Link Ends

So I have been looking very hard and doing my research for some link ends for my truck. I am building rubicon express style arms for mine. Just like DB_1 runs. And this is the product I have come up with and really really like.

I called and talked to Medal Cloak for almost 20 minutes and really liked what they had to say. I think depending on price but with what they have priced their full arms at I don't think they will be to bad. They will work for the uppers easy and for the lowers it may or may not work. Their mounting circle is only 1 7/8" wide and my lower arms are 2" OD. So my uppers at 1.5" OD will be perfect and is the size they run on all their stuff. And between you and me I am surprised that 1.5" and 3/16" wall arms are strong enough for really hard abuse but obviously it works.

But I think that it is defiantly a product worth trying for my uppers. They claim that they will outlast a johnny joint by a VERY LONG time. Yet still allowing for 34* of misalignment as well as being a rubber bushing is supposed to dampen road vibrations equal to or better than a clevite bushing. But unlike the clevite it has all the misalignment and is not supposed to wear out. So with these joints at either end they say you end up with a link total of 68*. The industry they got this rubber from it supposedly it had to do thousands of cycles per minute. Which in turn using it in this application for link ends makes it VERY durable and smooth. The joints do not bind up when they hit their full misalignment like the heims or johnny joints sometimes will. Anyways all in all a good looking product so I am willing to give them a shot. Sounds like the best of both worlds which is hard to do so I'll be a guinea pig for them. Plus "Matson" the guy I talked to said they they will warranty them they are so confident in their new found technology.

Here is the link to their site:
Medal Cloak Duroflex Joints
Check out that whole page that the link sends you to read down and look at all they have to say about them. They have a bunch of animated things showing how they work. I am going to try these out.

They don't have them up on their site yet for individual joint sales yet but if you call they can get the order wrote up that way. I hope to call and talk to their engineer here in 1/2 hr and see what he says.

Anyone else heard anything on these by chance?

 

[DB_1]

Looks promising depending on price. You'd probably have to surf the jeep forums to get some real world reviews. My uppers are only 3/16" wall and i'm not too worried about it. If I was doing high speed whoop runs I'd probably reconsider them.

If you want ultimate strength and light weight you can go with heat treated cro-mo links like Heretic fab or PolyPerformance offer. They are only .120 wall but are as strong or stronger than those made of a thicker wall tube.

 

[turboexplorer]

Talked to the engineer that helped with the design and I am still very impressed. Seams promising so I am going to at least run them on my uppers. The biggest issue I see is that the biggest case one they make, the one they have to weld onto the link end is 2" so its the same as the DOM I will be using so not sure if that enough or not. But it can be used for the frame side of the lowers for sure. They have one that has the 1 1/4" - 12 shank so its a direct replacement for a johnny joint. In fact they say you can replace the guts of the johnny joint with their rubber insert and it fits right in.

So I have 3 options.

1: Run a Johnny joint at the frame end of the lower links like I had originally planned and then run a factory J/K Clevite bushing on the axle end of the lower links. Then run two of these new bushings at both ends of my uppers. I may have to go with 3/16" wall because that's how they have all their stuff set up. But being dead straight and short I don't think there is any issue with strength anyways.

2: Run these new joints at the frame end of lowers and run the Clevite factory bushing at the axle end. Then run both these new joints on the uppers.

3: Either see if my 2" O.D. tube will weld to the 2" wide casement or use smaller diameter lowers and run the same set up as they do. And run these joints at all four on both links?

I really want to use the 2" .250 wall tube for the lowers I want its strength. So not sure what to do. So many options.

DB_1: When you wheel really hard and plan on fully articulating your rig do you disconnect the passenger upper link?

And what is the width of the four bushings that you run? I wonder if for my uppers I can fit the bigger 2 5/8" joints or if I'm better off with their smaller diameter 2" ones they use on the J/K uppers.?

 

[DB_1]

DB_1: When you wheel really hard and plan on fully articulating your rig do you disconnect the passenger upper link?

And what is the width of the four bushings that you run?

All my links are connected when I wheel. Just my opinion but I think it's too much to ask for just one link to take that much load. If it ever failed, it would take out a lot of stuff and not be pretty. I don't trailer my rig so I need it as dependable as it can be. My rig may not be an RTI ramp champ but it flexes good enough for what I'm doing.

I run 2 5/8" wide Summit Machine urethane bushings on front of my lowers and the same width 1.25" RuffStuff heims with 3/4" hi-mis spacers on the frame end.

The upper links are Ballistic 2.5" wide urethane bushings up front and Poison Spyder boulder bushings (I forget the width but it's narrow to fit on top of the lower link).

 

[turboexplorer]

I fully agree. That's what I plan on doing is keeping both uppers on. I would hate for it to fail. In my case and yours it would take out steering components, ruin expensive coilovers, (mine show up tomorrow!) and worst of all roll the truck and hurt people around you or people in the rig.

Anyways that is part of why these joints look so great or worth trying because of the way they are supposed to give but still be very stiff and hold strong. Was cool talking to the engineer on them. He was talking about a rig that they just put these link ends on. It was a J/K that I believe has a stroked 6.4L Hemi in it. Its a 5600 lb four door and it can light up all four tires. Said they could believe how the joints handled the power. They also took their rig to Moab and put it through its paces. They had those joints done in white so they could see the stress in them and said it was virtually no existent and those same joints are still on their rig and no signs of letting up. They have had numerous customers call and rave about how much they love the flex of the joints and how quite and smooth they are. Road feel feels better than a factory J/K.

Now I just have to figure out if I can safely TIG weld the 2" OD links to the 2" wide casement. (The outer rig that the bushing then goes into) If I can then I may just do all four joints and see how they work. I would love the nice ride that they are supposed to give. The company was excited for my build and really wants feedback on how they work under my heavy rig with 290Lb-ft of TQ and in a radius arm set up. So who knows I hope they turn out to be great and make their way into a few more Explorers

I am going to talk to my Chassis Fab instructors and see what they think about that weld.