Traditional JK lifts vs radius arm type lifts.

[Lumber]

In my never ending quest to educate myself on jeep lifts before I buy, I stumbled across the radius arm type lifts.

Are these even a consideration? What are the pros and cons of these vs normal JK lifts?

Thanks for the input.

 

[Rebel JK]

Cons- inherent binding on the bushings. Check out the angles on the LCA and the radious arm. Someone else may be able to expand but when flexing, the arms work against each other at the bushing.

 

[wayoflife]

radius arms are great on vehicles like desert race trucks where you have big vertical travel of the axle. however, by it's design, radius arms are in a state of bind the moment you try to force them to articulate. if you were to disconnect the radius arms at the frame, they would stand straight out like a diving board. see image below:

View attachment 23054

in fact, if you were to grab each end of the radius arms and try to push them in opposite directions, you would find it very difficult to do as your axle holds them firmly in place. think of your sway bar - not the links but the actual sway bar itself - it is basically a torsion bar that wraps around with 2 arms that the links are attached to. that's essentially what your front axle and radius arms are like only, your axle is no torsion bar and it will not twist. believe it or not, there are companies that have made axles that allow for this kind of rotation on the axle but without it, you have bind. now, having said all that, you can force radius arms to flex but in order to do so, an enormous amount of stress is placed into your bushings as they get squashed and stretch and in time, these bushings will fail.

 

[artayay]

Only one or two manufactureres make them..most are a true 3 or 4 link CA setup..