Ordered long arms, but questions about what else I need

[KevinG]

Hello All! Still pretty new to the site, but I thought I would post this up. I got permission from my wife to go ahead with some changes on my JK. My profile is up to date, currently running AEV 4.5 with 37s. What's kind of spurring this on is that I'm on stock driveshafts and the rear driveshaft has a torn boot and starting to give me some pause. I was thinking I would go coilovers about a year ago, but wanted to pay it off before I got too much further. Now, with the driveshaft starting to go, and being on stock arms, I'm going to go with EVO double d and 1350 driveshafts first, then coilovers next. I currently have a Synergy raised front trackbar bracket and drag link flip on the front, rear track bar is raised for the 4.5 lift. Other than the long arm upgrade, is there anything else I need to do, or anything that is a "while I am at it"? I'm planning on bolt on coilovers within the month after the long arm.
As far as plans, it's been a weird journey. We had an LJ Rubi before and lived in Roseville CA before. We are now up in Washington, but are planning on quite a bit of time in AZ. I feel I
made a huge mistake with the AEV stuff, but we thought we would be more logging roads and overlanding. The overlanding stuff is fun, but we are kind of bored with it and looking for more capability. Thankfully, all of the take offs I have now can go on my wife's JK.

 

[Ddays]

Hello All! Still pretty new to the site, but I thought I would post this up. I got permission from my wife to go ahead with some changes on my JK. My profile is up to date, currently running AEV 4.5 with 37s. What's kind of spurring this on is that I'm on stock driveshafts and the rear driveshaft has a torn boot and starting to give me some pause. I was thinking I would go coilovers about a year ago, but wanted to pay it off before I got too much further. Now, with the driveshaft starting to go, and being on stock arms, I'm going to go with EVO double d and 1350 driveshafts first, then coilovers next. I currently have a Synergy raised front trackbar bracket and drag link flip on the front, rear track bar is raised for the 4.5 lift. Other than the long arm upgrade, is there anything else I need to do, or anything that is a "while I am at it"? I'm planning on bolt on coilovers within the month after the long arm.
As far as plans, it's been a weird journey. We had an LJ Rubi before and lived in Roseville CA before. We are now up in Washington, but are planning on quite a bit of time in AZ. I feel I
made a huge mistake with the AEV stuff, but we thought we would be more logging roads and overlanding. The overlanding stuff is fun, but we are kind of bored with it and looking for more capability. Thankfully, all of the take offs I have now can go on my wife's JK.

Might want to throw a set of Rock Stars on there while you're at it. Course that may require different shocks depending what you're running.

You're gonna love the improved ride & handling

 

[wjtstudios]

As Ddays said, the ride will be dramatically improved. I have an AEV built JK, and although I’ve replaced all of the AEV suspension components with the exception of the 4.5” springs, I still feel the rest of the build was worth the investment. The quality of the bumpers are outstanding and they have not limited me difficult terrain.



I added the Evo LA kit last February and it is awesome on the road. I run it with BFG 37” KM2s and have had some issues with the rear lower control arms mounts getting hung up to the point where I needed to be pulled up and over the obstacle. If BFG will ever produce a set of the 39s I’ll move up to those, but that mount getting hung up is my only complaint. It is more work, but EVO does make a high clearance LA kit that you should look into before you make your decision.

What size tire are you planning on running?


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[KevinG]

Might want to throw a set of Rock Stars on there while you're at it. Course that may require different shocks depending what you're running.

You're gonna love the improved ride & handling

Thanks for the reply. I believe that the Rockstars are included with the bolt on coilovers so I will be getting them. I've had the coilovers on my radar pretty much since I got done installing and driving the AEV stuff. I love to tinker.

As Ddays said, the ride will be dramatically improved. I have an AEV built JK, and although I’ve replaced all of the AEV suspension components with the exception of the 4.5” springs, I still feel the rest of the build was worth the investment. The quality of the bumpers are outstanding and they have not limited me difficult terrain.

View attachment 322455

I added the Evo LA kit last February and it is awesome on the road. I run it with BFG 37” KM2s and have had some issues with the rear lower control arms mounts getting hung up to the point where I needed to be pulled up and over the obstacle. If BFG will ever produce a set of the 39s I’ll move up to those, but that mount getting hung up is my only complaint. It is more work, but EVO does make a high clearance LA kit that you should look into before you make your decision.

What size tire are you planning on running?


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And thank you. I actually have a pretty close rig to what you started with. Currently on 37" Toyos. Probably going to stay at 37s for a while. I feel like I'm fairly well set up for them with the PR44 and the D44 (I have a Sahara so I did 35 spline shafts with the ARB and regear) I have actually waffled about the hi clearance and totally appreciate your real world knowledge about the brackets. Since I imagine you had the geo brackets before you switched to long arm, do you feel the LA brackets are worse as far as location and clearance? In the last year and a half, I had to replace the passenger side because I came off a rock and smacked it hard and bent pretty bad. I like to say it was because Stevie Wonder was spotting. With the bracket on the long arm, is it in a better spot since it's in front of the rear tire and not right behind the front?

 

[Ddays]

Here's a great thread to look through that has some good info. Eddie also explains the diff between the std DD kit and the high clearance.

https://wayalife.com/showthread.php/43680-EVO-High-Clearance-LA-vs-LA-upgrade

 

[KevinG]

wjtstudios: You're totally correct about the bumpers and other components with their stuff. I love the hood, one of my favorite things on the jeep. It's mostly just a little remorse on my part. :thumb:

 

[KevinG]

Here's a great thread to look through that has some good info. Eddie also explains the diff between the std DD kit and the high clearance.

https://wayalife.com/showthread.php/43680-EVO-High-Clearance-LA-vs-LA-upgrade

I think I had read that one before, but thanks for pointing it. I don't even want to think about how many hours I have spent searching this forum and reading. I was sitting across the couch from my wife the other night and she asked "are you looking at porn?". When I told her it was wayalife, she said that porn would be a cheaper habit.

 

[fiend]

Here's a great thread to look through that has some good info. Eddie also explains the diff between the std DD kit and the high clearance.

https://wayalife.com/showthread.php/43680-EVO-High-Clearance-LA-vs-LA-upgrade

Not clear, from that thread, what benefit there is to the high clearance long arms. The whole point of long arms is to try to flatten the control arms after a lift and thereby approximate stock geometry. With the high clearance, the frame side brackets are raised up. Unless the axle side mounts are raised about the same amount, you lose the principal benefit of long arms, no?


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[KevinG]

Not clear, from that thread, what benefit there is to the high clearance long arms. The whole point of long arms is to try to flatten the control arms after a lift and thereby approximate stock geometry. With the high clearance, the frame side brackets are raised up. Unless the axle side mounts are raised about the same amount, you lose the principal benefit of long arms, no?


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They are. The CA bracket on the axle is moved up. From what I can tell from pics, it's not like it goes up four inches above the frame and an equal distance on the axle, but it is higher. Look at any back end pic of a DTD and notice where the control arm and shock brackets usually are hanging down below the axle tube. They aren't there. Also, I'm running 4.5" on stock control arms for the rear. Rides decent, but it's not ideal. I can't imagine the hi clearance would be any different, if not better. I'm guessing it's because the force on the rear going over a bump in the road puts force on in a similar arc opposed to the front where the arc created is opposite to the bump. Not to answer out of turn, but if someone actually has the hi clearance hopefully they can chime in if I'm way off.

The benefit is that the lower control arm in the back won't get hung up like what wjtstudios described. Yes, the bolt on is a flatter control arm, but the hi clearance is "packaged" better. Just more fabrication involved.

 

[Ddays]

Not clear, from that thread, what benefit there is to the high clearance long arms. The whole point of long arms is to try to flatten the control arms after a lift and thereby approximate stock geometry. With the high clearance, the frame side brackets are raised up. Unless the axle side mounts are raised about the same amount, you lose the principal benefit of long arms, no?


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It's a tradeoff with the mount on lower portion of the frame vs the high clearance versions which tucks them higher up on the side of the frame rails. Also, the CA mounts on the axle get mounted up higher on the axle tube so these mounts are moved out of the way. The issue that I had was that unless you do the EVO lever you still have the shock/coilover mounts hanging down like shovels on the axle. That's the biggest reason I didn't do the high clearance version on mine

For anyone interested
These are the High Clearance version:

Frame mounts



Axle mounts



And here's the std Long arm mounts on mine;

 

[wjtstudios]

And thank you. I actually have a pretty close rig to what you started with. Currently on 37" Toyos. Probably going to stay at 37s for a while. I feel like I'm fairly well set up for them with the PR44 and the D44 (I have a Sahara so I did 35 spline shafts with the ARB and regear) I have actually waffled about the hi clearance and totally appreciate your real world knowledge about the brackets. Since I imagine you had the geo brackets before you switched to long arm, do you feel the LA brackets are worse as far as location and clearance? In the last year and a half, I had to replace the passenger side because I came off a rock and smacked it hard and bent pretty bad. I like to say it was because Stevie Wonder was spotting. With the bracket on the long arm, is it in a better spot since it's in front of the rear tire and not right behind the front?[/QUOTE]

Yes, for sure it is worse than the stock bracket location with regards to clearance. I'm hanging up because rear mount is in front of the rear tire and the rear lower control arm mount is catching prior to the rear tire being able to climb. As always, bigger tires will solve the problem, but seriously in this case it will. The BFGs run small, and literally every time its been stopped I'm about an inch from it clearing the ledge that it hung on. Backing up and stacking a stone or getting a little tug to get it up and over is all that it takes. Those mounts have taken a absolute beating and other than a little pain damage, they are holding up well. You can see it well in that picture I attached earlier. Its mostly on the driver side that gets hung up, the passenger tends to slide better because of the gas tank skid plate.

 

[wjtstudios]

It's a tradeoff with the mount on lower portion of the frame vs the high clearance versions which tucks them higher up on the side of the frame rails. Also, the CA mounts on the axle get mounted up higher on the axle tube so these mounts are moved out of the way. The issue that I had was that unless you do the EVO lever you still have the shock/coilover mounts hanging down like shovels on the axle. That's the biggest reason I didn't do the high clearance version on mine

Same thing here, plus the extra work required to the axle re-welding the lower arm mount points.

 

[Ddays]

Same thing here, plus the extra work required to the axle re-welding the lower arm mount points.

If I lived out West and could take advantage of the trails there on a routine basis, I would have spend the extra $$ on the high clearance version. As it is, I'll keep dragging my butt over the obstacles as best as i can.

 

[fiend]

Maybe long arms are night and day difference, I don’t know. I’ve been on “short” arms with a 4.5” lift for quite a while now and the ride seems fine to me. Perhaps if I rode in someone’s long arm equipped Jeep, I’d be whipping out my credit card to drop the $2500 or whatever they cost now.


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[KevinG]

Yes, for sure it is worse than the stock bracket location with regards to clearance. I'm hanging up because rear mount is in front of the rear tire and the rear lower control arm mount is catching prior to the rear tire being able to climb.

I can imagine they were worse than the stock location. Did you have the geometry correction (drop) brackets on your AEV lift before the long arm? The passenger side is the one I had to replace.

 

[wjtstudios]

Maybe long arms are night and day difference, I don’t know. I’ve been on “short” arms with a 4.5” lift for quite a while now and the ride seems fine to me. Perhaps if I rode in someone’s long arm equipped Jeep, I’d be whipping out my credit card to drop the $2500 or whatever they cost now.


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I biggest difference I've noticed is how smooth and controlled it runs on rough dirt roads with the LA kit on verses stock at 40-50 mph. Road manors are definitely improved, but it really floats running the dirt verses pounding your way over every pothole.

 

[Ddays]

Maybe long arms are night and day difference, I don’t know. I’ve been on “short” arms with a 4.5” lift for quite a while now and the ride seems fine to me. Perhaps if I rode in someone’s long arm equipped Jeep, I’d be whipping out my credit card to drop the $2500 or whatever they cost now.


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It's really surprising the difference they make but like most things it's subjective. I tend to drive long distances in the JK so it makes those trips easier. :twocents:

 

[wjtstudios]

I can imagine they were worse than the stock location. Did you have the geometry correction (drop) brackets on your AEV lift before the long arm? The passenger side is the one I had to replace.

No I just had the stock arms and brackets, I never did the drops. I do not have any issues with the front long arm brackets hanging up, just the rear. But the quality of the EVO brackets is levels above the AEV brackets and can take the hits.

 

[KevinG]

Maybe long arms are night and day difference, I don’t know. I’ve been on “short” arms with a 4.5” lift for quite a while now and the ride seems fine to me. Perhaps if I rode in someone’s long arm equipped Jeep, I’d be whipping out my credit card to drop the $2500 or whatever they cost now.


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I totally get that. In all of these threads, I see people like Ddays and wjtstudios that have them, love them and use them. I have seen a few other people that have short arm (insert mfr. here) and said "I wish I would have just gone long arm to start". I can't find the guy that said, "geez, I wish I would have stayed on short arms. $2500 and they hang up on anything bigger than a speed bump, plus the ride is so nice that I get sleepy driving it"?

 

[KevinG]

No I just had the stock arms and brackets, I never did the drops. I do not have any issues with the front long arm brackets hanging up, just the rear. But the quality of the EVO brackets is levels above the AEV brackets and can take the hits.

Awesome. Thanks! I probably would have been able to see that for myself as the delivery just got to my house. I'm probably going to tackle one end in a week or two. Have a Friday through Sunday off then. Did you guys exhaust flip, delete or use flex pipe?