I just ran across a post from you saying you've been running the IRO 6.5" long arm kit for 150k miles.

I was crushing over that kit earlier this week. I think you just clinched that for me.

 

I have a full set of Brown Dog mounts but 3 weeks ago decided to replace all the mounts with stock ones and see how long they will last.

 

Nobody can really answer that but you. Personally, even though that BD bracket kit is expensive, I thought it was pretty cheap insurance to correct a known design flaw on a rig I'm building to survive the apocalypse. It's nice to know that I'll never have to think about that again. On the other hand, if this were just a grocery-hauler and I weren't already pulling the engine so that the brackets were going to have to come off to be swapped over anyway, I probably would have left it alone.

When I got mine, Brown Dog was offering a 10% discount for forum members. If they're still doing that, that'll save you about $34 over the regular price. If you do order the mounts and/or the brackets, leave yourself plenty of time for delivery. They fab the things when you order them, so it takes a few weeks to get them to you. That's not really helpful if you have a broken motor mount that needs to be replaced now, but they're worth the wait otherwise.

 

I'm prepping this thing for winter beater duty at the moment, so i may just do the mounts now, brackets in spring when i tear into it for "Stage 2" of the build.

I appreciate the input.