Long arms/full width done pics

JeepFreak21 · Mar 14, 2004

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Everything turned out perty good and it doesn't look like I'm going to have as many clearance issues as I thought. More testing tomorrow along with alignment and maybe some flex tests (more pics of course).

Billy

Bentonedge · Mar 14, 2004

nice. where you get the leafs? what size coils you doing?

vintagespeed · Mar 14, 2004

Looks good. Would look even better with some coilovers under there.

-jb

JeepFreak21 · Mar 14, 2004

vintagespeed said:
Looks good. Would look even better with some coilovers under there.

-jb

Someday, someday

JeepFreak21 · Mar 14, 2004

Bentonedge said:
nice. where you get the leafs? what size coils you doing?

The leaves are from my RE 5.5" kit (1362s?), and the coils are from the same kit.
Billy

vintagespeed · Mar 14, 2004

Did you sleeve the frame where the 6 bolts for the x-member go through?

-jb

JP · Mar 14, 2004

vintagespeed said:
Looks good. Would look even better with some coilovers under there.

-jb

Hell it would look better with any coils under there. :greensmok Nice work Billy.
I like the yellow. That about as clean as your jeep has ever looked underneath.

89TrailXJ · Mar 14, 2004

Very impressive. Did you fab everything yourself or was it a long arm kit from someone?

TC · Mar 14, 2004

Why the fixed upper arms? You might find you'll need adjustable uppers for castor and pinion angle changes. Also, the crossmember is going to take a LOT of stress, much of it rotational. One easy way to add strength would be to add a 1/4" plate to the ends of the crossmember running the full lenght of the frame bracket. Taper the leading and trailing ends of the plate up to the bracket to reduce snagging on rocks etc. Weld the full length of the plate to the bracket and all the way around the box tubing. Nice looking job on the brackets. HTH. TC

Bender · Mar 14, 2004

Is there any reason why you mounted your arms about 3" under the frame rails? If you were going to build this setup from scratch why not keep it nice and tucked up under the jeep? I can see those suckers hitting quite a few rocks when you get in the big stuff.

MaXJohnson · Mar 14, 2004

TC said:
Why the fixed upper arms? You might find you'll need adjustable uppers for castor and pinion angle changes. Also, the crossmember is going to take a LOT of stress, much of it rotational. One easy way to add strength would be to add a 1/4" plate to the ends of the crossmember running the full lenght of the frame bracket. Taper the leading and trailing ends of the plate up to the bracket to reduce snagging on rocks etc. Weld the full length of the plate to the bracket and all the way around the box tubing. Nice looking job on the brackets. HTH. TC

Ditto on bracing the crossmember. With the mounting point low, you will be applying a lot of leverage against the butt weld joint. At the least, a simple gusset as shown. Better yet, another one in front of the crossmember.

The lower arms look almost symmetrical. Maybe you could turn them around so the adjustable end is at the axle. This would allow for castor and pinion angle adjustment. Looks like there's quite a bit of angle at the pinion u-joint.

The yellow looks cool. Nice clean looking fab work. However, shiny yellow attracks dust. Dust is made up up minute particles of dirt. Dirt is created when rock erodes due to wind and water, therefore, your arms will attract rocks. :looney:

JeepFreak21 · Mar 14, 2004

vintagespeed said:
Did you sleeve the frame where the 6 bolts for the x-member go through?

-jb

Yes sir, 1/4" wall channel

Billy

JeepFreak21 · Mar 14, 2004

JP said:
Hell it would look better with any coils under there. :greensmok Nice work Billy.
I like the yellow. That about as clean as your jeep has ever looked underneath.

HAHA, yeah it was a little dark out by the time I got the coils in

And yeah, I'm really happy w/ my "School Bus Yellow"

Billy

JeepFreak21 · Mar 14, 2004

89TrailXJ said:
Very impressive. Did you fab everything yourself or was it a long arm kit from someone?

I did everything myself with the exception of a little welding help here and there.
Billy

JeepFreak21 · Mar 14, 2004

TC said:
Why the fixed upper arms? You might find you'll need adjustable uppers for castor and pinion angle changes. Also, the crossmember is going to take a LOT of stress, much of it rotational. One easy way to add strength would be to add a 1/4" plate to the ends of the crossmember running the full lenght of the frame bracket. Taper the leading and trailing ends of the plate up to the bracket to reduce snagging on rocks etc. Weld the full length of the plate to the bracket and all the way around the box tubing. Nice looking job on the brackets. HTH. TC

I'm probably going to add the adjustability to the uppers after a while... I just didn't have the time, money, patients, or supplies to do it now. As far as the crossmember, I'm definatly planning to fix it up like you suggested.
Thanks,
Billy

JeepFreak21 · Mar 14, 2004

Bender said:
Is there any reason why you mounted your arms about 3" under the frame rails? If you were going to build this setup from scratch why not keep it nice and tucked up under the jeep? I can see those suckers hitting quite a few rocks when you get in the big stuff.

It's all a compromise... my original plan was to have those brackets flipped up side down on top of the crossmember (3" above instead of 3" below), but I couldn't get the angle I needed and it would have hit on the exhaust and front driveshaft. Also, it would have put the arms at more of an angle and the bracket connecting the lowers to the uppers would have hit the frame rail right as it starts to go up for the wheel well. By having them lower, I'm hoping it'll give me a better ride (arms more parrellel to the ground) and the ability to go higher in the future, not to mention protecting my driveshaft (damn low pinion

). I tried to build everything to take the abuse from the rocks... but we'll see...
Thanks,
Billy

89TrailXJ · Mar 14, 2004

I really like your steering setup too. Looks beefy. What parts did you use to make it?

Economos · Mar 14, 2004

Looks good.

BrettM · Mar 14, 2004

i hope that front u-joint angle isn't as bad as it looks :O

especially since you already have the brackets all setup, it would be a HUGE pain in the A$$ to cut and turn the knuckles then move all your brackets. why didn't you cut and turn them while you were building all the brackets? It's pretty easy, 2 hours with angle grinder and welder for when I did my LP Waggy44 which was the first time I had done it.

JeepFreak21 · Mar 15, 2004

mad maXJ said:
i hope that front u-joint angle isn't as bad as it looks :O

especially since you already have the brackets all setup, it would be a HUGE pain in the A$$ to cut and turn the knuckles then move all your brackets. why didn't you cut and turn them while you were building all the brackets? It's pretty easy, 2 hours with angle grinder and welder for when I did my LP Waggy44 which was the first time I had done it.

We'll see how it goes.
Billy

Long arms/full width done *pics*

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Long arms/full width done pics