Currie arms aren't long enough to work with Savvy tummy tuck

Chris said:
The problem is (and @mrblaine, @jjvw, and so many others will tell you this as well), that fork lift shot doesn't tell the whole story, not even close.

I'm not saying that these guys can't build a rig, I'm just saying that their way of doing it is not something I agree with, therefore I would never trust them with my TJ.

The guys who built my last mid-arm rig in Oregon were the same way. They had tons of custom buggies they had built, tons of experience, but when it came to setting up the outboard shocks, they seemed generally clueless.

There also seems to be a commonality among so many of these shops, and that is that they chase numbers. For instance, I told them that I was going to put 12" travel Fox shocks in the rear, and their immediate response was, "Why bother with 12" when we can fit a 14" for you?".

Anyways, I'm okay with people doing whatever they want to their rig and letting whoever they want work on it. I personally would just not let any of the shops I've talked to here in Arizona work on my rig.

I finally just came to the conclusion that I'll outboard the shocks myself. I've read so much, done so much research, and just realized that if I get stuck, I'll call Blaine and have him talk me through it. I'd rather do it right the first time.
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The forklift photo just happened to be one that I had... It's true, the forklift doesn't tell the whole story, but it tells a chapter of the story. I've wheeled with a build like that from LetzRoll, it was a TJ, not an LJ and it worked exceptionally well.

I don't agree that because the way they do a big build isn't the way I would do it, that I wouldn't let them work on my Jeep. I just wouldn't have them do their "big build". They are talented fabricators and builders and one of the best gearing shops in the valley.

Have you ever spoken with Jason from Absolute Offroad?
 
Chris said:
That’s someone I haven’t yet spoken to, nor did I even know about. @starkey480, have you heard of Absolute Off-road?
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I have no idea how his work is but I’ve met Jason and he’s a really nice stand up guy. I would give him a chance if I needed something on my rig for sure
 
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jjvw said:
If I were to have a shop do suspension or steering work on mine, one important question I would need an answer to is how they fully cycle the axles.
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Yes, and I’ve asked that same question to numerous shops and their answers are always what turns me off.
 
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Chris said:
Yes, and I’ve asked that same question to numerous shops and their answers are always what turns me off.
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What!? You mean you were turned off when Letzroll told you that you should make your rig have 4” uptravel and 8” downtravel? But think of what it would look like on a forklift dude!
 
mrblaine said:
Threads are threads, no? I have purposely tried to see how much it takes to strip out a 1 1/4-12 FK Jam nut by putting a floor jack under the end of a stout wrench. When I got the rig off the ground, I figured it was more than I cared to know and was good enough. So why does a hole in an arm need more than that?
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My only guess is the tapped hole is assumed to be in a softer material (mild steel) versus the nut being the same grade as the bolt itself. This probably goes down the same rabbit hole as the grade 5 versus grade 8 argument.
 
If I could drop my Jeep off at my shop and say install this mid-arm, move the rear spring perches, outboard my rear shocks and move my front mounts, it would be done. A good shop can build a great Jeep, but once it gets to the more involved mods, it is time to do them yourself (or get Blaine to do them) in my opinion.

I wouldn't consider having a shop try to do the outboard. A mid-arm is definitely manageable for a shop to do, but not anything that takes time and consideration like an outboard.
 
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starkey480 said:
What!? You mean you were turned off when Letzroll told you that you should make your rig have 4” uptravel and 8” downtravel? But think of what it would look like on a forklift dude!
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Ha, I almost forgot about that!

I was sort of quizzing him about the 12" travel Fox shocks in the rear and seeing if he knew how to properly install them so that the amount of up-travel and down-travel was near 50/50. I had mentioned the importance of checking the shock shaft travel at ride height, etc.

He went on to tell me that equal up-travel and down-travel isn't that important, and that he could build me a much better setup with sound 8" of up-travel and 4" of down travel using the same shocks, or give me a 14" travel shock and have even more travel.

I had mentioned to him that it doesn't matter how much up-travel I have if the tire is not going to go any further before crashing into the fender, but he didn't seem to be on the same page as me.

jjvw said:
I recall they made it much harder than it needed to be. And they cut things that didn't need to be cut.
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In fairness to that shop, it wasn't so much the mid-arm that they fucked up. Speaking with @toximus, the main issue was the way they botched the outboard shock setup, and how the forgot to torque to spec numerous important things, such as the track bar bolts :rolleyes:

But the fact that they didn't install that outboard properly tells me that their idea of "cycling the suspension" is much different than our idea.
 
Chris said:
Ha, I almost forgot about that!

I was sort of quizzing him about the 12" travel Fox shocks in the rear and seeing if he knew how to properly install them so that the amount of up-travel and down-travel was near 50/50. I had mentioned the importance of checking the shock shaft travel at ride height, etc.

He went on to tell me that equal up-travel and down-travel isn't that important, and that he could build me a much better setup with sound 8" of up-travel and 4" of down travel using the same shocks, or give me a 14" travel shock and have even more travel.

I had mentioned to him that it doesn't matter how much up-travel I have if the tire is not going to go any further before crashing into the fender, but he didn't seem to be on the same page as me.



In fairness to that shop, it wasn't so much the mid-arm that the fucked up. Speaking with @toximus, the main issue was the way they botched the outboard shock setup, and how the forgot to torque to spec numerous important things, such as the track bar bolts :rolleyes:

But the fact that they didn't install that outboard properly tells me that their idea of "cycling the suspension" is much different than our idea.
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There is a chunk cut out and patched back in on the front truss where the frame side track bar end is supposed to slip past. Something weird happened during the install for that to occur.
 
jjvw said:
There is a chunk cut out and patched back in on the front truss where the frame side track bar end is supposed to slip past. Something weird happened during the install for that to occur.
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That’s right, I almost forgot about that. No idea how that happened 🤦🏻
 
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Rear Drive shaft and pumpkin angles.

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