High Clearance Long Arms

[Seahawkfan]

Was crawling around under my Jeep tonight just checking things out. I noticed my Long Arm brackets don't seem to be ....... I'll let one you long arm guys tell me if this looks like yours do you see what I see?
This first set will the front lower frame side, both right and left.

To give perspective, Looking from rear to front. Frame rail on right and EVO CA bracket on left.

This is looking up front, lower, frame end, CA bracket.
Only welds I see are on those looks like scrap square tube. You can see the day light through the top.


I believe this is the top of front lower CA bracket frame end. Looks to be missing some welds


This the only other part of the front bracket I see welded.



Rear Lower frame end bracket top I think. Looks good I guess

Same bracket bottom drivers' side. No weld to frame. other side is welded along this rust line.


Any thoughts. Am I seeing this right? Did they get lazy? I'm not here to blast the shop that did the work, And I'm not going to name them. but I expected way more than what I got for this kind of money.

 

[Bierpower]

The rear bottom should definitely have a weld on it. The fronts don't have a ton of space for weld but they missed some spots.

That being said, your brackets look like a different design than mine. I'll snap some pictures in a little while.

 

[Bierpower]

So up front my brackets mount to the factory LCA mount. The factory mount is two pieces and your supposed to cut off the inboard piece and then attach the new bracket to the outboard piece. You don't have either whick is why the price of square stock is welded into the gap.

The tab your looking at up above that piece of square tube is pretty hard to get to. The only possibility I can think of to get that welded would be someone who is real good with stick welding to reach up there and burn that on. Mine is still not welded at this point because I haven't messed with stick welding enough.

I actually missed a small spot on top of this side but it's easy enough for me to reach up and burn it in when I get the welder out.

And you should have a strip where the Evo bracket meets the trans cross member mount on the bottom and top.

As for the rear I had trouble getting any weld across the top behind the body mount but every other edge should be welded to the frame less the pocket behind the rear UCA.

 

[Seahawkfan]

The rear bottom should definitely have a weld on it. The fronts don't have a ton of space for weld but they missed some spots.

That being said, your brackets look like a different design than mine. I'll snap some pictures in a little while.

This is their high clearance. Thanks, I would appreciate some pictures.

 

[Ddays]

What is that square tubing doing? The brackets should be directly against the frame, not with a half inch gap. Unless they changed their design?

 

[KevinG]

This is their high clearance. Thanks, I would appreciate some pictures.

I could be wrong as it's been quite since I installed mine, but the front was completely bolted on and has held up just fine. It is pushed tightly against the frame and bolted through the lower control arm outer mount, holes through the frame up towards the cat and through existing holes in the crossmember and frame. I switched the rear from the DD to the high clearance about a year ago and it was welded on (remove gas tank to get all of the sides)

Edit: down a post #138 you can see the rear. https://wayalife.com/threads/ordered-long-arms-but-questions-about-what-else-i-need.56618/page-7


and here are a few pics I just walked out and snapped of the front.

 

[MericaMade]

Ummmm No! That front bracket needs to be sitting flush and welded to prevent the bracket from fatigue and flexing. Bolt on is putting way too much load on those bolts and can shear with the constant flex of the bracket back and fourth. The welds help distribute the load and prevent flexing of the brackets. Without the weld you can see the bracket flex just putting pressure by hand.

That spacer should not been there.

 

[KevinG]

Ummmm No! That front bracket needs to be sitting flush and welded to prevent the bracket from fatigue and flexing. Bolt on is putting way too much load on those bolts and can shear with the constant flex of the bracket back and fourth. The welds help distribute the load and prevent flexing of the brackets. Without the weld you can see the bracket flex just putting pressure by hand.

That spacer should not been there.

He's hit the nail on the head with the spacer.
When I put mine on back in mid 2019 I did the DD which was "bolt on"with welding recommended. I didn't have access or knew how to weld so I bolted it on. I switched to the high clearance last year (which is obviously welded), but have regularly checked the front (torque wrench and visually) and after 25kish miles I haven't seen it or had it feel like it's flexing. I can see if it was just bolted throught the lower ca mount and outer frame it would, but I would imagine being bolted through the crossmember that it's cross braced. I will say that that WELDING IT WOULD BE BETTER, but only if that square stock is outta there. Sorry if I steered you in the wrong direction.

 

[MericaMade]

So, after pondering this a little more and knowing how tight the tolerance is on this kit, I wonder how they got the bolts through the crossmember with that much of a spacer? Pushing that bracket over that much should throw the hole alignment off to the crossmember. When you can check to make sure there are 4 bolts holding your trans crossmember in. You can see from the back side of crossmember.

Also, just a thing I prefer on the uppers is to run the bolt from top to bottom. In the rare case the nut falls off or the bolt snaps the head of the bolt has a better change of staying in and not just dropping out.

 

[KevinG]

In looking at it again, I think whoever installed it took the outer part of the lower control arm mount that was supposed to stay there. That’s why the square spacer is there maybe

 

[Samuelh3]

Not much about this looks right. Even the welds you do have don't look right. I'll try and take a couple pics of my setup as well for reference. I get my jeep back on monday.

 

[JKRicky]

The kit does use the stock front lower control arm bracket to help mount the long arm bracket with a bolt or weld. So that gap is naturally there, but I assume they added that square tubing after an "oh shit" to add a mounting surface after cutting off the OEM bracket. There still is a section of the long arm bracket towards the top that mounts/welds against the frame.

For the rear, they definitely got lazy and didn't weld all the way around.

 

[failsafe306]

Exactly why I don’t trust most shops and learned to wrench myself. If I ever go long arm, it will only be after I teach myself to weld.