James Duff Radius arms and 6" lift???? (HELP!)

[410Fortune]

Okay here is the deal, will the classic Duff TTB arms (radius arms with dual shock hoop) work with a 6" lift coil??

Anybody tried this?

Friend of mine has Duff 3" kit installed, wants to install 6" lift while keeping Duff arms, doesnt look like they will have enough travel with 6" coil...(meaning it will bolt up but they wont droop any further....)

Duff says you can buy radius arm bushings to make it work, but we dont believe them (think hes refering to classic bronco radius arm c bushings)


Now we know Duff has new arms that use Heim joints that would work but that = $$$$$

Anybody running Duff Extended arms with 6"+ lift?

 

[410Fortune]

Bumpity

 

[Byrd91]

I'm running with 4" and my arms droop enough that I can get the springs out. I bet if you get rubber bushings instead of poly it'll work. Mine has a lot of caster too, so that should be ok too.

 

[410Fortune]

from what I have found a user known as Splashman (many may remeber him from fordranger.com) was running 6" coils, 4" drop brackets and the Duff arms on his 93 Ranger, light blue, splash.....

Anybody know how to get in touch with him?

Thnx

 

[Diggity UW99]

I talked to a guy here in Seattle at the 4 Wheel Parts Wholesaler Store who was running an 8 inch Skyjacker on his 94 Ranger Supercab with Duff Extended Radius Arms but he had to make some custom drop brackets for them. I dunno if this helps.

Dan

 

[james t]

just thinking aloud here- but wouldnt it be fairly easy to just make new drop brackets? unbolt or grind the old ones off (if their welded on), make new ones an inch or two lower... maybe there's something im missing here...

 

[410Fortune]

Thanks for the help.

Yes new radius arm pivot brackets would be required or modify the Duff ones, however the problem is the Duff tranny X member and pivot point are all one unit so it would take enough work to justify just building some custom heim jointed radius arms (the Duff arms are not very good design anyways, tires rub, dual shock hoop setup is odd, etc) Obvisouly you could drop the pivot points 2-3" but then you have less clearance there and thats nogood for anybody......

We are going to do the install this weekend using the setup as is, and just drive it for a few weeks with little to no droop, and work on some custom arms....

My truck is next, but I have Skyjacker arms so I should be allright........

 

[james t]

ahhh....... it all makes sense now. its been awhile since ive been under a TTB, and i was drawing a blank. sorry, when i get confused i resort back to early bronco mental presets.

 

[Kirby N.]

410- arent you running almost 6"? I am running 4.5-5" and my arms work great. You might need to get some extended brake lines because he probably doesnt have them. Also the Duff hoops suck. I sold mine and went back to a single shock when I got the arms. I also broke a few of them. I made some custom lower mounts for the front shocks to accomodate the arms w/o the hoops. Hope this helps- I want the new Duffs Arms maybe I will break mine and they'll send me those!!

 

[Brett]

Okay,

Here's what we did....

Just swapped the duff arms left to right and right to left. Solved everything. Can now run the 6" coil no problem. Plenty of downtravel and uptravel.

 

[Kirby N.]

Really! Do your tires rub em? Hows the caster?

 

[410Fortune]

The caster has been reversed from the normal result you get with a 6" lift on the TTB. The beams actually tilt the othger way I believe, I will have to get a better look at it.....

When all is said and done there is no harm in flipping the arms with THIS setup.

Yes the 33's still rub on the Duff arms slightly. The new rims help a little and so does the increased track width, but they still rub at full lock. That was always a problem with teh classic Duff arms......

I do not plan to flip my Skyjacker arms when I do the bent beams on my truck, but they mount different from the Duff setup.....HOWEVER I have seen a full size D44 TTB equipped Bronco with about 8" of suspension lift and Skyjacker radius arms mounted flip flop. I asked the guy if they were upside down and he said "nope". I thought he was crazy until we did this lift, he may have been on to something.......