Rockhead

I'll be installing my new Atlas 2 transfer case soon. At the same time I will be switching to a long arm suspension. The Atlas will add 35 pounds to the crossmember and the long arms will add stress to the crossmember. Presently I have Rust's gusseted crossmember because the stock crossmember bent while off-roading. I'm looking at Rusty's Long Arm Upgrade kit or their Competition Four Link kit which would take the stress on the crossmember out of the equation. My question is, should I be concerned with this level of added forces to the crossmember?

Michael952

All depends how well the xmember is built and are you going to build off of the rustys are buy a kit?

Rockhead

Here are the two kits that I'm looking at. I won't be building off of my existing crossmember but will be installing whichever kit I go with.
http://www.rustysoffroad.com/rustys-...m-upgrade.html
http://www.rustysoffroad.com/jeep-suspension?cat=31&p=3

jeepsurfer1

I've seen the rustys crossmember come off on one side and drag the ground, its only 2 (factory) bolts on each side

andrewmp6

I would skip anything rustys made its not known for being tough,Take a look at http://www.seriousoffroadproducts.co...4-7.5-S-A-Lift or http://www.tntcustoms.com/Jeep_Chero...n_Upgrade.aspx or if money is no problem https://www.claytonoffroad.com/ is tough

Rockhead

Thanks for the replies so far. I also sent an email to Rusty for his opinion, this is his reply.
Rusty's has Atlas cases in all of their Cherokees and the orange one pictured on their site has had the Atlas and their Long Arm kit installed for the past fifteen years. No problems to date.
I'm pretty happy with that response.
Again, thanks for the replies so far guys but my question was about the stresses on the crossmember, not the quality of product being offered. I've got products from many companies on my Cherokee and have not had any real problems with any of them.

Ianf406

I would at least weld the cross member up- even better I would get some frame stiffeners and weld the cross member to that- It would suck to have one of the bolts break and have it come down on ya.

Rockhead

I agree that it would be a bad day of off-roading if the crossmember came down.
Most of you probably know that an Atlas can be shifted into front wheel drive low (dig). Both of my differentials are locked; can you imagine the force of the whole weight of the Cherokee on the crossmember as I'm using dig to work over rocks!
I think that I have to go with what feels good to me; I'll go with Rusty's Competition 4 Link system. Thanks for any input.

mcguyver_xj

wtf are you talking about it has supports that wrap around the subframe like most other long arm xmembers...

best bet is the clayton long arm system 3-piece member that gets welded in with super beefy arms

Rockhead

Yeah, he is probably talking about a Rusty's OEM replacement crossmember that came loose. Since that is what I'm running now, I don't see it breaking. I'll take a look at the Clayton kit, thanks.