[4WD Toyota Owner Magazine]

I'll chime in since I am the lucky first buyer of the Wild West Offroad Fab high-clearance arms

Lots of high-quality aftermarket, straight rear arms are available, and all have one thing in common--they are heavily beefed up. Now why would they all be made ultra heavy-duty unless lower control arms are vulnerable to impacts and damage, right? Exactly...because the designers know, as we owners do as well, that the OEM arms are vulnerable. They WILL take hits off-road and they are much too weak to handle it. John uses welded-on steel to reinforce his in anticipation of this. In short, aftermarket heavy duty arms are actually made to impact, grind on and bounce off rocks; while the Wild West arms are made to clear over them with no contact.

So we know OEM arms are a weak/low hanging point, and the aftermarket has responded with arms built to withstand those impacts--there is clearly a market for them. Now, any impact is going to be an impediment to forward progress. If we can avoid impacts, our momentum isn't affected, and our ability to get over the obstacle is greatly increased. With these arms, you don't hit as many rocks to begin with, so trails and obstacles are easier to compete. If you do hit them, the Wild West arms are plenty heavy duty enough to handle it.

One other thing to keep in mind is whenever a lower control arm makes contact with an obstacle before the tire does, the arm is unloading the tire to a certain degree, thereby lessening the contact pressure. In effect, lifting the tire off the ground and decreasing overall traction at that corner.

I've taken the Wild West high-clearance arms across the Rubicon and will do so again here in a few weeks for the Rubithon run and let me tell you, it's great having one less thing to catch my 80-series Cruiser on. The less hits, the higher clearance, the better!

Cheers,