Okay, I know this may be old news for some of you but for those of you who haven't heard, rumor has it that Rubicon Express will be unveiling a long arm kit at SEMA. Of course, that in and of itself is not so suprising but what is, is the fact that they decided to use front and rear radius arms.

 

i bet that pushes a lot of people over to the full traction camp...

 

Given that the gas tank takes up all the space on the passenger side, I'm curious to see how everyone else does long-arm kits. For the most part I really don't see any issues with using a radius arm setup for the rear, isn't that what the Land Rover Defender and Discovery have from the factory?

It's pretty easy to guess what Nth Degree's kit will look like though, they really don't have to change much of their current design at all, just adapt their existing kit to fit the new vehicle. Makes you wonder if they were planning ahead for this exact situation...

What's interesting about the RE kit is that if you look at the angle of the rear arms, they're really no flatter than arms in the stock location would be, due to how high up the new arms mount on the frame, they're just much longer.

 

Jason

this is how they did the long arm
http://project-jk.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=4514

 

Yes, I know, RE's kit uses rear radius arms. Tera and SkyJacker both have 4link setups. I'm curious about how their kits will handle though because it looks like their upper links are much shorter than their lower links, both front and rear.

I do like how SkyJacker is using a raised trackbar bracket on the rear axle though, as opposed to many others that are using a drop bracket on the frame. That should help stability in offcamber situations. All the other kits I've seen pics of, other than Superlift, use a drop bracket on the frame for the rear trackbar.

edit: after looking at more pics, SkyJacker's "long-arm" kit appears to only use long lower arms, the uppers seem to be stock length, in the stock locations (???). If so, that's pretty lame IMHO.

Also, Rancho's kit is REALLY interesting (not sure if in a good way or bad way yet), with their reverse-mounted upper A-arm. http://project-jk.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=6029

 

I'll be interested to see if they actually sell that lift,(rancho)

And it has the stock drive shafts, so I'm sure its going to be a trailer queen.

 

I remember Walker Evans had a comp crawler a few years ago that had a set up like that in the front but for some reason I can't remember I think they scraped that seutp like half way thru the season.....

 

[QUOTE=
What's interesting about the RE kit is that if you look at the angle of the rear arms, they're really no flatter than arms in the stock location would be, due to how high up the new arms mount on the frame, they're just much longer.[/QUOTE]

for guys that play on the big rocks, the mounts being tucked up is nice but not if the long arms offer little benifit because of angle

lets hope that these suspension designs are well thought out and tested as to there function in real world on & off-road, a good lfted suspension design is not black science but if is alot more then just longer arms and taller springs

I like the way Nth degree are real tech geeks in there design, I just don't know if there kits are tough enough for extreme rock trails with 35-37" tires
anyone have there full system on a TJ with input?

I think the only way to find out who produces the best system is to wait it out for them to just prove themselfs, anyone remember in late '96 early '97 when the TJ came out, the only players were TeraFlex and A couple others, it was what 3-4 years later that RE and others came out with the long arm? granted nowadays it shouldent take as long but R & D takes time, do you really think the priority for alot of the SEMA mfg's was to test there products before the show, alot were lucky to even get JKs' much less get there components on them before the show

 

Even if the angle is still the same, the arms are longer, meaning the axle will swing in a larger arc, resulting in more linear wheel travel. Droop that axle 6" down and with short arms it'll swing a lot further forward than with RE's arms, even if both arms start at the same angle.

On Rancho's kit, it's a watts link setup, only turned sideways so that the axle is the crank. The links aren't going to bind or fight eachother, they'll just cause the axle to rotate slightly. How much the axle rotates depends on how Rancho setup the geometry of the kit. If they did it right, it should have very little pinion angle change, if they did it wrong, that pinion is going to be all over the place.

 

I second that on the linear wheel travel with the RE set up. I have been running 3 JK's since October with the RE longarms and will say they are worth every penny. 2 of these JK's have hemi's. Every JK I am building right now is getting the RE longarm for the reason that I can run the factory SRT8 exhaust manifolds after cutting off the front upper control arm mounts.
Dan