I'm wondering what the difference is between a 6" long arm kit or a 4" long arm kit with coil spacers.

From what I've seen the 4" kits are significanly cheaper, unless I looked at the wrong things, but with a spacer it could reach the full 6" lift, with less money out of pocket.

Does a 6" long arm kit have significantly better articulation and highway ride than a 4" long arm with a spacer on top?

Am I forgetting other parts that are involved that a 4" LA may not include?

I'm just curious and am trying to learn a bit more about my truck and lifts in general.

Thanks!

 

i think you get more droop with more spring because with the 2" spacer, you lose 2" of down travel because the coil will become completely separated from the bump stop tower 2" quicker. more spring would mean more travel before the coil becomes completely separated from the bumpstop tower.

 

you want to try and do most of your lift with a coil only use a spacer to do a final dial in and make it a small spacer. the 4in spring will have a little less up travel then a 6in spring and same for down travel

 

If you are pricing full kits are you taking into account 4 inch leaf packs vs. 6 inch leaf packs? Other than that the only difference is what everyone else pointed out- your springs will fall off your bump stops 2 inches sooner with the spacers...

 

i think with 6" kits they come with 4.5" leafs and 2" shackles, i cant imagine using 6.5" leafs on those short, stock shackles. for the best flex you should probably run a 4.5" pack, shackle relocation brackets and a 1" shackle. seems like that would balance out real good in theory.

heck, while we're talking lift, why are you dead set on 6" lift? what size tires are you planning to run? many people have fit 35s on a 4" lift, it just takes proper trimming and bumpstopping.

 

why run bumpstops? that only impedes up travel. if i rub, i cut. i have no effective bumpstops.

OP, the 6 inch control arms may be slightly longer than the 4 inch version. yes, they may be adjustable, so it wouldn't matter, but with the longer arms, there would be less threads showing, therefor, more threaded shank in the arms to better strengthen the joints.

you can get away with spacers, but theoretically, the others are right, you would separate the coil from the isolator sooner, but that wouldn't really impede down travel, as it would uptravel as the coil would squish tightly sooner as the spacer wouldn't, and the coil/spacer would just slide down the bumpstop tower. so you would loose at least the 2 inches the spacer gives you during up travel. does that make sense. lol.

 

I think it comes down to preference of looks to some. I know on mine I went with 4.5" for 32's because I dont want to hack my fenders all up.

 

Can you really seporate your coil from the the isolator?

 

sure you can. if you have long arms or drop brackets to give you that much more flex.
mine do it all the time, not enough to slide right off the bumpstop tower, but enough to definitely separate them.
the coils just rest against the isolators, nothing holds them there, except the weight of the vehicle.
i don't even use coil retainers, so i can lift my coil right out of the jeep at times.

 

haha that makes for a quick coil swap

 

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But if he drives it on the street, 6" is too much spring. I had 6.5" of spring and the body roll was borderline scary. I now run 4.5" of spring and 2" of spacer. Great ride on road without compromising offroad capability.

 

Someone saw where my thoughs were going.

I've also played with the idea of switching to coils in the rear.

 

but you can only cut so much off. try running 35s on a 4" lift without bump stopping and still not rub, sounds near to impossible without extending the bumpstops.

 

This isnt even my thread but thanks for all the info. I learned a bit from the thread! hope you get all the info you need

 

I'm glad I could post it for ya!