Sir Flex alot?

[American1990]

Me and my buddy are having a debate about Flex/suspension lifts. Ok, so I know if you have a lift kit that gives longer shocks, longer coils, drops brackets, and extended radius arms you gain more flex/drop. But If you just get the drop brackets, longer coils, and longer shocks. Everything can still only flex as far as the STOCK radius arm, it cant drop more or travel higher then it did stock. Right? Yes, I know that different things affect flex like stiffness and ect.... SO my question is, since my friend put his 5.5 inch lift kit with longer shocks, longer coils, drop brackets, longer brake lines... everything EXCEPT extended radius arms. (went from 28's to 33's) He can still only flex as far as he did stock with his STOCK radius arms?

 

[88_Eddie]

i dont think you could even hook the stock RA's back up if you lifted a TTB rig 5.5". you have to have drop brackets for the RA's as well or extended RA's.

however, even if you did use drop brackets on the RA's using the stock RA's, yeah, they would limit your flex. you need to really customize a TTB lift in order to get decent flex out of it. TTB lift springs are stiff as hell. TTB lift shocks will also limit the flex.

 

[American1990]

Yeah he has everything but extended radius arms (He got drop brackets for the radius arms). SO they still limits all his suspension to only flex as far as it does stock?

 

[88_Eddie]

yeah, it'll limit it alright. it'll flex a little better over stock, but not much. the TTB needs a lot of custom touches to flex well. a few people on here have gotten good results. brinker and junkie to name a few

 

[4x4junkie]

I wouldn't say it needs "a lot" of custom touches, but certainly it needs a few (though mostly it's because of limitations in the engineering of aftermarket lift kits).

But to answer the OP's question, the amount of available travel with a non-extended arm lift typically does increase over stock, but not near as much as it will with an extended arm lift.
What I have seen is around 10-12" or so of total travel before the axle beams bind up within the pivot brackets due to the short radius of the stock arms twisting them (which also tends to shorten the life of the bushings), where an extended arm lift can potentially give you well in excess of 17" travel.
Stock travel is about 7".

This doesn't necessarily mean one will see the whole 10-12" (or 17" or whatever) when they flex their truck out on a rock or with a forklift... If the springs are too stiff (what 88_Eddie was referring to), this will prevent the suspension from reaching it's articulation limits in a static instance such as that. Better coils would have to go along with the rest of your mods to see significant improvements here.

 

[American1990]

Can you flex well with stock brackets? Replace the coil, shock, spring, steering..ect... but keep stock brackets? I was wondering what a simple setup would be for flex... I was thinking about 4-6 inch lift kit shocks (some skyjacker Bump stop ones) jeep coil or skyjacker coil (stock size or size lift from brackets also what would you recommend), customs radius arms moved back to under or before tranns cross member, and rock steering setup. What do you think? As far as flex.

 

[4x4junkie]

You can get a little more out of the suspension without lifting it or replacing the brackets, however you'll quickly run into the issue of the frame in such close proximity right above the axle (meaning about the only thing you'll see is more droop travel).

At 3-4" lift is where these suspensions tend to shine the best for offroad use without having to delve too deeply into custom steering setups.