do i need extended radius arms now?

[240cubes]

right now my '88 b2 has a ghetto 2 inch lift (shackles and spacers) with a good deal of fender trimming and im running 33's on a 15x10 with a 4inch b.s.

do i need extended radius arms now? i know it'll help ALOT but when the funds allow im gonna do a 4 inch lift. are there any companies that make arms that i can use with the 2 and 4 inch lifts?

thanks

 

[Ranger44]

You'll be fine without now. You travel will be limited.

Extended RA's are kind of useless below 2.5" of lift.

As for stand alone extended RA kits go, James Duff, and skyjacker both sell them.

 

[Capt Jay]

Skyjacker is good stuff. Duff is not. That said, you don't need them with 2 inches of lift.

 

[mjonesjr]

You think Duff lift parts are not good? What planet did you fall off of?

 

[Ranger44]

ahhh....duff is still a good brand...

I'd consider them greatly ahead of superlift, and tuff country, etc.

 

[Capt Jay]

You think Duff lift parts are not good? What planet did you fall off of?

Do you argue with everything everybody says? I haven't liked the duff equiptment that I have had. None of the people I have wheeled with have been happy with their stuff. On the other hand I have been very happy with the skyjacker equiptment. It is of very high quality and I haven't had any problems with any of it that I've used. If you disagree great then say you don't agree other than that no need to be argumentative. RELAX!!!!

 

[mjonesjr]

you seem to be the ONLY person who says Duff parts are no good.

Duff parts are inferior to other brands that have a bolt on kit. The I only part I have ever seen broken were to new style radius arms; even the skyjacker arms have failed recently.

 

[Hahnsb2]

I've seen 3 duff arms fail and on SJ arm fail and the SJ arm failure was caused by something else, not to mention I see a lot more SJ arms out there. The Duff brackets are very good however. Personally I'm stocking up on lift parts right now, I've got 3" duff brackets/springs and homemade boxed extended arms.

 

[Capt Jay]

you seem to be the ONLY person who says Duff parts are no good.

Duff parts are inferior to other brands that have a bolt on kit. The I only part I have ever seen broken were to new style radius arms; even the skyjacker arms have failed recently.

If you like duff stuff, buy it.

He's looking at radius arms. You agree that they are inferior, where's the argument.

Didn't you then go on to say it's inferior? I'm not really sure what you were saying.

Just my OPINION (though backed by experience).

The end all is he doesn't need them with his lift.

 

[240cubes]

ok guys thanks for the input i really appreciate it. i do however have to say that when i do get the arms i will most likely go with the sj arms simply due to the fact that in past vehicles i have almost always used sj and i havent been dissapointed yet, although i would like to give duff a try sometime b/c i have heard plenty of good things about their products

 

[Will]

The radius arms improve handling more than anything. The closer you can get to getting the wheel to travel exactly vertically when the suspension moves, the better it will handle. The TTB/TIB suspension travels in two combined arcs--the axle beam screwing up the camber arc and the radius arm screwing up the caster arc. Increasing the radius of both of those reduces the caster and camber changes during suspension movement. This is what makes an SLA much better--the alignment stays much more accurate during movement.

Second to that, the bushings in the axle pivot are twisted when the radius arm pulls the beam back so the radius arm helps smooth that out and the radius arm bushing also allows the beam to drop farther with the longer arc. A different joint other than a bushing would allow long travel too, but the angles are ugly.

I have an old type Duff setup. I broke one of the arms. They look much stronger than the Skyjacker arm up at the ears, but they are maybe too heavy up there and not designed well at the point they transition to the tubes, making a hard spot. It comes down to shit happens.

Weld it up stronger and keep going.

The Duff drop brackets are excellent, but only come in 3".

 

[mjonesjr]

The Duff drop brackets are excellent, but only come in 3".

Not now they don't. You can get 3" or 6" brackets; and you can run up to 2" more lift with the 3" brackets and still get aligned.

 

[Will]

I did not know JD was make 6" stuff. I can't vouch for it though because I haven't seen or tried it out.

I don't recommend lifting higher than your brackets if you are using the factory steering. If you keep your beams straight across you have a lot more neutral area before the self-steering effect kicks in.

This is how the ride height is measured. If you have 3" lift brackets you should shim your coils to acheive 3" more than this measurement, for example. Until you have experience with it, I wouldn't color too far out of the lines. Top is D35 and bottom is D28.

 

[mjonesjr]

I did not know JD was make 6" stuff. I can't vouch for it though because I haven't seen or tried it out.

I have not personally tried their 6" kit, but I have a friend who has it installed on his '96 Ranger. It looks as strong as the 3" brackets. He beats the crap out of it and hasn't had a problem.

 

[derekj]

Do the extended radius arms give more wheel travel as well?

Derek