All else being equal, will a 3-inch short arm lift yield the same articulation as a 3-inch long arm lift?

 

long arm will allow more flex

 

Explain please?

 

http://www.teraflex.biz/tech/faq/sho...r-tjs-and-jks/

 

Thanks for the link. I understand that a long arm provides a more comfortable ride based on the control arm geometry, however, wouldn't the limiting factor be the coils and shocks regardless of the control arm length?

 

Yes but the potential is there

 

The defination of flex goes something like this: "how far one wheel can droop when the other wheel is fully stuffed". That's my made up defination of what we really are asking when we say we want "flex".

To get a lot of droop, you need loooog shocks to be able to drop one of the tires. On the other side you have bump stops. If you have long bump stops you won't be able to stuff very well. So the ideal set up is short bump stops with loooog shocks. In reality you have to set your bump stops so you don't rip your fender apart. That will give you the biggest differnce between the stuffed tire and dropped tire.

At 3" arms have very little to do with the amount of flex. Stock arms or flex arms or long arms. The shocks and bump stops will determine the flex.

Now, we know that when the axle drops, it follows an radius arch. The radius is determined by the length of control arm. With long arms the radius is larger and the path of the axle will be mostly vertical with very little horizontal movement. With short short arms, the path of the axle during flex starts to pull horizontally towards the center of the body. While it would still flex, it would be "bad" flex. You really want the axle to move only vertically, or as close as possible.

So for the guys running big lifts they need long arms to get "good" vertical flex and also on road manners.

At 3" you really aren't getting much advantage from long arms. The road manners would be a little better. For the standard 3" kit that is composed of springs and shocks, you don't get additional flex from long arms. Now if you have 12" coilovers that are "set" to give you a 3" ride height, those shocks have tons of travel so you could take advantage of long arms.

 

In retrospec I do wish I had gotton long arms with my 3" kit. But only becuase If I ever got to coilovers, I would already have the arms to support it. So like it was mentioned above, there is greater "potential" with a 3" long arm for future builds.