Replace or Rebuild Rubicon Express Superflex Arms?

[Polaris]

The 15 year old RE Superflex arms on my TJ are due for a complete overhaul, but I'm thinking of replacing them entirely. Replacing RE rubber bushings so frequently and tightening SF joints has me thinking there has to be a better option.

I've been looking at Savvy's aluminum short arm kit but I've noticed it has JJ' on both the frame and axle ends. Is there an advantage to not using a bushing at the frame end? Are they a marked improvement over the RE Superflex arms to warrant a replacement? Will aluminum tubes hold up as well as steel?

 

[Chris]

Aluminum tubes will hold up just as good, if not better than steel.

The Johnny Joint on both ends is a good thing. Ask @Alex01 how long his RE bushings lasted

The Johnny Joints are easily rebuildable and from listening to what @Jerry Bransford has said, he hasn't had to rebuild his in 10 years plus.

I would personally ditch the RE arms and go with the Savvy arms any day, no question about it.

 

[Alex01]

The 15 year old RE Superflex arms on my TJ are due for a complete overhaul, but I'm thinking of replacing them entirely. Replacing RE rubber bushings so frequently and tightening SF joints has me thinking there has to be a better option.

I've been looking at Savvy's aluminum short arm kit but I've noticed it has JJ' on both the frame and axle ends. Is there an advantage to not using a bushing at the frame end? Are they a marked improvement over the RE Superflex arms to warrant a replacement? Will aluminum tubes hold up as well as steel?

My RE arms rubber bushings were toast in less than 10k miles.

RE agreed to send me replacement bushings since the website states they are covered under warranty but I was already planning on swapping them out anyways. I've been slowly swapping all the arms to Metal Cloak double adjustable aluminum arms. (not trying to start an arms debate) The last set comes in today so soon I will be RE free.

 

[Polaris]

Aluminum tubes will hold up just as good, if not better than steel.

The Johnny Joint on both ends is a good thing. Ask @Alex01 how long his RE bushings lasted

The Johnny Joints are easily rebuildable and from listening to what @Jerry Bransford has said, he hasn't had to rebuild his in 10 years plus.

I would personally ditch the RE arms and go with the Savvy arms any day, no question about it.

Since I've lifted it in 2004 I think I've gone through DOZENS of RE rubber bushings.

I'll be putting in the order for Savvy's arms

 

[Alex01]

Since I've lifted it in 2004 I think I've gone through DOZENS of RE rubber bushings.

I'll be putting in the order for Savvy's arms

@bobthetj03 just had his Metal Cloak arms apart for the first time in 65k and they looked great. Then you look at Jerry and his Johnny Joints have also held up great. It's crazy the the RE arms rubber is so awful.

 

[Chris]

Since I've lifted it in 2004 I think I've gone through DOZENS of RE rubber bushings.

I'll be putting in the order for Savvy's arms

Yeah, I'm really shocked those RE bushings go bad so quickly, especially with not even that much off-roading / abuse.

I'd go with the Johnny Joints just because I'm too lazy to want to replace control arm bushings every 10k miles or so

 

[Polaris]

Do the Aluminum arms need more attention than the steel ones as far as tightening the jam nuts? I noticed they're double adjustable.

 

[xxdabroxx]

Do it and don't look back.

Can't go wrong with a JJ on both ends. I replaced some of the grease zirks with right angled ones so they are easier to get to. According to my google photo's account these were installed in May of 2016 with no issues since.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

I wouldn't own another control arm with rubber bushings. Go with Savvy's double-adjustable arms with Johnny Joints, you'll never regret it and you'll still be thanking yourself a 2-digit number of years later.

 

[astjp2]

I pushed in synergy ddb’s Into a set of re control arms, don’t know how long they will last though

 

[bobthetj03]

I pushed in synergy ddb’s Into a set of re control arms, don’t know how long they will last though

Can you give us details exactly how you did that?

 

[astjp2]

Its not rocket science, push out the old and push in the DDB's

 

[Blackkwiddowtj]

I pushed in synergy ddb’s Into a set of re control arms, don’t know how long they will last though

What size dub did you go with? Can you provide part number ?

 

[LieutenantJohnson]

ditched my RE arms 2 years ago and went with TMR beefy dbl JJs arms. I have now gone to a TMR 3link/4link with dbl JJs.

The RE stuff is okay for the mild wheeler on a budget but I agree that tightening those flex joints every couple months (if you wheel harder) is a pain.

 

[Happy in Montana]

Currie told me to call Rock Jock about replacing the ends on a RE long arm setup with Johnnie Joints.

 

[Happy in Montana]

Currie told me to call Rock Jock about replacing the ends on a RE long arm setup with Johnnie Joints.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Currie told me to call Rock Jock about replacing the ends on a RE long arm setup with Johnnie Joints.

If I remember correctly, the RE long arms have the threaded male portion of the joint on the arm, and the joint side is female (in other words, the bung is on the joint side, not the arm), so you can’t just swap over to a JJ. You have to replace the entire arm. That setup sucked as I recall - it put the weakest part of the arm about 10 inches from the control arm mount, and that added leverage caused the arm to bend right there many times.

Here you can see what I mean. You can also see the difference in the RE joint and the JJ’s sitting on the left of the pictue.

 

[Happy in Montana]

Thanks for info. Think I'm going Metalcloak route. Sick of RE crap bushings.

 

[jwtj02]

Thanks for info. Think I'm going Metalcloak route. Sick of RE crap bushings.

Hey @Happy-in-montana how are those MetalCloak arms holding up? I am doing the exact same swap now.