Haha, yeah, I know what you mean. If I had the fabrication knowledge and tools I know what I would be doing... buying some good joints from ballistic fabrication, some beefy link material, and making a set of true long arms that sorta duplicate the Extreme suspensions set-up. Of course I would fabricate the same type of frame bracket as well. And I wouldn't bother notching the body mount either, I would just fabricate/move it up 3" so it was out of the way (body lift).

I have seen too many trucks with that kit and they all flex/ride phenomenally. Only problem is the thin/week link material used that comes with the store bought kit.

 

one other thing to keep in mind is with the uca and lca on the front axle moves up and down in an arch. its not lke a leaf spring that moves straight up and down. i know it looks like the wheel is 1.5 in out of center of the wheel well, but picture it with the suspension compressed. the axle and wheel will be more in the center now. so i would think there would be a limit on how long you can make the contol arms on these trucks. unless you are going for better approch angles and wanna do some fender trimming.

i know i am new to the forum and just got my ram last week... however i had a 98 grand cherokee with a 4.5 in lift and at that height you need new adj. control arms. same style of front suspension just smaller

 

welcome to the site. we understand how the front suspension works. the control arms are built a certain length from the factory to keep the axle centered at the factory height, i have added a 2.5" spacer, now, because of the new ride height, the control arms sit at a position they would normally see in a 2.5" droop situation, which ends up positioning the frontend approx 1.5" toward the rear of the truck. the longer control arms would restore the neutral position of the front end so it can still flex and look centered.

We were dicussing the possibility of using a "long arm" style front suspension. this uses longer control arms mounted further back on the frame. This will result in seeing less extreme angle from each of the control arms, creating more articulation, ride comfort, and versatility.

 

You are right on with ride comfort too. I have heard several people say that once they installed there long arm kit (both Extreme suspension and Pure Performance) that the truck rides/drives WAY better, and thats with keeping the same coils/shocks they had prior to the long arm kit.

 

With the long arm kits you have to remove the lower control arm mount on the frame. Not a big deal if you're going that route. But that arm at compression could also hit the frame if it goes up far enough. Sure you could put big bump stops on but that partly defeats the purpose.
I've seen the Top Gun kit and I'm not a big fan of it. It has a huge bracket underneath to mount both arms to. It just hangs too low for my taste. The other kit you're talking about I think is just the Cepek kit. I like it a bit better but not crazy about cutting into my body mounts. I do not believe the Skyjacker kit comes with a new cross member. It might though. I've never looked at a 7" kit before. I don't need to be that high off the ground when running rocks here. The Fabtech kit uses the stock upper location. It might raise the axle mount some but not sure. The lower for it though is the long arm. So it's a bit of a combination. I've heard they ride nice but they are only for 5" lifts. I've wondered how close that lower arm would get to the frame though. Whatever you do, make sure you have 4 arms and not radius arms. The Superlift arms and the like will limit travel more than a 4 arm setup.
Here's the lengths for the Skyjacker arms. 3" lift upper 17 3/16 (1/8 shorter), lower 18 11/16 (1/8 longer). The 5" lift upper 17 3/16 and lower 19 9/16.

 

Cepek doesn't make the kit anymore, its extreme suspensions now. The only thing I could see coming in contact with just 3" of lift and those arms would be the upper link with the body mount. But like I was saying, do you really think the 3" coils will stuff the axle up any higher than the 6" coils? I doubt it, but maybe.

The 7" Skyjacker kit comes with a new transfer case sub frame (so it can be clocked for all the lift and still allow the drive shaft to operate) which the lower links mount to. The upper links are short and mount in the factory lower link frame mount.

 

i was snooping around ps and found this bad boy, im sure some of you have seen it before but i want to find out more about it. this is exactly what i would like to end up with, perfect wheel and tire size choice and the stance is badass

 

the bumper looks good too, but not my style.

 

Yeah, the wheels/tires/lift is perfect but ... Dood ... that bumper is the effin' bomb !!

 

helms I did this quick chop for ya:


johnny.