First off, I just read this whole thing and am very interested to see how this all turns out as it definitely sounded like a train wreck at first but now seems like maybe there is some hope.

I have to ask about the "long arm, radius arm, 3 link, 4 link, whatevermacallit" pic below though as they don't look extremely different from what came on my XJ (mine are from a company though and are DOM tube, by similar I mean the Y design hard welded unlike the joint shown as the good example).

Mine are from Iron Rock Offroad and both drivers and passenger look like the Y shaped arm with the company name on the plate in this picture.

http://www.ironrockoffroad.com/Merch...egory_Code=XLK

Here is the best shot I have of mine right now, can take better ones later tomorrow if you need better shots.




My question is, what am I missing that makes mine ok and what the OP was going to do not (aside from materials and assembly, I'm talking about design, geometry, etc) or is there an issue with mine too?

Not trying to steal the thread, but I thought it was more suitable here then its own thread as it is comparing what he had laid out to a commercial product and continuing the discussion of what was previously discussed.

 

Well, other then building materials. the setup you have has no give (twist) in the arms, the bushings on the axle, and the joints at the body take all the twist. a "fixed" radius arm like you have works, but will bind and fight each other more then if there where joints to add twist points between the upper and lower arms.

The fixed works, but should not have the upper arm on the pass side. having one fixed and the other side without the upper arm allows the axle to pivot on the fixed arm. without an upper arm on the passenger side it can pivot freely. with the upper arm it will bind. both will work, but the fixed on one side works, and the jointed Y arms work too. fixed on both will bind more then either setup. hope it helps... jump if I miss worded or didn't explain enough lol , but that's how I understand it.

 

Exactly. I've seen upper mounts ripped off with that setup.

 

The u bolts in those kits are crap! They will strip before you have them torqed down then you have to cut them to get them back off, get a good set of bolts kid, you will have to retorque the stuff later, make sure you don't have to replace it

 

Well one if that's your jeep you didn't cut the factory lower mounts off

 

No worries, the IRO kit doesn't have enough FLECKS to hit the bracket...

 

That is how it came from the PO. He pointed it out to me, said he hadn't cut them off yet and that they didn't interfere with anything but if I wanted to I could cut them off without issue.

Thanks for the input, I'll keep it in mind going forward. For now, it is doing its job. My first wheeling trip I took in October I didn't have any issues driving over anything that was put in front of me.

 

Mine was just like that when i got it also thats why i built it that way again but anyway tomaro ill post pics its taking forever to build the mounts and such but im getting there cant seem to upload pics when using my phone but its super big hahaha

 

I know mine does, just assumed iro did too

 

 

 

Looking good man keep it up!

 

4 link.. Fail. Front leafs.. SUCCESS! great work dude looking amazing so far

 

Sweet! I'm glad for you and everyone around you that your doing it right

 

Thanxs guys i know i was doing it right when it took all night to build that whole set up in the pic for the front passenger side shackle set up