Best long arm kit

[XJBill]

How much lift do you plan on runnin? I wouldn't even consider a long arm on anything smaller than 8" - 10" of lift. Then again, I wouldn't go that tall for offroad anyway. I'm running a 6" lift with short arms and 35" tires and I ramp a 951 on a 23 degree ramp. Do I think longarms would make it better on the trail? NOPE. Front and rear lockers do. Then it doesn't matter if you lift a tire 'cause you still have 3 diggin. I vote NONE..........

 

[XJoachim]

Another vote for NONE, build them, don't buy them.

 

[vodomagoo]

claytons i have it and love it, they installed it for me and adam and clayton are great guys even made up a adapter plate for my crappy peguet tranny i had in it over the summer for no extra money. kit is super well made and damn nice

 

[YETI]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[BrettM]

With the current trend of alot of people doing coil-overs I wonder if soon that will be the un-cool thing.

that day has already come :laugh3:

simple is good

 

[wannabe]

I run a set from centerlinemotorsports. cheaper than any mentioned if you run a three link like I did.

 

[azxjman]

but the only way i was able to really make them function was using long LCA's and short uppers

Do you even have a slight concept of suspension geometry or do you just spew worthless crap out your mouth for the fun of it. If you had short uppers and long lowers you axle would rotate back and forth as it cycled.

 

[LJRXJ]

RockControl just updated their website and they have pictures of my jeep there. (on the top and bottom pictures are not mine). It is very cheap price for a very nice design long arms kit plus it comes with skid plate. I am one of his first customer and I am far impressed with his work.

 

[Big Red]

that day has already come :laugh3:

simple is good

Your rig works good Brett. Is set up alot like the Yota pickup guys with the dana 44 front/toy 8" rear. The leaf springs have been around for decades.
They are simple and work.

I think it's better to go with leaf springs up front than mess with coils long arms/short arms when you get over 6" lift. I have RE drop brackets on my non adj upper/lower arms with 35's on about 8" lift and it works good. The dual lockers are the biggest performance mod you can do and then it really doesn't matter too much if you lift a tire anyways. I know you said they you feel your rig is overbuilt for the Sierra stuff, right? You'd rather go down to 33's and a rear locker to make things more challenging.
Troy

 

[Big Red]

RockControl just updated their website and they have pictures of my jeep there. (on the top and bottom pictures are not mine). It is very cheap price for a very nice design long arms kit plus it comes with skid plate. I am one of his first customer and I am far impressed with his work.

I've had correspondence with them and they quoted me like $750 or so installed with their cross member/skid plate. I'm thinking of having them do it for me this winter. But with Richard (Goatman) and others very knowledgeable with xj's, I don't know, I'm holding back from it now. My xj works and does the Con and Fordyce good with my dual lockers, lift, tires, etc so I might just stay where I'm at. I take what Richard says about stuff very seriously, this guy knows his stuff about xj's.
Troy

 

[LJRXJ]

Lots of different opinions down here. I agree that short arms XJ still can go where ever the long arms XJ goes. But driving on the road, it is a big difference. I feel like my jeep is stock while it is on 8.5 suspension lift right now. Plus it got the full length subframe sleeve which that I can easily weld my homemade sliders. Hopefully soon I will take my XJ out for off-road to test. :thumbup:

 

[Beej]

Do you even have a slight concept of suspension geometry or do you just spew worthless crap out your mouth for the fun of it. If you had short uppers and long lowers you axle would rotate back and forth as it cycled.

I've seen his rig, and it works. His stuff may be a bit hillbilly, but Brett's one hell of a creative fabricator. I'd take his word over yours any day my young friend. Maybe he didn't describe it well enough to avoid your blanket flaming attitude, but it has longer lower arms and longer upper arms, and all are attached to a subframe welded and bolted to his reinforced "frame" rails. It looks kind of like the early skyjacker 8" kits. Anyway, it works fine, and the axle doesn't do what you describe as you describe it. Sorry to shut you down, but with the stuff he builds, he deserves a little friendly defense.
Beej.

 

[Alaskaflyr]

Lots of different opinions down here. I agree that short arms XJ still can go where ever the long arms XJ goes. But driving on the road, it is a big difference. I feel like my jeep is stock while it is on 8.5 suspension lift right now. Plus it got the full length subframe sleeve which that I can easily weld my homemade sliders. Hopefully soon I will take my XJ out for off-road to test. :thumbup:

I don't know much about long arm vs. short arm, are you saying the long arm kits ride better on the road. I'm in the process of putting a new lift on my 99 XJ and I will be using this as my daily driver. I'm really interested in the Full Traction kit.

I know alot of people are anti-Rustys here. If someone could tell me why?other than "they suck" it would be helpful, I have also been looking at his 6.5 spring pack kit.

Thanks

Gary

 

[DrMoab]

I know alot of people are anti-Rustys here. If someone could tell me why?other than "they suck" it would be helpful, I have also been looking at his 6.5 spring pack kit.

Thanks

Gary

Products that are sub-standard...way way crappy customer service. I have never bought anything from him because my best friend has and I saw how he was treated. He bought a steering conversion from him that was lousy. The stuff was built bad. No two ways about it. He went through a ton of tie-rod ends and kept calling Rusty. Finaly he told him to send his old unit back and he would "fix the problem" Well my friend sent it back and Rusty never gave him the new product. He wouldn't answer his phone,wouldn't return calls,wouldn't return emails. Finaly my friend just went and bought someone elses stuff. This has been about three years ago and he never did get his steering back or any money.

 

[azxjman]

I've seen his rig, and it works. His stuff may be a bit hillbilly, but Brett's one hell of a creative fabricator. I'd take his word over yours any day my young friend. Maybe he didn't describe it well enough to avoid your blanket flaming attitude, but it has longer lower arms and longer upper arms, and all are attached to a subframe welded and bolted to his reinforced "frame" rails. It looks kind of like the early skyjacker 8" kits. Anyway, it works fine, and the axle doesn't do what you describe as you describe it. Sorry to shut you down, but with the stuff he builds, he deserves a little friendly defense.
Beej.

From the sounds of it island xj is a web fabricator maybe he isint but he sounds like the reincarnation of xjguy and he will be treated as such.

 

[XJ_ranger]

I know alot of people are anti-Rustys here. If someone could tell me why?other than "they suck" it would be helpful, I have also been looking at his 6.5 spring pack kit.

they suck

 

[Beej]

From the sounds of it island xj is a web fabricator maybe he isint but he sounds like the reincarnation of xjguy and he will be treated as such.

From the sounds of what? It seems to me, YOU misinterpreted what he said. Like I said, he's a bit of a glib hillbilly, but treating him negatively without knowing jack about him is awfully immature, and a good way to be prohibit others from daring to post on this website. Thanks for demonstrating for all to see how small minded and quick to judge you are.

 

[YETI]

All I know is my short wheel base TJ, on unbalanced 37" SSR's road better on and off road straighter with a long arm lift than the XJ I have now with balanced 35's and short arms w/drop bracket.
This is why the XJ is getting the long arm treatment.

 

[T&A-XJ]

If I were to buy one of those kits it would be the Claytons. A friend of mine has been running that set up for a while and has never had any problems with it. All this long arms suck stuff makes no sence to me but each to their own i guess. I had RE SAs and it flexed OK and wheeled just fine too but when i built LAs I was very happy with the results, no more ripping CA frame mounts, no more tire rubbing LCAs, much smoother ride (on road-off road its all the same), more stable at speeds, suspension arc is closer to that of the DS, ect... no more suspension binding. I have about 5.5" lift with 33s and it works great. Drop brackets are fine too but the "anchor" factor comes into play but if scraping across roots and rocks is ok with you they still perform fine. Only thing ive noticed is the front end is a little more squishy with the OME shocks than I'de like but Bilsteins will take care of that hopefully.

Good luck with your suspension upgrades. LAs or drop brackets, either one will be of great benifit to a lifted XJ. I just cant comment too much on the drop brackets as I havent run them on mine.

Tim

 

[MuddinXJ]

Not to come to the defense of Rusty's but he makes some pretty good stuff. I have his 6.5" lift kit and it performs flawlessly. Never had any trouble with anything. Never broken anything(on the suspension) and never had any problem w/ him. I've talked to him tryin to get my suspensions squared out before and he helped me as best he could. He even couldn't figure something out himself and had one of his tech guys answer my question. Now I won't purchase a long-arm kit from Rusty's because I mean I like his suspensions but there are just alot better ones out there.

My vote goes for Clayton's. The guy has been doing this shit for years and knows how to build extremely well suspenions that perform superbly on and off road.