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Low CG, max articulation, and biggest tire size without interference?

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Brak101

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I ran their joints on my 1 ton JKU and really liked them. They really max out what you can get on your set up and had no vibrations that I could ever feel. I also thought about waiting and see what Rock Krawlers new flex joint has to offer but I can find any info on their site about it just watched a video few days ago of it beating out the duraflex joints.
Iā€™ve been anxiously waiting what Metalcloak will put out for the Bronco. They are the company that woke me up to the thinking that higher lift is not always better. Hopefully see more soon!

Cool video! Thank you for sharing that!
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kodiakisland

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Are you completely happy with them.

So far, but I've only had them on for one month and have done two short off road trips. I've got a trip to Montana coming up next month, so I'll have a better idea after that. I'm really happy with the rear, but still have work to do up front to fully utilize them. I have the factory full time sway bar and it is far too tight for the amount of lift I have. There is very little articulation up front. If I can get out next week I'm going to remove the sway bar and see if that cures things. Future plans are for a Rockjock sway bar if they ever make one for the Bronco, otherwise manual disconnects.

Rear stuff and droop with a tight front. I think maybe a little more stuff if the front was looser.

Ford Bronco Low CG, max articulation, and biggest tire size without interference? 25CEE217-ABDB-4CCC-8A69-5419E29BB7F8
Ford Bronco Low CG, max articulation, and biggest tire size without interference? 03E613C9-9E5E-4AA8-8FC3-8523C6D339A5
 
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Frankie945

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Thanks for the info on them If you donā€™t mind give us a review on them once you tested a bit. Hardly and real world reviews on this stuff just marketing crap.

Definitely try disconnecting I think you might even get more flex with manual discos than with the badlands sway bar. Heck I havenā€™t even connected mine back up yet since a wheeling trip last weekend it actually drives pretty good disconnected. Pic is 35s with 1.25 perch collar to level out after my bumper and winch weight. Itā€™s stuffed pretty good.

Ford Bronco Low CG, max articulation, and biggest tire size without interference? C7616899-2743-43F0-8CC5-A886AE9C44AD
 

Sitruc_btb

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So the rear trailing arms and rear track bar use hard rubber bushings that have very little movement. I easily got more movement out of my rear axle by replacing them, while retaining the Bilsteins. Now that I've gone to the Icons I've gained a few more inches of usable travel, but the rear suspension is too tight as is. There are real gains to be had by upgrading those joints, and now there are quite a few to choose from.
Did you only replace the lower trailing arms? Is it worth it to replace the uppers as well?
 

Sitruc_btb

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Yeah, the rear sucks. That was my first upgrade and well worth the expense. I'd lift a rear tire going over anything. After about a month or so old, the rubber bushings in my trailing arms were already hard and cracked.

Ford Bronco Low CG, max articulation, and biggest tire size without interference? C7616899-2743-43F0-8CC5-A886AE9C44AD
Metal Cloak sells their Duroflex bushings. Perhaps we can press out the stock rubber, and install their bushings for morr artication, given they offer thr same size bushing as what's pictured.
 

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Metal Cloak sells their Duroflex bushings. Perhaps we can press out the stock rubber, and install their bushings for morr artication, given they offer thr same size bushing as what's pictured.
Thatā€™s a good call out. I had never heard of their joint before (Never looked). That looks like a cheap alternative.
 

Sitruc_btb

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Thatā€™s a good call out. I had never heard of their joint before (Never looked). That looks like a cheap alternative.
My Jeep buddy mentioned their bushings to me. Definitely cheaper compared to buying new arms.
 

popo_patty

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So I have a Badlands non squatch being built hopefully still this year, and will be riding out the 33ā€ tires until they need to be replaced, but Iā€™m already trying to figure out what the next look will be, and I thought I would throw my questions out to you all to see what you had to say, and hopefully get some onsite on how to accomplish my goals.

Goals:

1. I want minimal lift to maintain as low of a center of gravity as possible.

2. I want to continue to have full articulation of the badlands, non-squatch.

3. I want to be able to get 35ā€ tires to give the ground clearance, better approach and departure angles, and of course the look.

Iā€™ve been reading up on IFS geometry and lifting effects, and am convinced I donā€™t want to lift anymore that I have to to fit at least 35ā€ tires while maintaining full range of articulation I saw on the sticky thread that for a BL to get 35ā€ tires, a .43 ā€œ lift would be required. Does this take in account hard turns at full flex? Does it include the OEM wheel offsets, or would new wheel offsets be required? If so, what offsets?

Also, given that I get the .43ā€ lift required to match the Sasquatch, I saw some inner fenders that claim to allow a Sasquatch to have 37ā€ without further modifications:

https://dv8offroad.com/products/6th-gen-bronco-inner-fenders-front

Could this pair with a .5ā€ ā€œleveling kitā€ to give full articulation with 37ā€ tires on a non-squatch with OEM badlands wheels?
Very similar to my route as far as max articulation, strength and tire size on as little lift as possible. Im doing JKS Max tire clearance kit and DV8 fender liners to give me as much room as possible on stock sasquatch to clear 37's. Then i'm buying a extended travel lift such as Radflo or ADS or Icon and only cranking it up 1-2 inches in the lift department on the coil over. The reason being is that I dont need the lift to clear 37's since they already clear stock, I only want that extra inch or so of under body clearance. Between the 37's an lift ill have an extra 2-3 inches of clearance, plus the angles wont be too far off and Ill have 10-12 inches of articulation on the 37's up front. Ill be adding Broncbuster stuff as well as RCV's as well for peace of mind.
 

AMTRV

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When I got my non SAS Badlands 4dr I had the same goals.
Low center of gravity = no lift for meā€¦.probably not even a 1ā€ level as I pull a high clearance off-road trailer.
Wearing Kendra RTs in 10.50 35 on BD steeliesā€¦ā€¦this combo tucks up into the wheel wells at full articulation with zero rub anywhere.(did remove crash bars)
I like the way the Bilsteins perform so no need for expensive aftermarket shocks.
Iā€™m not a rock crawler so donā€™t need the extra ground clearance of an extra lift and hate changing the factory engineering regarding axle angles and steering geometry.
I really pleased with my setup and so far itā€™s all I need and then some.
 

mpeugeot

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Thanks for the info on them If you donā€™t mind give us a review on them once you tested a bit. Hardly and real world reviews on this stuff just marketing crap.

Definitely try disconnecting I think you might even get more flex with manual discos than with the badlands sway bar. Heck I havenā€™t even connected mine back up yet since a wheeling trip last weekend it actually drives pretty good disconnected. Pic is 35s with 1.25 perch collar to level out after my bumper and winch weight. Itā€™s stuffed pretty good.
I was really wondering about just disconnecting the sway bar mounts on the OBX*** and how it would affect overall handling.

Ford Bronco Low CG, max articulation, and biggest tire size without interference? IMG_20221006_185615


Because without the sway bar disconnected.... This is what happens!

*** No OBX's were harmed by the installation of the Badlands shocks and springs.
 

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Tex

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I was really wondering about just disconnecting the sway bar mounts on the OBX*** and how it would affect overall handling.
I completely removed everything associated with my front sway bar about 15K miles ago. The sway bar and links are still sitting in the garage. Less body roll than a factory 4runner or any factory 4WD truck with sway bars. I had a little buyer's remorse for choosing the Wildtrak over the Badlands when I learned you could add goat modes with Forscan, but after removing the sway bar entirely I realized that the fancy auto sway bar would have been wasted money and extra weight/complexity up front. Can't say that I got a whole ton of extra flex, but there's definitely more than there was. I would highly recommend disconnecting it and just test drive it for a little while, you'll quickly see what I mean in that the Bronco really doesn't need a sway bar at all. It rolls a bit more at the start of a hard turn but doesn't keep stuffing the outside tire like you would expect, the suspension itself limits body roll considerably. Takes maybe 30min to remove, very straightforward and looks easy to reinstall if it's not for you (I'm personally used to daily driving desert trucks and crawlers that never had sway bars, so I could be biased in that regard).
 

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Got my Badlands last month. Got the 35's(34.5") on, removed the crash bars. No rubs at full lock. Haven't had a chance to stuff the tires up yet. Also swapped the rear trailing arms out for the Fabtech arms. GM at work gave me permission to set up the old car ramps and play around with them. Hopefully today I'll have some time at work to mess around.

Here's some shots of my rig, tire clearance and trailing arms.

20221102_153736_HDR.jpg


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20221102_165224_HDR.jpg
 

Sitruc_btb

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Busted out the ramp today.

20221104_163235_HDR.jpg


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20221104_163224_HDR.jpg


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20221104_164125_HDR.jpg
 

ScumbagTakumi

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Just some food for thought for yall. I have been doing some searching around, and I am thinking the following combo with some flare deletes will be the secret to clearing a 37 without a bump stop spacer and still being able to turn.


DV8 Inner Liners: https://dv8offroad.com/products/6th-gen-bronco-inner-fenders-front

JKS Max Tire Clearance Kit: https://jksmfg.com/products/ford-bronco-max-tire-clearance-kit

There is some redundancy with the liner relocation brackets and the liners, so that portion of the JKS kit will go in the trash, but in theory, the only limitation left will be the fender itself. Tires and bead lock rings should be in tomorrow for me to test.
 

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I DMā€™ed Metalcloak on the ā€˜gram. They mentioned their bushings wonā€™t fit in the stock arms. They are actually making a new joint and new arms to work with the Bronco.
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