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Both Extended and Wristed?

SaddleUp

Bronco Guru
Joined
May 23, 2004
Messages
9,655
Loc.
Vancouver, WA
Anyone running both Extended Radius arms and the BC Bronco's Wristed Housing Kit? I'm looking over options for changing my frontend but I'm not sure if both would work well together or not.
 

crawln68

Bronco Guru
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Messages
3,045
Hey ..... me too. I have wondered the same thing. I'm very curious to see if anyone chimes in here and says they have done it. And with what results. Wait, you are talking about the WAH, right? With extended radius arms.
 

76Broncofromhell

Bronco Totalitarian
Joined
Jul 30, 2001
Messages
4,244
Loc.
Reno, NV
I've run a wristed arm and now I'm running WH extended. There's no real difference in flex between the two, but the long arms feel a lot more stable on the trail. It seems like kind of a waste to combine the two.
 
OP
OP
SaddleUp

SaddleUp

Bronco Guru
Joined
May 23, 2004
Messages
9,655
Loc.
Vancouver, WA
76Broncofromhell said:
I've run a wristed arm and now I'm running WH extended. There's no real difference in flex between the two, but the long arms feel a lot more stable on the trail. It seems like kind of a waste to combine the two.
Perhaps however I am curious what the real result would be. Would it even be streetable for instance? Why did you switch from the wristed housing? That may help me decide what to do.
 

76Broncofromhell

Bronco Totalitarian
Joined
Jul 30, 2001
Messages
4,244
Loc.
Reno, NV
I had a wristed arm, not housing. I switched because my arm was a little shady. I also liked the way the WH/ All4Fun arms were built.

You would not gain any flex by combining the two was my point. Wristed arms are the cheap way to gain flex without upgrading to an extended arm. Combining the two doesn't add anything to the mix.
 
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OP
SaddleUp

SaddleUp

Bronco Guru
Joined
May 23, 2004
Messages
9,655
Loc.
Vancouver, WA
76Broncofromhell said:
I had a wristed arm, not housing. I switched because my arm was a little shady. I also liked the way the WH/ All4Fun arms were built.

You would not gain any flex by combining the two was my point. Wristed arms are the cheap way to gain flex without upgrading to an extended arm. Combining the two doesn't add anything to the mix.
I'm not even considering a wristed arm. I already have extended arms. I'm thinking of adding a wristed housing to the mix though.
 

76Broncofromhell

Bronco Totalitarian
Joined
Jul 30, 2001
Messages
4,244
Loc.
Reno, NV
I can't attest to how those work, but the general idea scares me. I prefer to leave my housing in one piece. Extended arms already give you lots of flex so I don't see the economics behind more stuff to gain a slight amount of flex.
 

Delta4WheelDrive

Sr. Member
Joined
May 29, 2003
Messages
428
Loc.
Bakersfield
I have arms extended by 15". I have WH 5.5 inch coils with drop out buckets that are cranked up for an additional 2" of suspension lift. Last year on the Con, I was heading in through gatekeeper and my passenger side radius arm broke completely in half in front of the shock mounts. I have the arms plated, however the plating stopped where it broke. The driver’s side was badly bent and ready to break as well. So we, at 3 am at gatekeeper, added scrap metal and welded it good enough to get back to the trailer. %)

So, my opinion would be that the lengthened arm as well as it being wristed would work best to absorb the rotational torque with extreme travel and the use of radius arms (no 3 or 4 link). I have since built new arms and am trying to decide whether I am going to use the WAH or make my arms wristed. I am leaning heavily toward the wristed arm...

My newly built arms are indestructible, but I have seen the front radius arm cap break off. The torque needs to be alleviated some how...
 

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OP
OP
SaddleUp

SaddleUp

Bronco Guru
Joined
May 23, 2004
Messages
9,655
Loc.
Vancouver, WA
Delta4WheelDrive said:
I have arms extended by 15". I have WH 5.5 inch coils with drop out buckets that are cranked up for an additional 2" of suspension lift. Last year on the Con, I was heading in through gatekeeper and my passenger side radius arm broke completely in half in front of the shock mounts. I have the arms plated, however the plating stopped where it broke. The driver’s side was badly bent and ready to break as well. So we, at 3 am at gatekeeper, added scrap metal and welded it good enough to get back to the trailer. %)

So, my opinion would be that the lengthened arm as well as it being wristed would work best to absorb the rotational torque with extreme travel and the use of radius arms (no 3 or 4 link). I have since built new arms and am trying to decide whether I am going to use the WAH or make my arms wristed. I am leaning heavily toward the wristed arm...

My newly built arms are indestructible, but I have seen the front radius arm cap break off. The torque needs to be alleviated some how...
The people I have talked to with wristed arms tell me they are a hinderence on the trail. I.E. From what I understand they have a tendacy to fold up so they just leave them pinned.
 

icebreaker88

Full Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2004
Messages
287
Loc.
Warren,MI
Delta,

Are those stock arms you extended. I want to extend mine also but am also looking for more turning radius. It looks like your are bent for more clearence.
Just wanted to know if any has ever bent the stock arms for more turning radius.
Thanks
 

GaBronco

Sr. Member
Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
388
Loc.
South Ogden
There was a guy at the ECBR Free-4-All in 2004 that was running both the WAH and the extended Radius arms from Duff's. He did really well in the rocks and seem to flex better than most. The guy was running a propane injected 200. Maybe some of the guys that were there remember it and can give more info. It was John Deere green and had two yellow racing stripes on it running 35 inch MTR's. When asked how it did he did not say it was overly scary or anything of that nature. Ill try and find a picture of his Bronco.

Nathan
 
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OP
SaddleUp

SaddleUp

Bronco Guru
Joined
May 23, 2004
Messages
9,655
Loc.
Vancouver, WA
GaBronco said:
There was a guy at the ECBR Free-4-All in 2004 that was running both the WAH and the extended Radius arms from Duff's. He did really well in the rocks and seem to flex better than most. The guy was running a propane injected 200. Maybe some of the guys that were there remember it and can give more info. It was John Deere green and had two yellow racing stripes on it running 35 inch MTR's. When asked how it did he did not say it was overly scary or anything of that nature. Ill try and find a picture of his Bronco.

Nathan
In theory it would seem to me that the combination would work really well off road providing it is strong enough. While I trailer mine to the trails now I still like to get in it and go for a drive around town from time to time so it needs to do good on the street as well.
 

wheelin66bronco

Full Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2004
Messages
203
Loc.
State of Jefferson
I don't know about that!!

SaddleUp said:
The people I have talked to with wristed arms tell me they are a hinderence on the trail. I.E. From what I understand they have a tendacy to fold up so they just leave them pinned.


I ran a wristed arm for 3 years fine. Rubicon, Moab, and all over the northern Cali mountains. Never had it fold on me.

Tyson
 

yellowbronco

New Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Messages
18
Loc.
Pagosa Springs
wheelin66bronco said:
I ran a wristed arm for 3 years fine. Rubicon, Moab, and all over the northern Cali mountains. Never had it fold on me.

Tyson
Same here, I've been running a wristed stock radius arm for just about a year now. It was cheap, easy, and gave me a lot more flex. I would love the wristed housing, but I'd probably do a four link with coilovers first.
 

Delta4WheelDrive

Sr. Member
Joined
May 29, 2003
Messages
428
Loc.
Bakersfield
icebreaker88 said:
Delta,

Are those stock arms you extended. I want to extend mine also but am also looking for more turning radius. It looks like your are bent for more clearence.
Just wanted to know if any has ever bent the stock arms for more turning radius.
Thanks

They are stock extended. They are bent for better clearance as well. They were cut in 2 spots then re-welded them back at an angle...then plated them for strength.

What's funny is that we did this initially back in 1998. Nobody had bent arms at the time. We had a conversation with Jim Cole when he first started with JD about the design of the arms....then bang....bent arms from JD. %) Who knows...

Jim at WH is just down the street from me. The arms he has built at All For Fun were definiely modeled after ours....with some modifications...but the design is the same.

The innitial reasoning for bending the arms was not to clear wider tires...it was so that the arm end could still be mounted under the frame rail.. Jim used to have his with these offset brackets inside the frame. He crawled under my EB...the rest is history...

I can get you better pics if you want...
 
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