 shipping, and then when I called to confirm the order he told they had gone up to $700, but would eat the cost of shipping if I would pay the difference in price. :dunno: Oh well. Still cheaper than the T&T Y link (but not by much) and Clayton's. I already have a belly pan so I didn't want to buy a kit that would require me to replace my bellypan.
 
wishihad1 said:
drop brackets seem like a bandaid, and you loose a pile of ground clearance. granted it isnt really in an area that affects your break over angle, but its still a lot.

my RK mounts hang down about 2.5 inches, and are narrow enough that if i ever were to somehow get hung up on it i could drag it over whatever it is.
Click to expand...

Drop brackets are not bandaids. They do a great job at what they are meant for. I think most people who say bad things about DB's are people who have never owned them, or riden in a jeep that has them.

They do hang down a little, and I've hit mine a few times, but they have never once hung me up, and I've never had to "slide" over anything with them. The times that I hit them was because I had soft shocks, and the momentum carried the body down. There really is minimal differences between ground clearance most LA's and DB's.

As for what you said for the RK mounts, exact same thing can be said about the DBs.
 
Goatman said:
Long arms don't flex more, the flex is based on spring rate and shock length. You don't buy LA's for flex. The negative about drop brackets is the loss of ground clearance, but, if you get one of the standard LA kits that hang the arm mounts down below the frame then you've lost more ground clearance than with the drop brackets. At least with the drop brackets you haven't lost precious break over angle.

I would only compare doing drop brackets or a long arm kit that tucks the arm mounts up nicely inside the frame, like the TnT kit does.
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This is very true. I ran RE drop brackets, then went to Clayton long arms. On my new project, I went with the drop brackets again. I've gotten hung up on my Claytons many more times than I did on my dropbrackets, just because the brackets are tucked nicely under the tire. I lost a good bit of break over angle with the way the Claytons hung down. I prefer the brackets. My 2 cents.
 
Matt98XJ said:
This is very true. I ran RE drop brackets, then went to Clayton long arms. On my new project, I went with the drop brackets again. I've gotten hung up on my Claytons many more times than I did on my dropbrackets, just because the brackets are tucked nicely under the tire. I lost a good bit of break over angle with the way the Claytons hung down. I prefer the brackets. My 2 cents.
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In the research that I did and the rigs I rode in while waiting to save the money, this is exactly the same things that I had learned.

I don't have issues "hanging up" on rocks and have only drug them once that I remember. I drive my rig to and from the trails, no trailer queen by any means. I wanted something that I could run comfortably at 65-70 on the highway with cruise on and a "kicked back" ride, thats what I got. I will never regret going DB's.

And they are definitely not a "band aid", LOL!
 
xjtrailrider said:
In the research that I did and the rigs I rode in while waiting to save the money, this is exactly the same things that I had learned.

I don't have issues "hanging up" on rocks and have only drug them once that I remember. I drive my rig to and from the trails, no trailer queen by any means. I wanted something that I could run comfortably at 65-70 on the highway with cruise on and a "kicked back" ride, thats what I got. I will never regret going DB's.

And they are definitely not a "band aid", LOL!
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i think im going to do DB. i figure with the money im going to save...600+ dollars and the amount of install time, ill come out ahead. i have adjustable uppers and lowers already, so im halfway there. with the 600+ ill be saving i can get my rear aussie locker, a dpg belly skid and an iron scorpion bumper. i did find this link. what do you guys think??
http://www.rocky-road.com/xjcad.html
 
I debated for a while over going with DBs or LAs (the thread I started was posted on the first page of this thread)... and I went with DBs and am very happy with them. It rides great, and I got a sweet deal on them (bought them used from another member). You see them pop up for sale here every once in a while, and if you get a good price on them I think it's totally the way to go.

That being said, I've never had Long Arms, so I guess I can't really say for certain that I like DBs better... I just didn't want to deal with any of the unloading characteristics that you find with radius arms. And the BDS kit that I would have gone with would have yeilded the same loss of ground clearance that the DBs do... so it was a no brainer for me.
 
wishihad1 said:
drop brackets seem like a bandaid, and you loose a pile of ground clearance. granted it isnt really in an area that affects your break over angle, but its still a lot.

my RK mounts hang down about 2.5 inches, and are narrow enough that if i ever were to somehow get hung up on it i could drag it over whatever it is.
Click to expand...


A long arm kit that hangs down 2.5" right in the middle of the frame is a band aid. A cheap way (or thoughtless way) to sell a product without the effort to make a good design that tucks the mounts up so there is no loss of offroad performance due to loss of break over angle.

The benefit of longer arms is reducing the angle of the arms. Better/flatter arm angle is the goal, and the result. For the relatively short 10-12" of travel on the vast majority of XJ's, as long as the angle of the arms is good it doesn't matter how long the arms are. Once the angle is good, the next thing that affects trail performance is ground clearance. It is well accepted that t-case drop brackets are a "band aid" to not installing an SYE, because of the loss of ground clearance. It's pretty much the same dropping the t-case crossmember and loosing clearance, or installing a long arm setup with a dropped crossmember and/or mounting brackets that are below the frame. The fact that breakover angle and overall ground clearance directly effect trail performance is a no-brainer.

I have always had design parameters for my builds, one of which is that I would never do a modification that decreased performance. Mods are meant to increase performance, so why put out the money and effort to add performance in one area but loose it in another. Sorry guys, but long arm kits that mount the arms below the frame always have been, and always will be lame. You'll notice in the last number of years all of the home fabbed long arm setups tuck the mounts up inside the frame, because that's the right way to do it.

So, if I had to make the choice between a LA kit with arms mounted below the frame, or drop brackets, I'd go with drop brackets. If you're trying to go cheap, it's a real no brainer.


BTW, both of my rigs have mid-arms. :)
 
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Goatman said:
A long arm kit that hangs down 2.5" right in the middle of the frame is a band aid. A cheap way (or thoughtless way) to sell a product without the effort to make a good design that tucks the mounts up so there is no loss of offroad performance due to loss of break over angle.

The benefit of longer arms is reducing the angle of the arms. Better/flatter arm angle is the goal, and the result. For the relatively short 10-12" of travel on the vast majority of XJ's, as long as the angle of the arms is good it doesn't matter how long the arms are. Once the angle is good, the next thing that affects trail performance is ground clearance. It is well accepted that t-case drop brackets are a "band aid" to not installing an SYE, because of the loss of ground clearance. It's pretty much the same dropping the t-case crossmember and loosing clearance, or installing a long arm setup with a dropped crossmember and/or mounting brackets that are below the frame. The fact that breakover angle and overall ground clearance directly effect trail performance is a no-brainer.

I have always had design parameters for my builds, one of which is that I would never do a modification that decreased performance. Mods are meant to increase performance, so why put out the money and effort to add performance in one area but loose it in another. Sorry guys, but long arm kits that mount the arms below the frame always have been, and always will be lame. You'll notice in the last number of years all of the home fabbed long arm setups tuck the mounts up inside the frame, because that's the right way to do it.

So, if I had to make the choice between a LA kit with arms mounted below the frame, or drop brackets, I'd go with drop brackets. If you're trying to go cheap, it's a real no brainer.


BTW, both of my rigs have mid-arms. :)
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Well said
 
Most of those "long arm" kits are really just radius arms. The only true "long arm" kit (that I know of) that uses both upper and lower extended ("long") arms is BDS' kit: http://www.bds-suspension.com/kits/478H not cheap but, a very high quality kit. There's a write up in the new, June '09, issue of 4Wheel Drive & Sport Utility Magazine. If I had the money, that would be the kit I would use!--------Hans
 
Oatmeal said:
Most of those "long arm" kits are really just radius arms. The only true "long arm" kit (that I know of) that uses both upper and lower extended ("long") arms is BDS' kit: http://www.bds-suspension.com/kits/478H not cheap but, a very high quality kit. There's a write up in the new, June '09, issue of 4Wheel Drive & Sport Utility Magazine. If I had the money, that would be the kit I would use!--------Hans
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Incorrect. Radius arms, 4 links and 3 links all can fall into the long arm category. What makes them long arms is they are longer than stock, and mount further back on the "frame" than the stock suspension. The amount of arms does not qualify or disqualify it as a long arm suspension.

Full traction makes a 4 link system as well as BDS. As far as the BDS kit goes, I'm not a fan of a long arm kit that uses bushings at both ends (lower arms), rather than a flex joint/ heim joint at one end to compensate for the misalignment that occurs during flexing.
 
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