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Hey guys I've been looking at claytons longarm upgrade and like the ylink but I've heard they preload when hillclimbing... Id like the idea of a 4 link because if you broke an upper arm you could still drive it out of the trail but there's not a whole not of room for the arms... And ivw read that 3 links move from side to side under hard breaking and also move when flexed out... I'm really leaning towards a y link...I'm having a local fab shop make my LA but I just need some more opinions

Thanks -Nick :agree:

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i made my own 4-link and love every bit of it. our trucks have a longer wheelbase than most, so the unloading characteristics of a y-link type suspension arent as noticeable. really, any properly built long arm kit will be tons better than a short arm design. most people will make y-links just because of simplicity.

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There are some people on here that do not lke the rusty's long arm kit, but that design is very good. I bought my first one from rustys and then made my second one..making it just like the rustys. The ride from this design and the flex you get is awesome. You won't have any side to side movement as long as all your bushings are good. Just beware that most of the lifts are made for an XJ. There are a few more brackets on the MJ that will have to be cut off. Good luck.. :wrench:

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Just to jump here, I have a buddy who is really talented and builds a lot of his own stuff. Competely built his own Long Arm with four links (plus the trackbar of course).

 

The reason he went with a four link was due to the rotation of the axle. I will try to explain it in words. Let's say you are climbing over something and the axle goes to full flex with a four link set up right the axle can't rotate forward, with a y link the axle rotates forward which means when you try to turn left/right your wheels turn more up/down. Did that make sense?

 

With his rig on a lift, the axle was raised and lowered and top/bottom of axle stayed in proper alignment and never rotated "off axis" if you will.

 

I haven't had the chance to watch a y link set up to see if it rotates. In theory it sounds good but we all know how that works.

 

Is there someone that has a y link able to test this?

 

My buddy stated that it took him hours upon hours to get the length of the arms right between the uppers and lowers. He is running a total of 6-8 inches of lift with 35's. Proper bumpstops so he doesn't eat fenders and he does have mad flex.

 

Just curious........

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i made my own 4-link and love every bit of it. our trucks have a longer wheelbase than most, so the unloading characteristics of a y-link type suspension arent as noticeable. really, any properly built long arm kit will be tons better than a short arm design. most people will make y-links just because of simplicity.

I have all the tools to make my own but I don't have the time to have my truck off the road that long as it's my daily driver, I'm most likely going with a ylink and I understand about the turning upside part but wouldn't that also happen if he was going down a hill?

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Wow, that gave me a thought. If the truck is sitting level and you run the axle through the motion it makes sense that you wouldn't want it to rotate. What if it truck isn't level? IE.... it's climbing or decending.... then the truck wouldn't be level and if the axle didn't roll a little then it would be doing the up/down thing...... yet if it rolled it would do less of an up/down......

 

Did that make sense? or am I over thinking this?.......... :wall:

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It would still be doing a up/down motion just on a angled surface... After reading about all types of longarms for a week now ive come to the conclusion that I'll just save up for the Clayton kit because of it's crossmember and installation is very easy compared to some other kits i.e. Rough countrys longarm upgrade has a tcase drop built in and you also have the tranny mount bolts totally exsposed

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I did a Rusty's Long arm, No instructions with the kit, Call them about the bracket on the frame, just unbolt it,,, WRONG.. You have to cut it out, Its well built. It just a lot of cutting to get the bracket off

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It only takes 3 points to define a plane any more will cause binding......

 

Most 4 link kits work very well and there is room to package them if you put some thought in it. I've been running a 3 link with a upper that is almost the same length as the lowers now for about 6 years and have no complaints at all. Its been on my mj for 3 years and it was on my xj for at least 3 before that

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I used to run the Rusty's long arm setup on my old Cherokee but have went with a custom 3-link setup on the Comanche. I prefer the 3-link but you would need solid joints on both ends to do a 3-link correctly.

 

Blue XJ is correct on the binding issue, reason I went with a 3-link (well that and space issues). I ended up making a cross member that doesn't hang down below the frame and have the arms based off of that. I'm running an upper arm that is 2" longer than the lower to help keep the pinion pointed in the right direction at full droop. Either way, I had to cut off the extra brackets on the frame for the Comanche but the cross member is now held in with six 5/8" grade 8 bolts through the frame with another six 5/8" grade 8 bolts holding the arms in.

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