Once the 35's were on, we began taking more aggressive trails and the more aggressive lines at the obstacles. The 100 did great, though we ran into a few bangs and crunches on the undersides. We kept hitting the "weak spot" on the 80 and 100 series trucks...the rear lower control arms and their mounts. We had to come up with a solution. What did we do? We copied Beli Merchovic's amazing 80-series by adding the following:
Rear Lower Control Arm Reinforcement and Skid Plates:
This was a two-step durability upgrade.
1. We took steel angle iron and tack welded it to the bottom of the stock arm. This basically helped to protect the arm from getting bent on a rock or ledge which is a common problem.
2. We welded 3/8" plate to the front of the arm mount. These arm mounts get hit and often and can bend which dislocates the position of the mount. These plates transferred the hit from the mount to the frame. They've been rock solid ever since.
So have they held up after Moab and all the other difficult trails? YES! Well, there was one glitch.
To date, the arm mounts are exactly where they were before. 100% success!
As far as the arms? Well.....one trip did mangle an arm, though not enough to mess up the drive home. Climbing three ledges on three tires at the same time I bent one rear arm horizontally and vertically. Basically I made a mini "S" out of it. After some hammering back at home it was good as new. This was a difficult trail that ate may vehicle parts that day. Bent driveshafts, body damage, destroyed control arm (not mine), etc, etc...carnage on Pyeatte Draw.
Here's the ledge where I was hopping that bent my arm into an "S":
CONCLUSION:
This is another must-do mod. It cost me about $20 in steal and $50 in labor and I've been protected. There's now new HD arms sold for the 100. At about $400 I'll keep the setup I have until something proves it "weak".
They did survive several "bumps" while climbing large ledges....like here at the Golden Stairs on the Golden Spike Trail:
What's next? More trails!