jaycekarl10, what type of a-arms did you end up getting? that is a good point about where the shock mounts.

if ball joints are weak or a bad idea, then why do quads come stock with them? i have already jumped my stock quad 60ft and i have had no problems with the ball joints. i broke the upper a-arm but it is still rideable. i think i am going to end up going with the ball joints.

 

There's not much wrong with ball joints in general, they will allow only so much arm movement though, the sphericals allow more travel and a lesser likelyhood of it breaking. I think if you go with the ball joints you'll be happy with them, they will probably last a little longer than sphericals if you ride in water/mud alot. I have the sphericals and they've held up to everything I've thrown at them and show no signs of wear through dust and sand so I am happy. The manufacturers use ball joint style on the lowers mainly because they are easier to design for and manufacture.
Like I said before do your research, it's your money, not mine or anyone elses. For the money, I was very happy that TBR had developed their 400ex arms when I was looking. Very high quality without having to spend an arm and a leg. Heat treated spericals on the lowers, adjustable spericals on the uppers and you'd be hard pressed to find welds thet are done much better. IMO[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

P.S. Jaybird, you got my hero for an avatar, thumbs up 2 u.

 

jaycekarl10, thanks again for the information and your opinions. yeah, i wish i could be as crazy as calvin. your avatar ain't bad either [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Ive broken LSR Ball joints Twice...both were serious f'n accidents. one left me walking with a cane for a year. anyways...like the post said above...something has to give. I always keep two extra ball joints Just in case. they take 5-10min to replace (no exageration).

Bent one and snapped another. the one i snapped was the bad accident. it ended up bending the Frame mount for the upper a-arm. the LSR a-arms came out fine. the bent mount through the alignment off but that was easily adjusted.

 

The only input I can give is that I bought heavy duty tie rods and ends that came with heim joint ends. The looked sweet and had very low drag, but after the first muddy and wet ride they wore and developed play. They continued to develop play from there on. They would vibrate adn rattle loudly whenever I revved the engine. I could move the handlebars 1/4 inch left or right without the tires ever moving. I finally replaced them with Ricky Stator ball joint tie rod ends (~$35 each) and will never use anything else. I love the RS ends. Super strong, a bit stiff, but I think they will break in a little.

I have heim joints on the upper a-arm mounts of my Timmy Boy arms (thanks Turbo33!) where they mount to the frame. This is necessary to make the caster adjustable. They are very tight still with no play, but I will never buy a-arms with heim joints at the spindle mounts for any quad that is ridden in the mud or water.

RR1

 

once again, thanks for the replies. this is helping me make that difficult decision of which a-arms to purchase. i know most of the time, people get bad breaks with some products and other people just have good luck, but at least i am not totally clueless. thanks again.

 

dont know

 

The only thing for certian is if you go wider on your Raptor you will love the ride so much more!

 

i broke three lower ball joints (14mm) on my 250r with leager's +2 a-arms. no wrecks just regular mx riding and jumping. leager uses weak azz 14 mm ball joints. leager has since come out with larger ball joints for his new a-arms but refuses to upgrade his older customers with the new ball joints even through he admits they were of poor design (ball joints). nice customer relations for his loyal customers. anyway, i bought two 17mm lower ball joints from ricky stator and redriller my lower a-arm for it. works great and have not broken another one since ( you can not redrill the upper ball joints because the tubing is not large enough). i crashed my cdale last month. i nosed it over on a 60 to 70 foot triple. broke both lower ball joints (17mm) and two upper hiem joints (one on each side where the a-arm connects to the frame). this is lonestar's +3 race a-arms, the arms look fine and the cdale frame was no hurt one bit. anything can break, but with the new 17mm ball joints you will not have a problem unless you crash real hard. $106 bucks and i have everything i need to get the cdale going again. now, if i can only find a new butt bone me, i cracked mine in the crash when i abandoned ship.