radius arm bushes

[Wild_Beast]

im currently running snake drop arms on a 4 inch lifted gu coil cab, basicaly for legalities so i can run sway bars ( i konw 4 inch lift isnt legal either but few cops around know what sway bars are and look for them) otherwise i would go superior super flex arm without a doubt, as my vehicle isnt a daily driver, i have a company car i do little k's a year, but since having the arms ive done approx 13000k's and my bushes ( diff end) are shagged, i can hear the arms twisting and clunking against the mounts on the diff when i turn one way and then clunk to the other side when i straighten up or turn the other way. im pretty unhapy that a set of bushes only lasted 13000k's. im unsure if snake racing use genuine bushes, but im going to put genuine (early gu) slotted bushes in and see how that goes.
im glad someone else is experiencing the same problems i am.

although in defence to the bushes, im running 5 in efs shocks on 4inch dobinsons springs in the front so im utilising as much of the little flex it has in the front.

[scottmeister]

I've been running the snake racing radius arm diff end bushes for less than 10k kms with drop boxs on a 3" lift, just noticed today they are completely stuffed, one of them is torn apart and the other 3 are starting to tear and distort out of the steel carrier. they are the rubber bushes with the 2 holes on opposite sides of the bush. Pretty annoyed.

One thing of note, I've been running drop boxes for 20k kms, and since the beginning the LHS drop box had a slight clunk to it- it never quite sat flush with the chassis rail but I was advised this is normal for many of them (superiors drop boxes). It's never gotten worse or anything but its always shit me. I'm leaning towards getting the Big O 4x4 arms now since I need new bushes at the moment anyway, and getting rid of the drop boxes. I've never liked the look of them as they are quite obvious to a cluey copper as well.

[SuperiorEngineering]

We manufacture the drop boxs flat , the patrol chassis have a slight curve to them, the way the drop boxes lock in they do not need to have the curve the same as the chassis.

One of the posts above mentioned about the sway bars, we now do the sway bar holes in the Super Flex arms as well as the Drop radius arms at no extra cost, they must be ordered with holes as we do not drill and tap them unless asked. (optional extra at no cost).

Their was also a post about being concerned about the chassis cracking with drop boxes, we would have sold thousands of boxes over the years and i have never seen nor heard of anyone having a cracked chassis from cutting the chassis where our boxes bolt in.

[madman89]

i run a four inch lift with drop boxes and also seem to smash through the bushes. Tried rubber bushes from suspension stuff which performed well but lasted all of 2 months. What a bastard! Now trying nolothane bushes which are a bit harder ..but if they dont chop out so quick then ill be happy.

[big red]

i have been running wizard drop boxes since 2001 on a 7" lift.
tried all sorts of bushes but gone back to original GU bushes as the far outlasted anything else.

changing suspension should give you much more flex so naturally you should expect the bushes to chop out much quicker as they move much further through their designed flex.

mine is used as a daily driver, touring truck and comp truck and has done well in all of them.

they only time i have had any clearance problems is when trying to reverse over rocks that are touching the chassis but not when going forward as the rocks slide along the radius arms then slide straight over the drop boxes.

I have cracked my chassis back at the curve in the chassis under your bum when i competed with buggered shocks and slammed the chassis on the logs a few dozen times ... although it landed on the drop boxes about half the time and the chassis the other half i don't think the boxes caused the cracks as the chassis would have hit anyway and the cracks are 600mm away from the drop boxes.
also the cracks were from the top down ... if the boxes caused it the cracks would have been from the bottom up.

as for strength ... i welded the side step to the drop boxes and have had no cracks near the box mounts and those side steps have taken an extreme pounding.

I like the drop boxes as they make the truck drive like normal on the road and climb better due to the radius arm angle.
its easy to get another arm or bushes when in the outback.
i don't get the dreaded Nissan lift wobble.
they give good up and down flex.

[J0RDY]

Just a thought, if you were to have an x link or the super flex arms, would the bushes be under less stress when flexing to a certain point ( meaning the bushes will be under the same stress but at a higher flex then with a standard suspension set up where the bush will be under stress at less flex). Therefore when doing "normal" four wheel driving where your not always using enormous flex, an x link or super flex arms would be easier on the bushes.

I have 5 inch droped snake arms on a GU, and am also after some sort of a cure.