RockKrawler front long arm Install

[TRAILJT]

Finally received My RK front long arm Kit last week. This is some no joke beefy stuff! the lower arm are 2" solid round steel bars and the uppers are stout too! Started chopping all the factory control arm Mounts last night. Boy its a lot of work in a tight spot on the drivers side. Luckily I finally installed my 2-post lift at home. This would be really difficult but not impossible to do on the ground like I have done with everything else in the past. I did not go with the long arm on the rear. I am keeping my RK triangulated rear set up. I am still not sure of what shock or coil over set up I am going with. It will be an extreme setup whichever I go with. Does anyone have any suggestions on their shock/coilover setups or long arm? I will post photos throughout the installation. Thanks and have a great weekend!

Sponsored

 

[Rynomar]

The RK long arm kit is beefy for sure. Mine is being wrapped up as we speak and should be out the door early next week. So far, I have been very impressed with the quality of parts. I am having a local shop do the install due to my lack of welding experience, but it is coming together very nicely. I am installing RK's 2.25" RRD shocks for now, so I can get everything dialed in to determine exactly what length of shock will work. I will be curious to see what you decide on. On paper it looks like I should be able to fit 12" bypass shocks, but I want to put a tape to it before pulling the trigger. I am very interested to see what you decide on.

 

[bakobobby]

Finally received My RK front long arm Kit last week. This is some no joke beefy stuff! the lower arm are 2" solid round steel bars and the uppers are stout too! Started chopping all the factory control arm Mounts last night. Boy its a lot of work in a tight spot on the drivers side. Luckily I finally installed my 2-post lift at home. This would be really difficult but not impossible to do on the ground like I have done with everything else in the past. I did not go with the long arm on the rear. I am keeping my RK triangulated rear set up. I am still not sure of what shock or coil over set up I am going with. It will be an extreme setup whichever I go with. Does anyone have any suggestions on their shock/coilover setups or long arm? I will post photos throughout the installation. Thanks and have a great weekend!

This is gonna be a really interesting build. Looking forward to updates and some reports on how it does off road.

 

[TRAILJT]

Congrats on the lift. I installed mine a couple weeks ago. I installed fox 13" stroke shocks. They seem to flex out perfect. I will know more after next weekend.

 

[Rynomar]

Congrats on the lift. I installed mine a couple weeks ago. I installed fox 13" stroke shocks. They seem to flex out perfect. I will know more after next weekend.

I bet that is a good fit. I am currently running the RK RRD shocks with a little over 11" of travel and there is plenty of room for more. What is your collapsed length on the Fox shocks?

 

[TRAILJT]

I bet that is a good fit. I am currently running the RK RRD shocks with a little over 11" of travel and there is plenty of room for more. What is your collapsed length on the Fox shocks?

Ill have to measure them. I tried flexing my truck out this weekend but it flexes out so much that the the stretched side spring falls out. Here it is at almost full droop on my car lift. The rear still had 2-3/4" to go down. I may try to fab an upper mount that lets the shock fit higher up. I could not lift it off of the ground completely due to my rear brake lines and abs wires being too short. keep in mind that these brake lines are custom length and about 2" longer than aftermarket extended lines.

 

[Rynomar]

That is a ton of droop! I haven't had a chance to fully flex mine out yet, but I know the shocks are going to be the limiting factor on mine. I installed the EVO extended brake lines (2"-5" lift) and so far there is plenty of slack. I don't know how much longer they are than factory, but can measure them tonight. So far I am really impressed with how the long arm kit rides and moves.

 

[Slacks]

Ill have to measure them. I tried flexing my truck out this weekend but it flexes out so much that the the stretched side spring falls out. Here it is at almost full droop on my car lift. The rear still had 2-3/4" to go down. I may try to fab an upper mount that lets the shock fit higher up. I could not lift it off of the ground completely due to my rear brake lines and abs wires being too short. keep in mind that these brake lines are custom length and about 2" longer than aftermarket extended lines.

Following. Looking great! Was that a rear spring that popped out? Curious what height lift you guys have and what your plans are for the rear swaybar? Are you thinking limit straps to keep the spring in place on full droop?

 

[TRAILJT]

Following. Looking great! Was that a rear spring that popped out? Curious what height lift you guys have and what your plans are for the rear swaybar? Are you thinking limit straps to keep the spring in place on full droop?

Yes, Its the rear springs that fall out. I plan on making something to hold the spring in place top and bottom. The photo is from a video. Its not very clear but gives you an idea of how much flex im getting.

 

[Slacks]

Yes, Its the rear springs that fall out. I plan on making something to hold the spring in place top and bottom. The photo is from a video. Its not very clear but gives you an idea of how much flex im getting.

Thanks for the reply. That's a beautiful thing. I've got the RK 4-link rear now and 4.5" springs, but Metacloak shocks which are limited to 28" or so. Looking to bump that up but worried about the springs.

 

[TRAILJT]

Thanks for the reply. That's a beautiful thing. I've got the RK 4-link rear now and 4.5" springs, but Metacloak shocks which are limited to 28" or so. Looking to bump that up but worried about the springs.

I too am running a 4.5 lift. I've got the rock krawler springs. I have completely removed my rear sway bar. Actually it kinda removed itself a long time ago. Over flexing it snapped the mounts off of the frame. Honestly my truck drives like its on rails through the curves in the mountains. The wider one ton axles along with the ORO front sway bar is twice as stable as it ever was stock. It has almost zero lean. The ORO sway bar is a huge upgrade. I hated the electric swaybar.

 

[TRAILJT]

Thanks for the reply. That's a beautiful thing. I've got the RK 4-link rear now and 4.5" springs, but Metacloak shocks which are limited to 28" or so. Looking to bump that up but worried about the springs.

Dude your rig is soo sweet too! Im glad to see that you wheel it too. They are real head turners to see on the trail. not too many people in my are actually wheel their gladiators.

 

[piroman683]

nice job with the build. I ran into the same issues with my rear and not having long enough springs. At the same time no springs available on the market let me use the full up travel so I ended up getting custom springs in the rear. Which rear fox part # did you go with, the -075 or 76?

I recently fit the Raptor 3.0 external bypass on the rears with my custom springs and it rides badass. https://www.jeepgladiatorforum.com/forum/threads/anyone-running-the-fox-3-0’s.41778/post-1188734

I'm now looking into front long arm kits, but none seems to really make me happy at the moment. MetalCloak moves the mounting location to the transfercase cross bar which is nice, but has the uppers connect to the lowers which is not idea for high speed whoops due to stress (is fine for crawling). EVO's uses a 3 link set up which is also not good for high speed whoops since you're missing the 2nd upper control arm and that puts a lot of torsional stress back into the axle. TerraFlex is not bad, but you loose a little ground clearance.

 

[thekbad]

You must be talking about the MC radius arm kit, they also have this one:

https://metalcloak.com/jl-wrangler-bolt-on-four-link-front-system.html

Sponsored