Will adjustable control arms DEFINITELY give me a better ride at 4.5" lift? I'm on stock now. Truck rides great, UNTIL I hit a bump. Help. How bad does this look or not?

Drivers front wheel as seen from rear:


Drivers front wheel upper control arm:


Pass front wheel as seen from rear:


Pass front wheel upper control arm:

 

yes you will definitely get a better ride, even better would be long arms.

 

you should take a pic of the whole front end so we can see how far back the axle is. but for ride quality, adj. arms would help if the axle is being pulled back. if it isnt, maybe try a different spring rates

 

Try the control arm drop brackets. They give a much better wheell travel than just putting longer LCA's

 

drop brackets if you don't wheel much would help a whole lot. long arms would be ideal off/on road, but cost $. I was at 5.25 on short arms and it was a jarring ride to say the least. 100% improvement with long arms.

 

Thanks for the responses. Cam I "upgrade" to long arms and not have to buy a WHOLE NEW LIFT? I have a Zone lift and know they don't have LA's.

 

I would say that 4.5 on stock would cause some crappy bumps, reduced wheel travel, and some serious drive-line vibes. I would definitely change to some LA's. Rough Country has the best bang for the buck, imo.

 

No. Drop brackets suck and belong in the bin with blocks and add a leafs. They improve the angle but sacrafice a ton of ground clearence.

4.5'' of lift on adjustable x flex arms sucks big.


sure you can get away with short arms, you can eat spaghetti with a spoon. That dosen't make it right.
You want long arms for anything over 3.5'' if you plan on wheeling. I've got the x flex arms adjusted out, at a little over 4.5'' of lift and they hit the shock mount in the front.

Short arms are great for 3.5'' 4+ needs long arms.

 

idk why people try to keep the stock control arms, i know it saves money but if you take your rig offroad EVER then this is a horrible idea! i have seen a rig crippled more times then not with stock LCA by then folding in like an accordion! i agree about the long arms, it definitely helps, but if you dont have the funds, then ditch the stockers and get some LCA stat!

 

Somethingclever has a set of 16 in eye to eye for sale

 

Not really. You loose more ground clearance swapping from a D35 to a F8.8" does that mean you shouldn't do that either? The drop brackets are good cheap way to get more performance out of short arms. I personally wheel with to guys running drop brackets and 6" of lift never seen a drop bracket catch on a rock. Plenty of diff dragging, plenty of slider dragging but never a drop bracket...



plenty of flex



not hung up

Yea whats wrong with drop brackets again?


Says who? I wheel just fine on short arms so does more than half of this forum. Hell most of the XJ tough trucks are short arms. There is nothing wrong with them if you keep the angles and axle location correct.

 

I looked through the 4WD and quadratec catalogs, and didn't see drop brackets. Where do you get them?

I can't speack for anyone else, but I can answer this-"idk why people try to keep the stock control arms, i know it saves money but if you take your rig offroad EVER then this is a horrible idea..."

For me, I'm new at the Jeep and 4x4 and lift deal. I did everything myself. I've spent a lot of time here trying to learn, but nobody can agree on the standard of what you NEED for what lift, and what you are giving up if you do it "budget" verse "The right way".

There is no, "How to wheel for beginners" or "How to lift your truck for beginners" type of article here that I've seen. So as a newbie, you go through ALOT of growing pains ($$$$-ouch) buying stuff you THINK you need, and wondering why things don't work the way you thought they would.

 

I'd ride it out until you can afford a long arm upgrade don't think you're going to get the improvement you expect from adjustables. There's a caster adjustment at the back of the stock lowers already. Putting that money aside toward long arms will net you greater results in the end.

 

Adjustable short arms give a huge increase over stock arms...there is a reason the brake lines get to short when you swap arms.

 

Brake lines get too short when you swap arms? Adjustable arms are all about getting proper caster angle and centering the wheel in the wheel well. They're still just short arms that go from the stock location on the unibody to the stock location on the axle.