xjone

Looks like a 91 XJ just fell into my lap to go along with my 92. This 91 has a rough country long arm kit. Let me just say I have never had a good experience with Rough Country but I'm thinking about keeping the LA's on it or sell it and put a Clayton kit on it like my 92.

I want first hand experience with the LA's. You are not invited into this thread if your experience is a "my brothers buddys cousin runs rough country long arms".

How are the joints lasting? Any bending of the arms? I want that info. Pros and Cons.

96_xj

I have the RC long arm kit and have been more than impressed, joints come with a life time warranty or get some real johny joints if your worried, but the actual kit is a nice kit. I am more than happy with mine

JCKustoms

X2

96_xj

BigC9164

Currie has the exact same dimension johny joints that run like $40 each or something to replace the crappy RC ones. Other than the joints i have never heard of a bad complaint against the kit

muddeprived

I liked the kit at first then my feelings gradually changed to hating it.

I had to replace or rebuild the arm joints 11 or 12 times (all combined) and I've only had it installed since 2009 and put less than 10k miles on it. I have replaced the big joints with Currie (problem free since) and about to replace the smaller ones too. Three rear shocks were replaced from making noises, one front was replaced cuz it was leaking, the coils barely have any paint on them cuz they rusted brown and look like they are 40 years old. I had Rusty's 3" springs on this prior to the long arm upgrade and they lasted 3 years without any rust. The sway bar links are clunking at the joint now which is annoying at times.

The trackbar had to come off cuz it was just too thin for my likings and Andy made me one for a tank.

Basically I got what I paid for and regret going with my first option which was FrankZ's arms. The only reason I switched to RC was cuz everything was included.

The only good thing out of it all was RC's customer service. They've sent me so many replacement parts/joints/rebuild kits with no questions asked. They even went out of their way to cnc new prototype bushings out of this expensive material to see if it would solve my joint failures, which it did not. I will say they have the best CS around.

The parts are slowly coming off and being replaced with others now. The shocks were taken off, sold, and replaced with Zone Nitros which made a world of a difference. The trackbar, as mentioned, was replaced with a 1.25" bar from IronMan. The coils and leaves are coming off and being replaced with a 3.5" spring setup (brand undetermined, but looking at OME or BDS). The sway bar links are gonna be trashed for some better brand that doesn't clunk.

So basically I spending way more than I should have but I want this done right and want good parts on my rig that will last.

mikeXJ1020

I have like 1000 miles on my RC long arm kit and am feeling mudprived's pain. The flex joints are already shot, I tightened the adjusters, still no good just got a new set of bushings in. Trac bar is way to thin, shocks are too short and I replaced then with bilstein 5150s

My buddy bought the ZJ front and rear long arm kit, all of his joints are shot and hes like 2000 on the kit and we don't even wheel every weekend.

Also the pitman arm splines are to big or the pitman arm was to thin and had to put a washer between the nut and pitman arm to push it up the splines more.

Overall not really happy. I wish I saved and went with Clayton or RE. I highly recommend u do the same.

JCKustoms

I have over 15,000 miles on mine, 3000 or so are trail miles, and I have had no issues with my RC joints. I did ditch the 2.2 shocks for some 5150's though ( major upgrade )!

muddeprived

I had to do the same thing with the pitman arm. Two big grade 8 washers and then the nut. I'm putting in a new steering box today and will see if I have to do the same thing again.

Some folks won't know what to feel when the joints go bad (not all, but some). A local dude had the joints for about a year and said they were fine until I told him to go stick a pry bar in there and pry it forward. He had the clunk and 1/8" play that I had but just never noticed it. If you let someone flex out the rig while you watch the joints, you'll see them move forward and back as the arms flex. That's how I discovered my 3rd....no....wait...4th...maybe the 6th set was bad lol. Too many to remember.

From all those bushing replacement jobs I had to do, I figured out that the bushing diameter is just a hair too small for the inner diameter of the joint housing. Also when you clamp the two bushings together over the ball with your hands, they clamp fully till they touch each other. Using this design defeats the purpose of being able to tighten them. They made me a set that had a 1/8" gap between them when pressed together to enable me to pre-load them, which worked great BUT the diameter of the bushings were too small and allowed the housing to move forward and back. I really want to open up my currie joint to see what they do differently but don't feel like making a tool to do it.

SeriousOffroad

To the OP,
I'd like the opportunity to respond to your PM. Please turn the PM function back on.

dogger15

How was the install on the la kit. Any bumps came along or not so much. Also how was the brake relocation brackets. Did they work well or end up getting longer lines anyways

muddeprived

The LA kit comes with longer lines F/R unless you are speaking of something else I am unaware of.

96_xj

check my build thread for instal. also no relocations, I just got the upgrade because that is all i needed then run over the counter brake lines cause they are cheap and available at most auto part stores if something happens

muddeprived

Which lines ya go with?

mikeXJ1020

Other than the few problems that ive had with the kit my overall complain is the control arm bushings. The installation went pretty smooth for me except I had to drill out one of the 6 (3 on each side) cross member bolt holes because it was just a little bit off with my factory frame hole.

The brake lines with the kit and drop brackets are good.