Do you think these will work for long arms?

Can anyone think of why using a pair of these for long arms and a pair of shorter ones for uppers would be a bad thing?

The long ones are adjustable from 26" to about 34" and they come in shorter lengths too. I would have to add jam nuts and the rod in the middle comes out so it isn't really part of the equation. Best of all, they only run from $19 to $25 from Tractor Supply.

Oh yeah, my xj's not a DD. Trail only.

TIA

No, they are ment for only for farm use. Behind tractors for equipment. But, If you want to use them I wanna watch you drive!!!

I don't remember where, but someone did the exact same thing and wheeled it. It was really scary looking, but as you said, the parts are cheap as hell so you could make plenty of trail spares.

actually third links from farm stores have been used in the past as LCA's. i think macgyvr on this board might have ran them for a while. i can not comment on strength because i dont know jack about tractors.


Hunter

The heims on there will loosen up VERY quickly. A friend of mine did a coil conversion on his YJ using those, and quickly went back to leafs. By the time you replaced the heims with quality ones, and reinforced the center piece, you'd be better off starting from scratch. Just my .02

Ary

The heims on there will loosen up VERY quickly.

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How quickly is very quickly? Mines not a DD so the only use it gets is off highway (read: rocks). Ya think it'll at least last say, 10 trips through lower hell.? More?

I would eventually change to " brand name" long arms when I can afford to. And when I do. I'll aleady have the brackets on.

Those hiems will not loosen up quickly. I dont know about the strenght intergrity, but a pair or those arms will lift a good 1000+ lbs. depending on the ram and arms. Maybe good ol' Farmer Matt will get into it.

MATT

I have seen them before. I personally wouldn't use them as control arms, I dont think there strong enough. If your going to put a set of "brand name" control arms why spend your money twice?

I have seen and handled those in person. Heims are really low quality, nothing compared to QA1 or Aurora. All shaft is thing and no much thread engagement.

But please post pics so we can make fun of your booty fab.

SeanP

I work with these things daily & I wouldn't use them on my rig if the farm supply store said they'd sponsor me $50K a year to do so. The joints suck & are really sloppy brand new. The thread tolerances are extremely loose so that even when filled up with dirt & rust they still turn to adjust. This is done on purpose because of the conditions we use them in. In short not no, but hell no.

Matt

SeanP said:

I have seen and handled those in person. Heims are really low quality, nothing compared to QA1 or Aurora. The shaft is thin and not much thread engagement.

But please post pics so we can make fun of your booty fab.

SeanP

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Damn I am illiterate sometimes.

Well alrighty then. I guess that answers that question.
I especailly like the "booty fab" remark.

I see from this thread that running them long term is a no-no, but seeing the price has got me thinking.
In the unlikely event a LCA get's bent or breaks somehow, might it be possible to use one of these dirt cheap links as sort of a trail fix to get you off the trail? Not to drive home on, just to get you to pavement or a trailhead.
Whatcha ya'll think?

Chris Onnink

Of course for a trail spare it would work fine. They can also work for full time use as long as you put a lot more thought into them and really change them. I have a couple sets in my garage and I have had the idea to use them for a while. More or less to see how fast the joint would wear out just so I would know.

The key would be to sleeve them and only use one end, preferably the right handed thread since finding left thread in that size is next to impossible. The heim is more prone to failure I think if it was side loaded and of course there is no lubrication in there.

The short of it all is that by the time you buy the link, sleeve it with some nice DOM, replace the small jam nut with a larger one and do all the work; you shoud've just bought a real heim for the same price as the link and still did all the work anyways.

You can buy joints from RE, Rock Krawler, or who ever and use a much better thread pitch for the adjusting point to get a much better set up. At least you are thinking of alternate ways. I am still going to build some just to see how bad they can be or it may suprise me and work out just fine, we will see.