PART 1: Analyzing the why & how DIY LONG-ARM FRONT SUSPENSION

A long-arm suspension is a great idea for most off-road linked suspension rigs. Many have been built and much time has been spent thinking about doing so. Using a Jeep as an example, many coil-sprung models have relatively short front arms.

- Verne Simons

That’s fine until you add suspension lift. Then those short arms get to a point where they’d just as soon rotate backward instead of rotating up when you hit a big bump. Making the front control arms longer helps level them out and, as a result, helps smooth out the ride in a lifted Jeep.

In this story we’re going to outline a relatively easy way to build your own DIY front suspension. Much of this tech relates to coil-sprung Jeeps, but there is no reason you couldn’t do this on any number of solid-axled rigs or those that you would like to solid-axle swap. In this installment, we’re going to show you what we are working with. In a future installment, we will dive into the fabrication.

Let’s start with this: Our buddy Jeff likes to go fast off-road, and we agree that is fun. Still, it’s quite easy to run out of smoothish dirt trail and then hit a big bump going much faster than you should be. Stabbing the brakes often just makes things worse with all the weight transferring to the front to hit said bump even harder. However, sometimes that’s all you can do. You run out of smooth trail, run out of talent, and your rig gets damaged.

We are not exactly sure what happened to Jeff and his ’03 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, but we for sure know the end result. The driverside lower control arm crumpled, and the Dana 30 front axle bent … not a ton, but enough to cause several problems. We’ve already built up a replacement WJ Dana 30 axle for Jeff’s WJ and added new upper control arm bushings. Here is a tally of some of the parts we’ll use to create a long-arm front suspension for Jeff’s Jeep.