Thought I would share this with the
peanut gallery, I'm going to build one
of these as a prototype to see how it
works, thought I would ask what everyone
thought about it
http://wildcatent.freeyellow.com/moveit.bmp

hell ya.  I didn look at it vary good, does it use stock springs?  lata stu

Have you made any thought as to the CV joints?

Heather

It would use 13" long springs, about 3"
longer than stock.

I'm also thinking about extending the A-arms
about 2 or 3" out and using CVs with a slip in
the center like a driveshaft has, this way the
CVs will not get pulled apart, then I will use
TJ front springs, stock TJ springs should be
fairly cheap from a spring shop I know of.

Awesome ideas!  

Heather

Looks good, another option would be to just get new splined sections made by a good axle shop.  Not cheap necessarily but they could probably make some nice tubular 4340 Cro-moly ones that would be damned near bulletproof.  Look in the sand car/dune buggy magazines in the ads there's always tons of them in there for custom axles.

I haven't had the pleasure of breaking one yet, but is it the CV joint itself that usually breaks or the axles that are the weakest point?

I have not broken a CV or axle ....yet, but it
will happen sometime I'm sure.

One reason for lengthening the front A-arms
is to reduce or maintain the CV joint angle yet
still gain some more lift in the front.

I kept the front axle in the stock location,
at full extension the CV cup and the axle
shaft are about 3/16" from touching, so
more lift is not possable without lowering the
axle, which has it's own problems, broken
axle housings, and lower front diff clearance.

Altho I have a skid plate so lower wouldn't
mean less clearance,   for me.

I'm thinking the longer A-arms will ride smother
over the rough stuff and offer a better steering
radius from lack of bumper/frame interference.

I can build parts that would allow me to move each
front wheel out 6" and keep the struts in the stock
location, can you say WideTrack SideKick  

Keep thinking, the solution for the common Sidekick.

Darrin

I realy like the idea of a wider stance in the front, but 6" per side My 33's would almost be completely out of the wheel wells and you would need a full width dana44 to match it in the back.
Something to think about is that stiffer springs would be easy to find, but what about a strut that could control the forces at about double the distance form stock?
Later,
Zig

I'm not planning on 6" per side, just that I
could do it, the struts remain in the same
position, and the forces are on the A-arm
not the strut, mostly anyway.

O.K. I was wondering. The actual load forces is not what I was talking about, the 'shock' resistance of the strut. The further you move the load wawy from the strut will increase the force that the 'shock' action of the strut has to resist. It would only make it ride softer, but to soft would cause you trouble and could possibaly blow seals out of the strut from the fluid being moved to quickly :-/
Zig

Ahh I see, ya it would smooth the ride out some,
I have been through 2 sets of struts so far from
the stock ones, then some KYBs, Right now I need
a new set, one of the KYBs has lost it's gas charge.

Any ones you like I might try out??? Mind you the
blown strut still has oil in it, and it don't stop me
from wheeling  

Darrin

Yea, I'm in the same situation. I realized that one of my struts were blown when I was installing my Anvil. BUT the Dixie run was last weekend, so I put it back on, drove 3.5 hours to Murphy, NC, played all weekend and drove back
Struts, I don't need no stinking struts
Zig
P.S. Kids, don't try this at home.

LOL  Ya we don't need no struts
Looks like I'm off to find a pair of
struts from PepBoys I guess.

Unless Rancho makes some

Later,
Darrin