NEWS PARTS JEEP & 4x4 ATV & UTV

Whats the deal with the long arm TJ suspension kit?

568 Views 7 Replies 1 Participant Last post by **DONOTDELETE**, May 1, 2000

127

Discussion Starter · May 1, 2000

I saw this in a magazine. I'm gonna go buy it later. anyone know about this thing?

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· #2 · May 1, 2000

Never heard of it dude. Give us some more details. (manufacturer, lift height, things like that) and maybe we can figure it out.

Axlesupagain/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif
http://home1.gte.net/lrgreen2/index.htm

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· #3 · May 1, 2000

Long arms are the way to go. Both RE and Skyjacker now offer longer arms in their top of the line kits. Rumor has it that Tomken is also working on a kit.

A few people already have the RE kit and it seems to be working great. I'd wait a few more months and let the kinks work themselves out.

LarryM
'85 CJ7, 350TBI, T19
'00 TJ, 4.0, NV3550, D44

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· #4 · May 1, 2000

Why? Why would you want more flex from a TJ? Isn't ramping a 1200 enough for the trails? I would swear we are turning into show offs. Whose car can jump the highest? It is a nice kit though but what new problems will come with it. Pictures can be seen of the RE kit at www.jeepsunlimited.com. I say stick with the tried and true if you aren't having any problems on the trails. If you don't have a lift at all and have the $$ then go for it. If you already have a nice lift kit then keep it. Of course this is only my opinion.
Aaron

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· #5 · May 1, 2000

Aaron, I think the main benefit of the long arm is that
the arms are at a smaller angle which improves all around driving. Gibby

~Someone's got to keep the bastards on their toes~
-HST

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· #6 · May 1, 2000

And the mounting points are lower making them more susceptible to damage on the trail. The brackets on the axlehousing where the control arms splits and joins the upper mounts with the lower mounts is severely weakened. Another company tried making a lift like this and did EXTENSIVE testing on it before deciding to scrap the project. The control arms broke originally. Then they made the arms strong. Then the brackets broke. Then the frame cracked. Of course this was after a lot of hardcore testing. Oh there is another company out there that makes a similar arm that essentially turns the front end into a 2 link. Their arms break too but they sell them anyway. I personally think 4 link is the way to stay. Once again this is my opinion an only MY opinion.
Aaron

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· #7 · May 1, 2000

The long arms and flat skid plate look really cool. I had often wondered if I could have the frame brakets moved to let me use longer arms. On the other side of it, I'm not sure if they could have improved the offroad ability of their orignal 4.5 kit (which I have and love) that much more to make it worth spending that much money. The price of that thing was like $3 grand right? Then if the justification would come from increased on road handling (which I wouldn't mind since even though I love their old kit, it can get a bit rough) I would hope that they did at least some on road safety testing. I mean like how it holds up after repeated hard braking situations. The kit looks like it does causes some pretty signifigant departures from the loading of the frame and who knows what else, that the orignal designers might not have planned for. Once a lot of poeple install it and drive on it for a while, and most agree that it is a great upgrade, then maybe I'll think about it. Some of these suspension kits are getting pretty wild though, super long arms, leaf springs to coil springs and all. Pretty soon you'll be able to buy a kit that turns your Jeep into one of those crazy super custom rock buggies that I see in the magazines.
Mike

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· #8 · May 1, 2000

Black Diamond was showing off a new kit at Moab. It has long rear arms and did not require a new belly pan. looked to be a 5in lift with no welding.

dan
Good things come to those who do research!!

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