long arms or short arm

[hoggie101]

Im wonder if i should go straight to a long arm setup or should i go to a short arm to see if it good enough for.
just looking for some opinions and specs of long arms vs short arms and also what brands are better then others for the price

[grundlepunch]

how much lift? i take it your talking about an xj? whats your budget? can you weld?

all things to consider

[hoggie101]

looking at 4.5 inchs it seems to be a good lift to stuff a 33 under and yes a xj and around 2grand and no i can not weld sadly.....yet

[WickedXJ]

looking at 4.5 inchs it seems to be a good lift to stuff a 33 under and yes a xj and around 2grand and no i can not weld sadly.....yet

Honestly short arms should only be a cheaper more temporary situation like a t-case drop in relation to an SYE. That's just my opinion but you get a LOT more up flex and quite a bit more down with long arms. For 2 grand you get a nasty 4.5" long arm kit. Don't know why you would need to weld to get a long arm kit though

[Zullock Holmes]

SYE= wayyyyyy better than a tcase drop. Deff this before longarms.

(if you want help installing it, i've done at least 3 or 4)

The key with control arms is the flatter the arm, the better the ride.

When it comes to travel.... on most xj's and full bodied rigs travel is limited by the shocks, not the suspension links.

I ran 10" travel shocks with short arms and was able to get full drop out of the shocks, when i went to longarms i got the same amount of articulation.

longarms were better for a couple reasons though.
1. the ride quality- it was world's apart, that thing felt like a god damn cadillac. I drove fast like a total asshole offroad with those things, and they deff helped to dampen alot of the jaring that i would have encountered with typical shortarms.
2. there is less force required to make the front tires climb, running an open front this was a huge advantage. With shortarms i needed to bump pretty much everything, with longarms i could actually crawl stuff, i just chose not to.

They are deff an excellent upgrade, but they are a tricky purchase, they are expensive and there are major differences between kits and joints. I personally say, save your money, spend a couple extra hundred dollars and get a kit that is truly worth it and will have a long life.

Example: You could spend 600 on Rough country longarms, and have to spend money every 8 months to replace clanking and shot joints, or you could save up alittle longer and spend an extra 300 bucks and buy a set of Clayton arms, which IMO are much more worth it.

[ninetysix-ex-jay]

I recently got long arms and the difference it made was awesome. Combine that with a quality shock and you got yourself a comfortable package. Ask anyone who rode in my jeep

[cherokee-at-16]

If you already have the 2k and are planning to spend it on a lift you might as well do nothing for now, save another couple hundred bucks and buy all the right stuff. Say another $800.
Clayton 4.5 kit $2079
SYE $260
good shocks $450
comfortable ride...priceless


If you try to do things half way all the time, you end up with a jeep like mine. Only looks good for 50ft away, whole different story when you get close.

[hoggie101]

QUOTE=JeepBabiiXJ;247090]SYE= wayyyyyy better than a tcase drop. Deff this before longarms.

(if you want help installing it, i've done at least 3 or 4)

[/QUOTE]

probably have the money for the sye Thursday so ill get it out of the way now w

[Bigbike]

Leaf springs......

[Zullock Holmes]

probably have the money for the sye Thursday so ill get it out of the way now w

sounds good mang, lemme know.

Leaf springs......

hahahahhahaa you fucker, i just lol'ed

[hoggie101]

QUOTE=JeepBabiiXJ;247090]SYE= wayyyyyy better than a tcase drop. Deff this before longarms.

(if you want help installing it, i've done at least 3 or 4)

[/QUOTE]

probably have the money for the sye Thursday so ill get it out of the way now

If you already have the 2k and are planning to spend it on a lift you might as well do nothing for now, save another couple hundred bucks and buy all the right stuff. Say another $800.
Clayton 4.5 kit $2079
SYE $260
good shocks $450
comfortable ride...priceless


If you try to do things half way all the time, you end up with a jeep like mine. Only looks good for 50ft away, whole different story when you get close.

ya not gonna spend 450 on shocks lol ill find some okay ones instead

[cherokee-at-16]

ya not gonna spend 450 on shocks lol ill find some okay ones instead

Well I ment to put 350, but my math is terrible, Which is the cost of Bilstein 5100's from clayton, I used them since I was on their site. You can find the same ones cheaper elsewhere, 4wheelparts has 4 for $220.

[grundlepunch]

Honestly short arms should only be a cheaper more temporary situation like a t-case drop in relation to an SYE. That's just my opinion but you get a LOT more up flex and quite a bit more down with long arms. For 2 grand you get a nasty 4.5" long arm kit. Don't know why you would need to weld to get a long arm kit though

If you can fab up your own arms or cross member you can same some money. Also I personally would not spend money upgrading the suspension / axles without putting on some high clearance beefy axle brackets.

[Henchman]

What dana just said^

In other words. Do shit right the first time

[Ktmracer419]

Honestly short arms should only be a cheaper more temporary situation like a t-case drop in relation to an SYE. That's just my opinion but you get a LOT more up flex and quite a bit more down with long arms. For 2 grand you get a nasty 4.5" long arm kit. Don't know why you would need to weld to get a long arm kit though

any meathead can make shortarms flex more than enough. its good control arm angles that you are after for the reasons zullo (jeepbabii) has stated. mainly this:

2. there is less force required to make the front tires climb, running an open front this was a huge advantage. With shortarms i needed to bump pretty much everything, with longarms i could actually crawl stuff, i just chose not to.

basically. 4.5" lift= 10" travel shocks for 99% of the guys who run xj's out there. and shortarms easily use up all 10" of travel.