Does anyone make taller high steer arms anymore?
- Thread starter jeffro42
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Luke, at 4x4 Labs, used to make his own arms and even some custom arms, from what I hear. I'm running his Hi-Steer on a SOA FJ55. I guess it's 20 years old or so.
He was never super easy to get ahold of, or super fast or super cheap but he knew what he was doing and made good stuff.
Post some photos. I am assuming you're mounting the tie rod on top of the arms? Based on the photos above from another member, seems you should have a ton of clearance with the standard high steer arm rise height. I have a set of Lukes 4x4 labs arms that have the tie rod behind the axle and drag link in front. When I did my SOA and front suspension work, I did have to have him bend my arms for a bit more spring to tie rod clearance. Don't have any photos handy unfortunately.
Last edited:
You have no weight on those springs. You may run into clearance issues on full droop depending on shock length. I would move forward, finish your build and revisit.
One resolution could be to build lower profile spring perches. Could possibly gain 1/2" of clearance there. Probably not what you want to hear, but custom build with builder parts usually take a lot of trial and error. Again, finish the buildout, revisit suspension once all the weight is on the chassis. Then you can set pinion angle and caster.
Without knowing more about your build, what made you put the shackle hanger below the frame, and not through the frame? I did a shackle reversal with shackle hanger under frame initially because I outboarded my leafs to work with FJ60 axles, and that seemed like a better solution than some kind of offset shackle arrangement. Well, I ended up re-doing the front suspension due to a negative rake.....you can kind of see my previous setup in my incomplete build thread from over a decade ago on this other site:
The Asian Mistress 40 Build
Time for a new build in the Cruiser section! I have been working on my 40 over the past two years and I am finally getting to the point where I feel confident enough to take it out and beat on it a bit. I started out my 40 adventure over on MUD, but now primarily spend most of my time...
Side bar - Is that an Aqualu frame?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2012
- Threads
- 631
- Messages
- 17,230
- Location
- Winter Park, Florida
- Website
- www.cruisermatts.com
Even with no weight that is way too light of a shackle angle. Do you realize with that shackle reverse set up the way you have it, this truck is going to be REALLY tall?
I think youre going to fight the rearward angle of those front springs in your quest to balance tie rod clearance, ride height, caster, and pinion angle. I would remove some leaves until you get the truck on the road and dial in ride height. It is possible the only way to get everything to work is to put the shackle up from so the spring is as “flat” as possible at ride height. When i say flat, im talking spring eye height relative to each other, because those springs obviously arent flat.
This is what i ended up with, and emberrasingly it has been off the road for a long time and not yet trail tested….
You can do those box sliders instead of shackles. They are very low profile. Nice looking build.
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2012
- Threads
- 631
- Messages
- 17,230
- Location
- Winter Park, Florida
- Website
- www.cruisermatts.com
Yep, that is your entire problem, you have the springs canted back to far. That is going to drive and ride weird too since the axle is going to move really far backwards under bump. You really want the springs to be level. If you like that ride height I would go shackle forwards.
As for the angle, I would still change either the shackle hanger location or go 2-3” longer springs. It makes a huge difference in not only ride quality but having actual control of the vehicle vs it being a pogo stick
As for the angle, I would still change either the shackle hanger location or go 2-3” longer springs. It makes a huge difference in not only ride quality but having actual control of the vehicle vs it being a pogo stick
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2012
- Threads
- 631
- Messages
- 17,230
- Location
- Winter Park, Florida
- Website
- www.cruisermatts.com
To answer your original question, no, no one makes taller high-steer arms, but this is the reason why.
- Thread starter
- #18
That's a really cool setup!
Are you positive those springs are the ones you are going to live with on this truck? They seem highly arched for a spring over setup. Before going through all the work of cutting off and starting over, id make sure the springs used for setup are for sure the ones.