Clayton Offroad XJ Long Arm Suspension system: Overview

We all know that XJ's use control arms to locate the front axle. We also know that lifts often require longer or offset control arms to locate the front axle properly and to also allow for better flex. Well in recent years the longarm philosophy has taken shape and is gaining steam. The longer arms allow the angle at which the arms are in relation to the frame to be closer to horizontal which not only makes for a much smoother road ride but they're design can add plenty more flex to the XJ's already capable suspension design.

TJ's have had longarm options for quite a while now but no one tackled the XJ till the last few months. Clayton Walters is an avid off-roader. He had a large Grand Cherokee that he has built with D44's F&R running on 36 TSL SX's. He's been know around the Grand Cherokee Circle for a while for fabricating rock rails and front and rear bumpers for the ZJ's. Well during his build up of his ZJ he decided he needed longer control arms to achieve the results he was looking for. Well after a while he finalized his kit and has been selling them for ZJ's for 8 months or so. The XJ kit just require some slight modifications to the ZJ design and now XJ owners have an absolutely bullet proof long arm kit.

The new lower long arm with the new upper (short) arm

The kit included a custom fabricated set of longer lower control arms which use a Johnny joint at the frame end and Jeep factory rubber bushings at the axle end, a set up upper arms which now mount to the lower arms in a Y configuration and also a new crossmember which has the control arm mounts and will replace the factory crossmember that currently supports the tranny mount. The crossmember has a drop out center section to facilitate tranny work.(more on that later)

A word about safety:
This kit is a weld on kit. The only sure and secure way to mount something of this nature is to weld it on. The new crossmember/control arm mounts require good welds to be assured that this installation will be safe and ready for the road or off-road. The rest of the kit is bolt on. If you don't feel that you have competent welding skills that you would trust your life or someone else's (who rides in your vehicle) then please find someone who you do trust to do the welding during the installation. While there isn't a super large amount of welding, the welding that is to be done will be the base for the whole system.