Thread: X-eng rear trailing arms

Hi Mark
Mine are Terrafirma with the ball joint at the chassis end. Still working fine. There is enough flex that I needed to modify the exhaust over the axle to clear the up travel.
Hard to give you a true report on harshness as you know my thoughts on the springs in the car.

Those Superior Engineering arms look interesting. If you're looking for adjustable rear arms RTE make some out of the US.

http://www.rte-fab.com/products?page...category_id=57

Originally Posted by MLD

I spoke with Superior Engineering today re these arms. I was told they are a direct replacement for the factory arms. While i didn't ask the mounting hole question i assume direct replacement equals same holes.

They are the same length as the factory arm with allowance that the pivot point for the factory arm will be located at the centre of the pin between the 2 bushes while this pivot is off-set by the mount. I asked and didn't get a satisfactory answer how these would go for a 3" lifted truck. Noting that with the lift the arm pulls the axle forward under the truck at resting height comparative to the factory height. They don't make adjustable versions (they do for the patrol so its possible). Old mate that i was talking to understood the dynamics of the lifted truck but wasn't able to say if the design negates, is neutral, or makes worse the walking forward.

I will do some measurements on the weekend with the cranked arms and the factory arms to see what is the relative measurements pin to pin between the 2 and then drink a beer while i ponder the superior engineering product. At $400 i don't want to experiment and find it was not a solution.

The bushes are factory issue Nissan patrol thus easily sourced.

I stumbled upon another product by Raptor 4x4 (UK) which is a johnny joint trailing arm. Bit pricey with conversion and freight. I like that the pivot point is forward of the chassis mount lengthening the arm but it could be susceptible to damage for an enthusiastic driver.

see product 01131B
RADIUS & TRAILING ARMS

MLD

I will weigh in here for a couple of reasons -

1) I like those Superior engineering trailing arms, much more-so than the usual johnny jointed arms. (Don't really like Heims, nor do I like the reduced length). HOWEVER with anything like that, the active length is still reduced from a factory arm by approx 20mm, this has the affect of causing more rear bump steer, and making the axle crab under the vehicle more when it is nearing full down-travel. Is this an issue? That's a personal opinion... I don't like it on principle, but in the real world it would be largely un-noticeable.

2) You mention adjustability to factor for lift. When I was cranking and reinforcing stock arms and selling them on, people always asked this question, it was something I had considered early on, but when I experimented with it, I found that the pinion angle was closer to correct with a shorter arm than a longer one! This is because the A-frame has a shorter active length, (the a-frame and arms are neither parallel nor equal length) and hence the change in pinion angle as the suspension ride height was lifted 2-3", was closer to stock with a slightly shortened arm, than an extended one. (we are talking 2-3mm shorter, that's the length change when you crank them).
The way to get around this is to extend the a-frame and the arms, the bits to do the a-frame are available, and custom length arms too. A perfectly useable solutuion, but still not ideal.

I have not played with the 3 link calculator enough to be happy with an idea for lengthened trailing arms (the chassis mount needs to go up slightly I believe, and forward a ways, and axle mounts out as far as possible. So I won't comment further as it get's rather hard-core and not so road legal!

But for a road going truck, I think those SE arms would do great.

I rang s.e. to order the rear arms and they said they are not selling them for a while because some shop in Brisbane tried to fit them to a defender but they only fita disco or range rover . I said to old mate they are all the same trust me I have owned and lifted a range rover , disco and three different defenders but he still wouldn't sell them to me until they find out what happened . the superior is just a patrol arm with the mounting bracket ,a lot better then the rover bush as there is no binding or stress

Originally Posted by defmec

I rang s.e. to order the rear arms and they said they are not selling them for a while because some shop in Brisbane tried to fit them to a defender but they only fita disco or range rover . I said to old mate they are all the same trust me I have owned and lifted a range rover , disco and three different defenders but he still wouldn't sell them to me until they find out what happened . the superior is just a patrol arm with the mounting bracket ,a lot better then the rover bush as there is no binding or stress

LOL, I came here to comment that...

They won't fit Defenders, the mounting hole pattern is rotated slightly compared to a D1 or RRC, something you don't notice with standard bushes...

I'll post some pics in a second off my phone.

Superior are looking at a solution, it will just be redrilled holes in the bracket to suit the defender pattern, due to the pivot bolt needing to be horizontal.

First pic is D1/RRC. Notice the two bottom holes have a horizontal line through them, the second pic is Defender, the pattern is rotated about its centre.

MLD


This post is probably too late for you now in your decision making - I just saw your post unfortunately.


I run X-arms and X-springs in my RRC chassis/Stage One bodied ute.


I am on my 3rd set of bushes for the X-Arms. I think the bushes are too soft and tear/wear out too easily. I have a lot of travel in my 2" lift with very long shocks and raised shock mounts. Ridiculous travel hence why I chose the X-arms.


The problem is the bush when it wears or tears then leave you with forward and back movement and a nasty clunk.


We have another long travel (not quite as much) RRC Ute with HD cranked arms 20mm longer than std. This has gone through chassis bushes at less than half the rate of the X-Arms.


I am about to see if Superior Eng will produce their HD Land rover arms with an adjustable length configuration as they do for Nissan. This will allow me to adjust pinion angle and get geometry better aligned.


Skiboy

Thanks Skiboy, other problems with the truck superseded the trailing arm problem so it's still something i'm looking at.

Thanks for the review of the X-eng arms.

If you get SE to make an adjustable trailing arm that might fit the bill for me too. Doesn't solve the characteristic of shorter arms to walk forward and drive up through the chassis but it's a step in the right direction.

Over on Facebook a person designed a chassis end bush with 36 deg of movement. I've bought a set to trial and compare to the SuperPro bushes for life expectancy.