Skyjacker or Duff

[sjranger]

Hey guys,

I'm in the market for a 6in lift with extended radius arms to replace the 3in Duff lift I have on my BII. Right now I'm trying to decide which or the two prospective kits would be better. I amd looking at the Skyjacker Class II 6in kit or the Duff Stage 3 6in kit.

Both would have the new rear leafs, extended arms, etc.

The Duff arms have the heims and also come with new coil towers to accept dual shocks. The Duff would cost about 150 plus s/h more than the Skyjacker, but I am happy so far with my current Duff product performance.

Does anyone else have any pros/cons or experience with these kits?

Thanks

 

[railman]

the only con i would see about the Duff is the heim...... but only if you use the BII as a daily driver, since the heim will wear out and be costly to replace.

if you use the BII for daily driving, then the Skyjacker since they use the factory type radius arm mount......a whole lot cheaper than heims ( i gave $20 per side for my urethane ones ) and a whole lot easier to get

l8r, John

 

[4x4junkie]

Duff does make a pretty good kit, although I have seen a couple failures with their radius arms, where Skyjacker is probably 10X more popular and I've not seen anyone post a failed SJ arm yet (that wasn't a result of a loose bolt anyway).

+1 on the heim, they aren't the best choice for a vehicle that will see lots of miles (especially in wet/muddy conditions).
Additionally, ONLY RBV TTB coils will fit in Duff's coil mounts, making it difficult to take advantage of any extra flex the heims would have to offer via a coil swap. Be prepared to do some fairly extensive mods on them if you want to try Bronco or Jeep coils (of course if you retain the stock coil mounts, you'd still need to add something like F-250 shock mounts to it too).
Lastly, neither kit (SJ or JD) comes with a long enough pitman arm to put the steering to an acceptable angle (nothing at all over 4" lift does, unfortunately). Skyjacker however does offer one separately though (pt# FA600), perhaps it can be substituted for the arm the kit comes with.

IMO, I would lean toward the SJ kit. It's a bit easier to work with should you want to modify things.

 

[sjranger]

Yea, it definitely sees a ton of mud and sand and I hadn't given the heim durability much thought.

I didn't know about the Duff coil bucket issue, that definitely makes up my mind on the skyjacker kit because I would like to do the xj or eb coil swap down the road. Additionally I think I'm gonna mod the upper shock mount to the f-series style when I do the kit.

Also, the kit I'm looking at comes with the pitman arm so hopefully my steering won't change much from how it is now.

Will the skyjacker crossmember replace my existing trans crossmember? I can't find any good pictures of a install and I don't know how it will work with my M5R1.

Thanks guys

 

[railman]

yeah, the SJ crossmember replaces the factory tranny crossmember

as for will it work for you, i don't see why not...unless you have a modified factory crossmember in there for it.

l8r, John

 

[4x4junkie]

Also, the kit I'm looking at comes with the pitman arm so hopefully my steering won't change much from how it is now.

The kit comes with the FA400 arm. As I just said above, it will be much too short for 6" of lift. You MUST get the FA600 arm if you want to swap coils (even with the stiff coils, the FA400 arm leaves much to be desired )

Will the skyjacker crossmember replace my existing trans crossmember? I can't find any good pictures of a install and I don't know how it will work with my M5R1.

Thanks guys

This help any?