Board newbie introducing a New Longarm Setup

Hey guys,

Most of you don't know me, but my name is Brian and i work at a little 4wd shop in Chico, CA called Sierra Rock Control. Our specialtys are ZJ's WJ's and XJ's. I've been checking out these boards for a couple months and just recently aquired an XJ of my own. http://th45cruzr.tripod.com/Ridiculous/index
We are a small company, with only 3 Employees and a small shop but we are looking forward to exploding in the coming 6 months with our new products.

Almost three years ago a friend of mine started working on a 1993 ZJ for use as a mild four-wheeler. His plans didn't stay mild for long, and before any of us could stop him he had it lifted 7" with a Clayton's Long Arm Subframe and rolling on 35" MT/R's. Well it didn't take long to snap that D35 rear and then the real fun began.

During the Jeeps rebuild process we knew that new axles would be necessary, but couldn't seem to make them work with the Clayton Long Arm subframe. All our efforts rewarded us was wheelhop, rollsteer, and waaaayyy too much antisquat. We decided to start from the ground up on a new long arm kit, one that would utilize brackets that could be welded to stock, or larger axles, ones that didn't hang below the axletubes and get bashed by rocks. Control arms that could support the weight of the vehicle without bending and could use Jonny Joints, Heims or regular rubber bushings. We wanted a full bellyskid, chassis stiffeners, and a trans crossmember that could tie everything together while still being removable. It was a lot of damn work but i'm proud to have helped it come to life. The result can be seen here http://www.rockcontrol.com/ZJBuggy/zjbuggy.html . The ZJ was our idea of a wild rig, built with our components, which allowed us to test the system in extreme situations. It is now past the experimental stage and we are ready to sell our components to Cherokee enthusiasts.

This weekend i start fabrication on our XJ longarm components armed with two XJ's as test subjects. One is already a semi-crawler, and the other is my daily driver 4 door. We are using the same components as the ZJ system, adapted to the XJ chassis. If any of you are interested in any of our suspensions, check out our website at www.rockcontrol.com or feel free to e-mail us at either
[email protected] (which goes to my partner)

or e-mail me directly at
[email protected]

Sorry for being long winded, i look forward to becoming part of your group and i hope to hear back from you, Thanks

Brian Old

Ps. We are planning a Rubicon Trip on the weekend of Sept 24th. If you are going to be there that weekend, shoot me an email.

You'll be ther for the cleanup! http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?p=265970#post265970

It looks like the cross member hangs down way to low.

Brian, it looks like you guys have done some nice work. Good luck to you in your new business venture, and on the build up of your own XJ. Hope to see you out on the trails, especially since you're in SoCal.

I have to agree with Dave, however, that your crossmember hangs down way too low for our tastes. If you've been reading long arm threads around here for awhile, you'll know we've had plenty of discussion about the major draw back to long arm suspensions, which is loss of ground clearance. It would be nice to see someone come out with a production long arm kit that doesn't compromise ground clearance, which so far has not been done. Unfortunately, the market for long arm kits seems to be towards those who don't care about ground clearance and actual trail performance (unless its just a mudrunner), and are more interested in the ride and having the latest popular modification.......or just don't know any better. Those wanting long arms, who do understand the trail performance issues involved, have to build their own.

Bravo! Glad to have you aboard. You might want to consider the vendor status here.
Keep us updated on the progress, please.

Geez you have to reeeeeeeeeeeeally love unibody Jeeps to put all that into it... at some point I have to wonder if it wouldnt just be easier to buy something that already has a frame.

link doesn't work for me.
Billy

Goatman said:

especially since you're in SoCal.

Click to expand...

Chico is actually an hour North of Sacramento.

JeepFreak21 said:

link doesn't work for me.
Billy

Click to expand...

I just noticed the site went down this morning, i'm looking into it and it will be back up this afternoon.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. As for the crossmember being to low, it has been a concern, but take a look at this pic. Those are only 35's

http://th45cruzr.tripod.com/ZJ/Bellyskid_001.jpg

It hangs about 3" below the framerail, and in all of our off road testing we haven't hit it once (quite a suprise to us especially since we stretched the wheelbase to 115"). there's only 1" clearance between the skit and the transfer case and without clocking it i'm not sure we can get the skid any higher. Trust me, breakover angle was a big concern in development and so far it has worked for us, but i'm always looking for ways to improve ground clearance.

For the XJ's my partner and i have been toying with the idea of using 1"x4" crossmembers instead of 2"x4" giving another inch of clearance. On the Zj's however, our rear control arms mount to the crossmember and require the strength of a 2"x4". Any feedback would be appreciated. This is the best design we could come up with from feedback from the ZJ boards, now i can't wait to hear from the XJ guys. Thanks

Brian

I was also looking at the clearance of the skid below the transfer case and see that you are pretty tight to the transfer case already. The rest of the Jeep sure looks great! I really like some of the things you did. All in all, I say what you've done is way cool! Jeff

RockControlXJ said:

Chico is actually an hour North of Sacramento.



I just noticed the site went down this morning, i'm looking into it and it will be back up this afternoon.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. As for the crossmember being to low, it has been a concern, but take a look at this pic. Those are only 35's

http://th45cruzr.tripod.com/ZJ/Bellyskid_001.jpg

It hangs about 3" below the framerail, and in all of our off road testing we haven't hit it once (quite a suprise to us especially since we stretched the wheelbase to 115"). there's only 1" clearance between the skit and the transfer case and without clocking it i'm not sure we can get the skid any higher. Trust me, breakover angle was a big concern in development and so far it has worked for us, but i'm always looking for ways to improve ground clearance.

For the XJ's my partner and i have been toying with the idea of using 1"x4" crossmembers instead of 2"x4" giving another inch of clearance. On the Zj's however, our rear control arms mount to the crossmember and require the strength of a 2"x4". Any feedback would be appreciated. This is the best design we could come up with from feedback from the ZJ boards, now i can't wait to hear from the XJ guys. Thanks

Brian

Click to expand...

:shocked: That is a sick ass GC!
Billy

my wheelbase is also at 115" (MJ) and I have a 2x4 crossmember directly under the frame rails and a t-case skid flush with the rails and i've hit it just a few times on trails like the Rubicon and Fordyce. I would be concerned about yours.

Yeah, here's what mine looks like, and I hit it all the time. You just have to go to the right places.

Stick said:

http://th45cruzr.tripod.com/ZJ/Bellyskid_001.jpg

link no work :viking:

Click to expand...

Copy and paste it into a new browser window.
Billy