So after figuring out that I am more than likely going to have to buy control arms I am thinking I might as well go long arm, but I'm looking at long arm upgrades and they are priced very different. I was thinking RK but then a friend mentioned that he is really happy with his Rustys long arm kit. So now I'm trying to figure out what my best option is.

I will be completely honest and tell you that at the moment I don't wheel my jeep much at all and what I do with it I have absolutely no reason for long arms,but I don't want to spend the money twice if I can avoid it. I do plan to wheel my jeep as much as possible but so far that hasn't happened.

 

I did a lot of research on long arms before building my own. That said, I hear a lot of complements on the rough country long arm. There are a ton of threads debating these various options. It depends on the style of off roading you do.

 

For yor set up and what you do short arms are what you should be looking into. Simple bolt on and done. Long arms are a lot more work requiring you to cut off the factory mounts and weld on new mounts.

 

Agreed... Short arms will do everything you need and more. Spend the money on a good set of 8 arms and you will be fine.

 

I see what you are saying here 100% and I think you are right, for now... I know i will go out and wheel the easy places around me for a while and be happy but at the same time eventually I have a feeling i am going to want to go try the harder trails, and i have to try to compete with friends that have purpose built trail rigs that happen to be street legal, i just don't know that i will be happy with the short arm performance for very long. Feel free to talk me out of long arm though lol

 

At your lift height the off road performance between a long arm will be worse then a short arm unless you are going total custom that does not use brackets that hang down off the frame like most of the "kits" you can purchase for the JK. The way they locate the brackets and do not do anything with the mounts on the axle sans the 3 link set ups that use a upper link bridge will get you hung up more on steep climbs and bigger rocks. The only long arm kit out there that I like is the genright but at $10k it is a bit pricey.

If you want to keep up with your buddies you should be looking at running 37's, lots of trimming, and optimize shock length. Keep the lift low for stability and run proper gearing to make climbing technical trails slow and easy.

If you were at 4"+ lift then I would absolutly recommend a long arm set up to correct your suspension geometry but would still go full custom over the kits out there.

Good luck with the build.

 

So if I am going to run short arms should I go with something like the RK Xfactor mid arm package? or do is there something else that is better? I keep looking at RK stuff because I like to keep everything one brand but if there is something better I will do that. I am sorry for asking so many questions but I feel like if I just research everything myself I am going to completely over think it and end up with stupid amounts of money in my suspension that is not going to work any better than a much cheaper alternative

 

Only you can decide on what lift is right for you. Learning about suspensions and what all the componets do and how they interact with each other will guide you more then peoples opinions on the internet.

 

It's easy to get overwhelmed when looking at all the options out there. If I can help you in any way feel free to ask via email or pm.