Okay guys and gals, here is my dilemma. I put a Trailmaster 4.5" kit on my JK 2 and a half years ago. After almost 60K miles it has served me fairly well with little issues. A few months back one of my rear upper control arms snapped, the flex joint literally pulled right out of the threads on the control arm. I contacted Trailmaster but they were in the middle of a buyout and couldn't find any inventory to help me out so I welded the flex joint into the arm...problem temporarily solved. I waited several months for them to get reorganized to get parts and in the mean time my other rear upper control arm started to show signs of the flexjoints just plain wearing out and having some play in them. Bottom line, I finally get back in touch with Trailmaster and they don't know if they are going to produce that kit again and have no inventory.

Okay....now the situation is I'm going to replace all my control arms with something of much higher quality. I looking at the Clayton arms and Metal Cloak. I have to call Metal cloak tomorrow and see if their arms will adjust long enough for my 4.5" kit. Looking at their specs it should be fine but want to make sure. Looking to see what everyone would recommend from experience or use. Anyone out there using either one? I like how beefy the Clayton arms are but I'm intrigued by the simplicity and effectiveness of the Metal cloak duroflex joint.

Any suggestions

Thanks

 

Trailmaster flex joints were sourced from Rock Krawler. You can get them there.


The shank on the joints is stronger than the threads in the bung in the end of the arms. If your jam nuts were not tight enough and routinely retightened, the shank threads would over time stretch the bung threads. Eventually, they would fail, the shank would loose in the bung at the end of the arm.

You could cut off the end and weld in a new bung, or you could upgrade to new arms.

 

Great to know!! Thanks for the info!!

 

You can replace your arm ends with the duro-flex joints- they sell them in various configurations. Like was said before cut off your old joints or bungs and weld in the new.

Keep the jamb nuts tight - really tight, adjustable arms are great but they do add a maintenance point to check regularly.

No experience with the metal cloaks but my currie joints work well, have lasted a while. On the adjustables you have to check the jamb nut. I took out the lower adjustables on my TJ and went fixed, the lowers frequently loosened, uppers not so much. I checked them after every trail run- I assume the flex and rotation would cause them to loosen, not every time out, but enough. Fixed arms are not for anyone who makes a ton of changes to their setup, but once dialed in and running one fewer item to worry about, particularly on a street driven vehicle.