Make a sticky for Rad arms and such

[Todd]

There is a lot of people asking about extended radius arms, there mounts, bushing or others joints to be used. I suggest we have a sticky where members that have either bought or built radius arm setups to post pictures so its always there in one spot. I mean it comes up often.

Stock arm cut and lengthened using 2” OD ¼”wall DOM with stock rad arm mounts sleeved and plug welded into end of DOM, Just like 4x4 Junkies. Reinforcement welded onto stock arm section as well as on mounting tabs.

Mounts made from welded 3/8" plate. Uses stock rubber bushing.

 

[4x4junkie]

I'd like to think that people making or building (or looking to make) a set of arms would be able to use the search on their own with any of the following keywords: homemade, homebuilt, custom home fabbed (fabricated), built, or made extended radius arms, as that should bring up several past threads on it (and now it easily should this one as well too lol) but that certainly doesn't seem like it happens as often as it should.

Let's see if we can get a whole bunch of good info collected here, as there are several here who have made their own arms...

Just for the record, these are mine:

Arms are extended 12" over stock length, also using 2" DOM tube, .250" thick wall.
Frame brackets are made from 3/16" cold-rolled plate steel, and are mounted separately from the transmission crossmember.

 

[CopyKat]

Mine

15" over and fully fabricated. Only thing re used from original arms was the pin for the bushings.

 

[4x4junkie]

*Bump*
because I know there are more people here who've made their arms out of the stockers.

I've also put a link to this post from the 4x4 Suspensions FAQ.

 

[beaujt]

So just to clarify some confusion i have about the extended radius arms... how do you determine how much to extend the radius arms? If that makes sense?

 

[4x4junkie]

So just to clarify some confusion i have about the extended radius arms... how do you determine how much to extend the radius arms? If that makes sense?

Length is based mostly on whether you'll be incorporating your mounts in with the transmission crossmember or not. If you are, then 15" over stock length is pretty much the standard (and is what Skyjacker uses). If you're making stand-alone mounts, then go 12" on the arms.

 

[compaqeo]

Hey Todd it looks like your crossmember in this pic is made out of a jackall


and how much extra flex is made from doing this> like does anyone have before and after pics of it flexing?

 

[901wd]

Mine were simple. begining with 2 sets off rad arms I slid 2 in .250 wall dom over the stem of the stock rad arm leaving the entire stem there. then cut the entire stem off the other rad arms and slid that into the tube. I then cut notches in the rad arm about an inch forward of the tube. bent them so the tires wouldnt rub cut a triangle section out of the old arms used that to brace the notch and bend then had them fully welded.

finished and installed rad arm you can see the final location of the section of rad arm that was welded to the complete arm to brace the bend (was pictured on the inside during the mockup) but the welder thought it was better on the outside i agree.

wheeled on them for a year then parted it out and started building another truck they now belong to Deamers87ford.

 

[1RangerNut]

 

[MoyaBros]

pretty sure this question has been answered but at what point do i need longer driveshaft and arms? after what lift is it recommended

 

[4x4junkie]

pretty sure this question has been answered but at what point do i need longer driveshaft and arms? after what lift is it recommended

Whether you need them or not really depends on how far you intend to go off road. The longer arms allow for more wheel travel and articulation which allows the tires to maintain traction better on very uneven ground (good for rock crawling or climbing over off-cambered terrain... also if you do much high-speed travel or racing). If the rig is mostly for show events or rarely ventures on anything more than graded dirt roads, extended arms probably aren't needed from a functional standpoint (but they still might make a rig a little more visually exciting).

Benefits of extended arms are greatest at 3" lift & above. A longer driveshaft is normally not needed.