I knew Metalcloak was pretty good with their marketing. I didn't realize they were so aggressive with hunting people down. I know that they seem to have caught on like wild fire. It seems like anyone you talk to these days is always talking about how great Metalcloak is.
I really enjoy reading your responses. You're one of the very few people who I feel is not actually biased towards any particular brand or product, and you also have a wealth of knowledge that we can all learn from.
I agree that the chromoly thing is completely overhyped. I am not a metallurgist, but I've researched enough to know some of what you speak of. This begs the question though, how do you feel about the aluminum control arms in terms of how they compare to steel / chromoly control arms? I've noticed that Savvy, Metalcloak and maybe a few others, offer an aluminum version. Now I know the aluminum would be lighter obviously, but is it weaker or not as durable?
I'm actually in a similar situation as the OP since I'll be needing control arms sometime as well.
Do not for a second believe that I am not biased and not connected. I'm highly connected and or biased to Savvy, Currie, Revolution Axle and Gear, Tactical Recovery Equipment, PSC, et al due to my associations, friendships, business relationships, and just plain ole I happen to like what the products do. My biggest advantage when it comes to discussions is I don't care what you run or how you spend your money. If you want a fairly accurate perspective on something, I can usually do it. If I can't, I tend to keep my mouth shut.
If the average person reads what I said above, they will come away thinking I said something bad about MC and I didn't. I merely posted up some stuff to get folks to think so they walk into a purchase with their eyes open and not blinded by marketing. That said, I tend to look at something as a whole and base my evaluation on that. When MC first introduced their joint on JF, they were very insistent on it being ONLY a choice for folks who tended to spend most of their time on the street and at no point was it to be considered a replacement for the JJ nor were they going after the JJ market. Then when you went to their site to view their comparison video, the first thing they did was compare the misalignment angle of their joint to the JJ. (they got the JJ wrong because they didn't turn it until the body bottomed out on the control arm tabs).
Angular misalignment is a marketing ploy. Almost all joints are limited by three things. Width between the tabs, diameter of the joint barrel, and width of the joint barrel. To increase misalignment, you have to change one or more of the three. Since most won't re-weld on new tabs, that leaves the other two. If the diameter of the barrel is the same, to increase misalignment you have to narrow up the barrel. If you narrow the barrel, you are decreasing bearing surface area so it's all a trade off.
You can't hold up a joint and say it has more misalignment in one breath while not mentioning that you had to make it narrower or smaller diameter if you want me to believe you are being honest. Along with that honesty, you should also mention that less than 1% of us will ever have enough travel to use all the misalignment found on just one end of most control arms. It takes roughly 16" of travel to max out the M/A in a single JJ. Having a degree or two more doesn't mean anything if you can't utilize it and we can't.
Then we have the overall question of suspension design and what works in general. We've found through lots of trial and error that more than about 11" of travel in a shock for the front axle keeps the extreme end of the droop tolerable so the tire will still climb stuff and NOT tear stuff up. It's about 12" for the rear and that's dependent upon wheelbase, belly height etc. so you don't wind up eating up the CV in the rear driveshaft. CV rear driveshafts won't support much more than that on a TJ or you have to move to a Super Short SYE or high dollar high misalignment shaft.
As for aluminum, it all has to do with the application. What is missed is how long is the arm? 16" arms can typically handle being smaller diameter in steel or aluminum and as the arm length increases, so does the diameter have to. You also have to factor in terrain. Look at the obvious fragility of a stock arm and figure that almost any aftermarket arm will be a lot stronger simply due to brute force engineering. We aren't smart enough as designers to do the same things with the same amounts of material, so we just throw lots of metal at it to solve the problems. The alloy is critical. 7075 T-6 is the lowest strength I would use for lowers, 6061 T-6 for uppers. My preference would be 7068 for lowers but it is hard to find and very expensive.
I run both, I don't have a preference. I tend to really appreciate the convenience of a double adjustable arm, but I don't always build them that way.
