Practical Advice

J

just-lift-it

LOSER
Hey guys I always get great answers on here! So im looking for more.

We are not all made of money or win the lottery so we build as we can... My jeep is currently sitting on 4" plush rides from Evo with bilstien shocks. I have only upgraded front lowers with Currie arms.

I have saved up some money to upgrade more arms but this is my dilema...

Do I save up more money and go all long arms?
Are long arms really needed? for 4"
Do i just buy the rest of currie short arms?

Do long arms only benefit ride quality? Do they allow more flex?

I can get all currie arms under the jeep (short arms) for 1400$ or i can get just front or just rear long arms for $1400 so its basically double the money...

Please school me on this as i plan on it this spring/summer but i dont want to waste my hard earned money on something i wont reap the benefits from.

Jeep is a 2012 and a DD i go 80km a day round trip to work and i love the ride quality of the set up now but i know the stock rubber bushing will fail over time from flexing...

Thanks for all the input in advance everyone
 
The flatter you can keep your arms to the road the better... Longer arms decrease the angle they sit at at ride height. Im my opinion it comes down to what you are looking for. Thus far I have been happy with my short arm set-up. and don't see the need to go long, but this is just my opinion and others likely feel differently.

In most cases arms don't affect flex travel. Bumpstops and shock length do. (There are guys on here running coilovers with stock arms.)

The currie arms are great but beyond adding rear uppers to correct pinion angle... What are to trying to accomplish?
 
Just trying to remove the factory rubber bushing and go all some sort of flex joint to help with articulation stresses on the mounts. factory rubber isnt designed for 10" of travel twisting up the axle haha but i dont know if i need to spend the money and go all long arms or just keep adding to my short arms to complete all 8 aftermarket
 
i would save for long arms. they will help with your on road ride and handling. they are not really needed but will be nice to have.

also as jnabird said it will not help with travel or flex since that is limited by your shocks
 
I will let other chime in with more experience, but as I mentioned I am happy with my short arms at ~4" of lift.

If you're on a budget you could always just buy sets of the stock arms when/if the rubber fails. They are plentiful and cheap. (I have a set headed to scrap now that has 11k miles on them.)
 
just-lift-it said:
Do I save up more money and go all long arms?
Are long arms really needed? for 4"
Do i just buy the rest of currie short arms?

Do long arms only benefit ride quality? Do they allow more flex?
Click to expand...

Long arms will help restore your suspension geometry to being closer to stock and that will help improve your ride quality especially on pavement. They will NOT give you more flex - only your shock travel can do that.

Having said all that, unlike the TJ before, the JK's have control arms that are quite long by comparison and because of it, I would have no problem running 4" of lift with them. Hell, I have and have even gone taller with them and found the ride to be acceptable. Of course, I do a lot of driving and prefer a long arm kit. If you do a lot of driving too and can afford to hold out and save up for one, it would be what I would recommend at that height.
 
ok next questions.

Clearly long arms improve your geometry getting the arms flatter to the road. I understand everything so far

There are many kits on the market...

So:

1: Are front long arms more important then rear?
2: Do you have to do front and rear at the same time for any reason?
3: Radius arm vs 3 or 4 link is there a reason to stay away like Clayton makes a Radius arm front

I dont want to be cutting up that exhaust loop on my pentastar to fit a control arm ideally

But as stated i have no complaint with handling so far
 
just-lift-it said:
1: Are front long arms more important then rear?
2: Do you have to do front and rear at the same time for any reason?
Click to expand...

Even if you could do just one side or the other, I wouldn't as it most likely would make your ride quality worse.

3: Radius arm vs 3 or 4 link is there a reason to stay away like Clayton makes a Radius arm front
Click to expand...

Copy and pasted from a previous post I've made about this:

The arms in question are a radius arm design and when it comes to flex, they will actually do a great job of RESTRICTING it. Radius arms are great on vehicles like desert race trucks where you have big vertical travel of the axle. however, by it's design, radius arms are in a state of bind the moment you try to force them to articulate. If you were to disconnect the radius arms at the frame, they would stand straight out like a diving board. see image below:

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In fact, if you were to grab each end of the radius arms and try to push them in opposite directions, you would find it very difficult to do as your axle holds them firmly in place. Think of your sway bar - not the links but the actual sway bar itself - it is basically a torsion bar that wraps around with 2 arms that the links are attached to. That's essentially what your front axle and radius arms are like only, your axle is no torsion bar and it will not twist. Believe it or not, there are companies that have made axles that allow for this kind of rotation on the axle but without it, you have bind. Now, having said all that, you can force radius arms to flex but in order to do so, an enormous amount of stress is placed into your bushings as they get squashed and stretch and in time, these bushings will fail.

I dont want to be cutting up that exhaust loop on my pentastar to fit a control arm ideally

But as stated i have no complaint with handling so far
Click to expand...

So just stick with short arms. Chris, the orange JK that broke his drive shafts and tie rod in the JKX video is running coil overs set at 4" and with the exception of his front lowers arms, all factory arms now and it rocks. EVERY long arm kit I have seen requires the cutting of the exhaust loop.
 
Sounds like a plan to me! I will just stick with what i have and keep gathering short arms until one day when its just a trail toy and i dont care ill hack it apart and make a monster like yours Eddie!
 
Good stuff in post #8 Eddie... I didn't realize this about the radius arms but it makes since. :thumb: I learn something every day! :thumb:
 
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