Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator

Long Arm Lifts vs. Short Arm Lifts

Is this it?

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There were many things I liked about it but my MAIN reason for taking it off was that my Jeep was really light in the front when climbing and some of the trails in Rimrock are STEEP. Scared me enough I was shaking and had to call someone from my club to come back down and hook a winch to me. I really thought I was going over backwards.

I could step on my brakes and gun the engine and the Jeep would raise up about 6-8".

And then I had real bad hop in the rear on some climbs. Plus I was never really a huge fan of radius arms in the front.

Nope, that's not it either.

Damn, that sounds scary as hell. Those must have been seriously steep climbs though I assume, yes?
 
Have you seen the older lifts that some company used to make for the TJ with wishbone uppers in the rear?

I'd never seen one of these before until this past weekend but he informed me that companies (not sure who) used to make them for the TJ back in the day.

I believe it's a 4-link rear and it has a truss on the rear axle much like a Savvy mid-arm setup, but as oppose to the upper two links forming a triangle, it's a wishbone.

Blew my mind as I never knew these existed.

It would be interesting to know what problem they were trying to solve with this setup.
Could be an old Rockkrawler short arm. Biggest thing them and Full Traction were doing was eliminating the track bar.
 
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Could be an old Rockkrawler short arm. Biggest thing them and Full Traction were doing was eliminating the track bar.

All I know is that the upper arms when combined looked like a big U shape, so they actually had a curve to them.

I had just wondered why the U shape, why not just straight upper links like a triangle?

Like you said, maybe it was all just for the sake of eliminating the track bar.
 
Nope, that's not it either.

Damn, that sounds scary as hell. Those must have been seriously steep climbs though I assume, yes?

Yes very steep. And it takes a whole heck of a lot to scare the shit out of me. I had my foot on the brake and was slamming the passenger door open and about threw my daughter out. And then it took what seemed like 10+ minutes for someone to get back down to me. I was running trail gunner that day. I of course don't have any pictures.

This is what a lot of the trails are like in the Rimrock area. You really need to come back up and run some of these trails.

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You don't want your brakes to fail or to bust a u-joint or have your transfer case pop out of gear in spots like this.

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You know pictures never due it justice but these do show it pretty good.
 
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All I know is that the upper arms when combined looked like a big U shape, so they actually had a curve to them.

I had just wondered why the U shape, why not just straight upper links like a triangle?

Like you said, maybe it was all just for the sake of eliminating the track bar.
The arms have to be bent to fit the stock frame side mounts.
 
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Yes very steep. And it takes a whole heck of a lot to scare the shit out of me. I had my foot on the brake and was slamming the passenger door open and about threw my daughter out. And then it took what seemed like 10+ minutes for someone to get back down to me. I was running trail gunner that day. I of course don't have any pictures.

This is what a lot of the trails are like in the Rimrock area. You really need to come back up and run some of these trails.

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You don't want your brakes to fail or to bust a u-joint or have your transfer case pop out of gear in spots like this.

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You know pictures never due it justice but these do show it pretty good.

Even those pictures must not be doing it justice, because I'm looking at those thinking that I went down some scarier shit last weekend :LOL: (actually, it was pretty scary, at one point I was convinced I was going to roll my Jeep).

I believe you though, because I know firsthand that pictures don't do most of this stuff justice. When you see it in person and drive it, it's a totally different story.
 
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The arms have to be bent to fit the stock frame side mounts.

This one had aftermarket mounts welded on for the bottom arms I believe, but I can't recall if the upper mounts were factory or not. I'm sure you're right though. Maybe he'll post photos.
 
Rock Crawler Suspension back in the day of Bulliten Boards was the first company to offer the 3 link front suspension that I know of. And according to internet lore they had a failure on one of their first kits and it totaled the TJ and injuried the driver pretty bad. They got sued of course and the company was sold and re-org'd after that. With a lot of R&D before they offered a long arm kit again.
Their claim to fame is they use SOLID bar for their arms. Want to talk about a HEAVY HEAVY suspension system.

This is their top of the line long arm kit.

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Suspension - 1997-2006 TJ Suspension Systems - TJ 3.5 Suspension Systems - Long Arm Systems - TJ 3.5 Trail Runner Systems - Rock Krawler Suspension
 
Rock Crawler Suspension back in the day of Bulliten Boards was the first company to offer the 3 link front suspension that I know of. And according to internet lore they had a failure on one of their first kits and it totaled the TJ and injuried the driver pretty bad. They got sued of course and the company was sold and re-org'd after that. With a lot of R&D before they offered a long arm kit again.
Their claim to fame is they use SOLID bar for their arms. Want to talk about a HEAVY HEAVY suspension system.

This is their top of the line long arm kit.

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Suspension - 1997-2006 TJ Suspension Systems - TJ 3.5 Suspension Systems - Long Arm Systems - TJ 3.5 Trail Runner Systems - Rock Krawler Suspension
The kit you are remembering was their bolt on short arm with a wishbone front. Not only did it have all sorts of geometry problems and the failure you mentioned where the front axle folded under the Jeep.
 
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The kit you are remembering was their bolt on short arm with a wishbone front. Not only did it have all sorts of geometry problems and the failure you mentioned where the front axle folded under the Jeep.

Okay for some reason I thought it was a 3 link kit. But yes I do remember those details that the axle folded under the TJ as he was driving down the road at a pretty good clip. From what I remember it was lucky he wasn't killed.
 
This wasn't the lift he had. The upper arms were rounded on top I believe.

That one you linked to is unlike anything I've ever seen before either. How much can that single joint on the rear truss (where the arms come together as one) actually move under full articulation? It seems like the rear upper being one piece would be very limiting, no?

@Dale W, want to share photos of your rear setup? I'd never seen anything like it until last weekend.

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WOW that truss sticks up there really far. How do you like the Rock Crawler suspension?
 
Here's one- how long is a long arm
..and how long is a mid arm..at what point does a mid arm become a long arm?

Not trying to be funny....I'm completely serious. Bear in mind I've never seen a mid arm.

I consider a long arm to be a suspension system that it's main objective is length. Mid arms are designed to have geometry as the priority and arm length is set as long as packaging allows. Again geometry is not compromised for length.
 
I consider a long arm to be a suspension system that it's main objective is length. Mid arms are designed to have geometry as the priority and arm length is set as long as packaging allows. Again geometry is not compromised for length.
Not really. In general the long arm kits are designed purely for packaging. No thought is given to the length of the arms other than to make them long enough to reach a bolt on belly skid.

Most mid arms are designed purely to not be long arms.
 
Not sure what brand it is. Was for a lj and I cut it down to a tj. The arms are solid rod, drilled and tapped. It's a 3 link long arm front. The truss is really high, the link bracket makes it worse. The dana 44 that Patrick geared has a better truss. Eventually I'm going with the genright brackets for a true triangular upper.

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Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator