MWinland Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 I'm tired of my rough riding short arm suspension. I'm at 6" on my MJ, and I can feel every bump on the road...in Duluth, MN there are a lot of them. I've been looking around at various long arm upgrades. I like the TNT but I don't know if I really want to go the full belly skid route, and I'm steering clear of Rusty's. What are your opinions on the RK 3 link and Teraflex longarm upgrade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 I like RKs design because it is a 3-link, however I know nothing about the quality of it or how well it actually does work. Lift kits are over my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
project88mj Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 ive heard nothing but good reviews on RE parts Taraflex: i got some 2" spacers from them and love em Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redneck23ms Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 isn't the teraflex kit just longer lower, but still uses stock uppers in stock location? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troy6187 Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 the rk kit is great. ive been running this for almost 2 years and no issues. it flexes like mad and the only thing that limits it is your shocks and steering. I'm sitting a 6 inches with stock steering right now and can completly unseat a coil spring when fully flexed. the arms and brackets are huge!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
project88mj Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 :needpics: :needpics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87mjdriver Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 nice avatar from the bridge of a 225' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 why wouldnt you want the belly-skid the tnt kit offers? that one of the coolest features of the kit if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pingpong Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 I have experience with both of these kits :eek: To me the Terra kit is a good street only kit. Doesnt flex very well. Its instalation is a bit of a PITA cause you have to cut your x-member and drill holes into a small lip. You will also need adjustable uppers on this kit. THe RK kit flexes great and is realtively easy to intall. I recommend having a right angle drill on hand. I really like the way it replaces the front axle bushing with a flex joint. Also the way the arms are bent helps increase gound clearance and eliminates a problem I had with the Terra kit.. That was the arms(center part) rubbing or holding me off a rock so I couldn't get traction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motion Offroad Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Just a FYI, the RK 3-Link kit will be discontinued effective Jan. 1, 2009. It will be replaced with a 4 link setup that is very similar; that will allow you to remove the pass. side upper and still run it as a 3 link if you wish for better offroad articulation. Than you can easily put the 4th link back in for better road manners. Price will be going up greatly as well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reson46 Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 isn't the teraflex kit just longer lower, but still uses stock uppers in stock location? All of the Teraflex kits I have seen only use longer lowers. I don't care for them because of this. One of the members of the club I wheeled with in TX owned a shop that could get great prices on Teraflex lifts, which resulted in a lot of TJs and XJs in the club only running longer lowers. In my opinion this results in pretty nasty changes in pinion angle as the suspension cycles, similar to running a shackle reversal on the front of a leaf spring suspension. It also puts a lot of stress on the upper control arm body mounts. I've actually seen one start to rip apart on the trail. I always tried to steer anybody looking for a lift away from this type of kit. Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pingpong Posted December 10, 2008 Share Posted December 10, 2008 Adam...Not to Hijack this Post... why did RK choose to do that? I feel the on road handling of this kit was awesome... especially considering I never hooked a sway bar back up after installing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motion Offroad Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 Adam...Not to Hijack this Post... why did RK choose to do that? I feel the on road handling of this kit was awesome... especially considering I never hooked a sway bar back up after installing. Upon my long detailed convo with Jeremy at RK it's primarily for better road handling. A 4-link setup performs better on the road than the 3 link setup does; especially at 6.5" of lift and higher. The nice thing about the new kit is that if you want to run it as a 3 link you can; you don't ever have to put that 4th link in there if you don't want to. But for those who do, the 4th link (pass upper) will be able to be easily removed for offroad use when you hit the trails. It's essentially the exact same kit that you currently have, the driver side bracket is flipped to mock it on the pass side, and now includes an additional upper arm. It will also include a new "krawler" joint for the upper on the pass side similar to what they currently use on the driver side like you currently have. So it's the same design, just now will have a passenger side upper that you can or don't have to run if you don't like. The new kit will be called the "Triple Threat", and be a part of a full line of new products available from RK the 1st of the year. They are doing away with the X-Factor line on the XJ's to replace it with the new line of products (XJ kits will not have a few different things as well; biggest difference is Deaver leaf's now). I should have the new longarm kit in my hands mid next week and will be able to give more info at that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 That sounds stupid. Honestly. But I guess you have a spare upper link then. :nuts: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underdog Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 There are a few XJ guys running around your area with Iron Rock Offroad longarms. I have no personal experience with them but they have positive to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reson46 Posted December 11, 2008 Share Posted December 11, 2008 That sounds stupid. Honestly. But I guess you have a spare upper link then. :nuts: :agree: The design strategies and physics are quite different between a three and four link. It's not as simple as just adding an upper link for on road driving. 3 link You need to eliminate all of the bushings and run heims, etc. With bushings you end up with a lot of axle dive. 4 link You need the bushings to prevent binding and allow the axle to articulate. Eliminating the bushings in a four link will result in the twisting forces transferring to the axle, which will result in bad things. :add bomb smiley here: It will be interesting to see what they come up with to address these issues. :hmm: Willy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pollockzrodz Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Rock Krawler all the way for your lift kit. They are great quality and trust me I know, my brother worked at rockkrawler for a long time and whenever I could be down there I was haha. Going to the 4 link style was just for on road use. If you don't like having the 4th link in then just take it out and drive with the 3 its all gunna be the same. 4 links ride much better and handle alot better from everything I have experienced in the Hot Rod scene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiNi Beast Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 I love my RK 3 link setup from Motion Offroad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Rock Krawler all the way for your lift kit. They are great quality and trust me I know, my brother worked at rockkrawler for a long time and whenever I could be down there I was haha. Going to the 4 link style was just for on road use. If you don't like having the 4th link in then just take it out and drive with the 3 its all gunna be the same. 4 links ride much better and handle alot better from everything I have experienced in the Hot Rod scene. Okay, just a few things... The term '4-link' is a little vauge when applied here. I am assuming that RK will still have a panhard bar up front with the '4-link' kit. This makes it a 5-link. Which is the same concept as the stock XJ front. However, with a 5-link (or probably more properly called a 'parallel 4-link with panhard') the links MUST be parallel or only slightly angled in relation to each other. Without bothering to look at the pictures, I have no idea what they have actually done. If the links aren't parallel, it binds. Plain and simple. If you have rubber bushings it isn't as bad. But it still binds. However, with a 3-link (with panhard) you need to have some amount of triangulation/angle on the links. Typically the lowers are angled out, the uppers in (viewing towards the axle). The more, the better. A 3-link with panhard will outperform the parallel 4-link in MANY ways. Both on and off the road. However, if the angles were not right, I could see it as a 'band-aid' solution to change it to a parallel 4-link. Anywho, whatever. I won't be buying one. I'd rather build what is optimal to the constraints of my praticular application. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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