Looking for a good long arm lift

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Brushtrooper

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I am looking at Long Arm kits for my 03’ TJ. The Motobilt seems like a well thought out bolt on set up. I am still researching and I have tried to search here without much luck. In search bar I put “long arm kit “ and it seems like everything but long arm kits come up. For those that are running them, is there a brand that is better than another? Are there any other components not included in its that is needed? I have a 03’ Rubicon with what I think is a 4” lift, SYE, I currently have it setup with 5;13’s and 35” x 12.50 x 15. I am not opposed to kits that need welding, what I am not comfortable with I can hire it out. What backspace wheel is needed to keep the 35’s from hitting frame at full lock?
It is mainly used at off-road parks in Texas with a form of rock crawling, I do not do mud.
 
No such thing as a good bolt-on long arm suspension.

First tell us what you’re trying to solve by going with a “long arm”. Once you can answer that, then we can actually help.

If you really want to run something that works and works damn well, it will either be a Savvy mid-arm or a completely custom fabricated long arm. Anything off the shelf that "bolts on" is going to be a compromise at best.

If you know what you're looking for and don't mind cutting and welding, you'd be hard pressed to find anything out there that will beat the Savvy mid-arm. Read about it, learn who designed it, why they designed it, and how it works. Once you do the research I think you'll see there's a reason why so many of us run it and why it comes so highly recommended.
 
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I installed the Motobilt 4-link belly skid on my LJ and it is very well designed and constructed. It uses the bolt holes in the frame to align it, but that's as much bolt-on as you're going to see with this kit. The side supports get welded to the frame, and a separate standalone support for the transmission motor mount is required (I went with GenRight).
The Motobilt package saved me a lot of time calculating angles and lengths, the skid plate unbolts and comes off easily, I trimmed a bit of the rear lip to clear the muffler, and I found that I could not use Johnny Joints on the Motobilt kit because the bolt holes are sized differently (I used Artec heims instead).
I managed to make both front and rear 4-links using the Motobilt kit, and we'll see how well it articulates at April's TJ fest in Moab.
PXL_20201006_123132260~2.jpg
 
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gogetter said:
I installed the Motobilt 4-link belly skid on my LJ and it is very well designed and constructed. It uses the bolt holes in the frame to align it, but that's as much bolt-on as you're going to see with this kit. The side supports get welded to the frame, and a separate standalone support for the transmission motor mount is required (I went with GenRight).
The Motobilt package saved me a lot of time calculating angles and lengths, the skid plate unbolts and comes off easily, I trimmed a bit of the rear lip to clear the muffler, and I found that I could only use Johnny Joints for the lowers because the bolt holes in the uppers are sized differently (I used Artec heims for uppers).
I managed to make both front and rear 4-links using the Motobilt kit, and we'll see how much it articulates at April's TJ fest in Moab.View attachment 234396
Click to expand...
Beast.
 
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Chris said:
Or the travel bias?
Click to expand...
It's heavily biased towards down travel (no surprise). At ride height the front shocks have 3.75" of upward travel and will drop about 7".
This is my DD and I had to resist the urge to go big on the lift and suspension so it can continue to park in my garage.
 
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gogetter said:
I installed the Motobilt 4-link belly skid on my LJ and it is very well designed and constructed. It uses the bolt holes in the frame to align it, but that's as much bolt-on as you're going to see with this kit. The side supports get welded to the frame, and a separate standalone support for the transmission motor mount is required (I went with GenRight).
The Motobilt package saved me a lot of time calculating angles and lengths, the skid plate unbolts and comes off easily, I trimmed a bit of the rear lip to clear the muffler, and I found that I could only use Johnny Joints for the lowers because the bolt holes in the uppers are sized differently (I used Artec heims for uppers).
I managed to make both front and rear 4-links using the Motobilt kit, and we'll see how much it articulates at April's TJ fest in Moab.View attachment 234396
Click to expand...
Cool, I didn't know rockslide even made steps for the TJ.
 
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You really aren't going to find a "good" long arm kit that requires no welding. It is important to understand that simply bolting the arms to the transfer case making the arms "longer" isn't going to fix any problems you thought you had. If the terms "Instant center" and "Antisquat" don't mean anything to you (which they should) and you also like to drag in the rocks, then yeah slap on this lift below, but you will be compromising one thing for another.

RE 4.5" Long arm

@Jerry Bransford can attest to this (and yes we've seen the picture many times :LOL:)

There have been many threads about long arm vs short arm here, they don't get too much into the technical aspect because they almost always turn into a pissing match about which is better

Quote from @mrblaine
mrblaine said:
In the simplest form, long arms are not terrible enough to go back to short arms and short arms are not terrible enough to go to a long arm set up all other things being equal with typical lift heights, wheelbase, and tire sizes.
Click to expand...

This is just my opinion, but If I were to simply "bolt on" a lift and not think twice about it, I would choose the Currie 4" Short arm and pair it with some fox 2.0 or Rancho RS5000x shocks

If you aren't afraid of welding and cutting then the Savvy Mid Arm would probably be your best bet in maintaining good suspension geometry and still having good clearance.
 
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I'm no expert, for sure; I went with the TeraFlex Enduro LCG long arm. I was happy with the quality and support. Did need some cutting and welding though.
As far as the wheel backspacing, I just added some washers to the steering stops... redneck fix, I know, but I'm happy with how it came out.
 
I'm going to say something that I don't know has ever been said on here-

I have a basically stock control arm set up Rubi with 2" of lift and a 3.5" lifted with a Rough Country long arm lift ... They are both absolutely fantastic to drive .

I know a long arm can cause clearance issues , but otherwise if they have good connections I don't know if there is another downside to them...I may change that opinion over time.

You can Ask @Claybirdd and @Hog and anyone else whose driven my long armed ' 03 .... I've had other TJ drivers drive it and literally nearly throw the keys back at me. It is as good as any I've seen .... hopefully it stays that way.

I'm not trying to sell anybody on putting one on... Because they don't make the world a better place and miraculously change the control arm geometry as they are presented that I can tell ... It takes good connections front to back under a TJ to get good steering and handling performance.
 
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