What is crap about the second gen? Be specific. You weld on brackets and run solid alloy arms with heims on both ends (I'm admittedly a skeptic of the solid arm approach - I'd rather have a tube bend than an arm snap even if the tube would bend long before the arm would snap). The small size of the heims improves frame end clearance, and changing out a damaged joint is a ten minute exercise, even on the trail. Try that with a rubber bushing.
I can understand not wanting heim-based links all over your suspension for a daily driver with moderate lift and moderate trails, but by the time you have enough lift to really need to get away from the stock short arms your Jeep is so biased towards offroad use that the rigidity of a heim based setup is worth it.
I wouldn't design it the way RK did, but that's because I wouldn't be designing it to run on a stock Dana 30. These kits are all major compromises, every last one of them from RE to Full Traction, because they are all adapted to the stock front axle. You have to get away from stock designs in order to build the best system from scratch. As has been debated ad nauseum, once you raise the axle LCA brackets up to flush with the axle you can shorten the arm and run a mid-arm more in the 22-24" range, improving clearance all the way around, and utilizing a 3-link design with a raised and braced single upper arm mount.
I personally wouldn't run a 3-link on a D30. I'm not convinced the 30 housing can handle it over time without a good deal of reinforcement, but I tend to be risk adverse when it comes to suspension components potentially failing. YMMV.
Nay
