TNT Customs long arm and frame stiffener install

[C85D4x4]

what length shocks are you running

[C85D4x4]

Also...does the front end dive down at all while braking?

And let us know if you get wheel hop when going up steep grades when wheeling.

Thanks

[SOUTHTEXASXJ]

installing my Y-link now great thread

[kj139]

Fantastic write-up. I put on the same kit. Welding the tops of the stiffeners was a real pain. Had to do a kind-of sling-weld to fill the gaps in the back. Very hard to get the gun in there. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

KJ

[lapisxj]

Does anybody have any more picts of the stiffeners installed? So you weld up the rosette holes, stitch the top edge to the unibody and bolt on the crossmember? Are there any stitch welds on the bottom or back edge? It just doesn't seem like that ties it in very well.

[XJEEPER]

Originally Posted by lapisxj

Does anybody have any more picts of the stiffeners installed? So you weld up the rosette holes, stitch the top edge to the unibody and bolt on the crossmember? Are there any stitch welds on the bottom or back edge? It just doesn't seem like that ties it in very well.

Yes
Yes
Yes
Ties in great

My Y-link and stiffener install here, with the pix you're after.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthrea...=913774&page=2

[ColoradoRaptor]

Originally Posted by KG6ZJM

The story:
My poor heep has seen many revisions of its suspension in the 6 years I've owned it. Starting with my custom sway bar discos, moving on to a 2.5" budget boost, up to 3.5" to clear 31s, new lower arms, booster springs and blocks to push up to 4.5" to clear the 32" MTRs and all the driveline mods that go along with it. In January the blocks decided that they were going to walk out from under the rear springs. Luckily I caught it before it actually spat one of them out. The solution to this problem was a set of 4.5" Rubicon Express rear leafs hooked up to my 1" drop shackles netting me 6.5" in the rear. I know the math doesn't work out, but Rubicons springs seem to be a little under rated. The problem was that now the a$$ end sat way up in the air. I knew that I was going to have to lift the front, but I figured it could wait. Well, I kept driving it and soon started noticing some new clunking noises from the front end. I shook the tires and realized that i had killed all 4 poly bushings on the lower arms, as well as 2 of the rubber bushings on the stock upper arms, and this was allowing the axle to move around almost 3/4" back and forth. Time to fix it, but as I always say, why fix it when you can upgrade it?

The reasoning:
I've wanted a long arm set up for several years now. I didn't really know why, I just thought it was awesome and the flex was amazing! After discovering that my front end needed some major attention I began to actually look into the long arm kits and what it is that they do. Turns out that they do a lot more than just give you tons of flex and look freakin' sweet. There is a ton of geometry that gets adjusted with these kits, and this does things like improve on road handling as well as correct wheel base and pinion angles. I looked at several kits including Rubicon, rock-krawler, Claytons offroad and TNT customs. It came down to Claytons or TNT due to the thicker materials as well as recommendations from other wheelers. I chose the TNT kit because of the relatively simple install, the beefy skid/crosmember, and the bent arm design, a feature unique to TNT, which gives you several inches of clearance that straight arms don't allow.

The install:
I know, blah blah blah, talk talk talk where the he!! are the pictures???? Well here they are. (Finally, Geeze!:asshat

I ordered the upgrade kit because I already had the brake lines, sway bar links, etc. So I got the belly pan, arms, hardware kit, springs, and a drop pitman arm. I also ordered the weld on frame stiffeners as part of the kit. They are the only part on this install that required any welding, everything else is 100% bolt on.

The belly pan/crossmember/Tcase skid.


Upper arms:


Lower arms:


Control arms painted:


Belly pan painted:


The next day the magical brown truck of happiness brought me the frame stiffeners so it was time to get those installed.

First all the undercoating/paint/rust/crap had to be ground off the frame:


I decided to use rosette welds as well as stitch welds to hold the reinforcements to the unibody, so I had our friend Kevin drill several 1/2" holes for the plug welds. Someday I hope to own a drill press with that many features!




Once prepped, you form the stiffeners to the unibody rail with a floor jack:




All ready to weld up!


Burn it home!


All done!

What i don't have pictures of is the upper stitch welds on that side and the paint.

That piece of equipment is a Mill not a drill press.

[derrickdrew17]

in short bearings. in long, on and on. basically the dp bearings aren't as robust or designed to take the side load that a mill's are, the dp takes an axial load while the mills takes this plus a heavy radial load. There are other problems such as no drawbar so what ever you're holding the tooling with will tend to pop out. if you do some searches here and in the some of the metal working forums, there's lots on this topic

But that does look like a High End Drill Press.

[Tenny]

Thanks for the write up! I am planning on doing the TNT Long Arms also... probably this winter if everything goes well!

[big silver xj]

Google brought me to this write-up as I was researching TNT's frame stiffeners and looking for better pics. This answered a lot of my questions, thanks!

A couple questions:
~How are they holding up?
~Do they actually "wrap" the frame or just plate the outside and bottom of the unibody rails?
~Why didn't you use a pitman arm puller?

[Starboard M]

Originally Posted by big silver xj

Google brought me to this write-up as I was researching TNT's frame stiffeners and looking for better pics. This answered a lot of my questions, thanks!

A couple questions:
~How are they holding up?
~Do they actually "wrap" the frame or just plate the outside and bottom of the unibody rails?
~Why didn't you use a pitman arm puller?

I have pretty much the same setup, so I might be able to help.

~Everything is holding up fine for me. I wish I had taken the time to do plug welds on the stiffeners, but other then that, working fine. Havent broken or bent anything.
~The stiffeners look like an L. They go on the side and bottom of the "frame rail" but not the inside.

[big silver xj]

Originally Posted by Starboard M

I have pretty much the same setup, so I might be able to help.

~Everything is holding up fine for me. I wish I had taken the time to do plug welds on the stiffeners, but other then that, working fine. Havent broken or bent anything.
~The stiffeners look like an L. They go on the side and bottom of the "frame rail" but not the inside.

That does help, Thanks!

[Toybronco]

I know its been a while on this thread.... How about an update? How is everything holding up?

[No4x4Yet]

Thats a sweet setup. Makes me want to upgrade even more.

[FreemansXJ]

His last activity on this site was 3/23/09.....so I doubt he will see this, but hopefully someone else with this kit will chime in

John