A-arms?

[DirtyBirdRacing]

Ok, Well as some of you may know I smashed my A-arms in to a rock the size of a small dog and bent them :( I am thinking about going with aftermarket extended ones but im worried about rideing in the woods with them? does anyone have extended ones and do 95% woods trail rideing how are they? problems with hitting trees,rocks on the side of the trails? basicly what are the Pros/Cons?

[Speed37]

No other choice beside Gt Thunder/Houser/ATV 4 Play or AsrFX
Just make sure the kind of A arm u purchase includes Ball joints no them dumb heims or whatever they are.

[CJM]

I dont have any yet myself. I can tell you the trails by me can be rather tight and about all I would run would be +1's (+2 inches overall). A +2 (+4 inches total) setup would ride the best, but be too wide for the woods by me unless I swapped to 4:1 wheels which removes an inch total from the frontend.

Other guys have wider arms who i ride with. They generally dont follow us to much on the trails. Most would agree that about 47" frontwidth is the absolute limit for our quads in the woods (and most quads anyways). GNCC guys like to run about 45-46 inches iirc.

The stock width of an EX is about 43.5-44" ) depends on tires, wheels, etc. My stock frontend with 450r shocks is 43.5-but I know the shocks pull it in slightly. So lets say fronts 44, +1 would put you at 46" roughly with stock wheels, +2 makes 48" and if you swapped to 4:1 front wheels you lose an inch.

Id do +1. Thats my plan with stock wheels anyways..

Id also take a gander at JD performance arms. Thats the guy I plan to get mine from. Very nice looking and built well so I hear.

[quadmanw]

I had full flight a arms that were crap but the +2 will take some time time to get used to but weren't too bad actually. + 2 with 4:1 tires are great. Still haven't measured my +2 gtt arms yet though

[Nate105]

Originally posted by Speed37
No other choice beside Gt Thunder/Houser/ATV 4 Play or AsrFX
Just make sure the kind of A arm u purchase includes Ball joints no them dumb heims or whatever they are.
the ASR FX a-arms have heims they are the same as full flight and they have heims to. whats was wrong with the full flight a-arms?

[CJM]

Full flights heims suck, they squeakand wear out very fast for some reason.

[DirtyBirdRacing]

Is there maybe stock length A-arms with changeable ball joints?

[Nate105]

thanks for that info I was gonna get those. Can you which the heims out to good ball joints?

[quadmanw]

I have looked into switching the crappy full flight heims to ball joints and had no luck. I sold them and bought GT Thunder. It's said that they have the best FRAP ball joints

[Zeb400EX]

I don't think anyone makes +0 arms anymore for the ex. But there's a mod you can do to the upper stock a-arms. I seen some people cut the stock ball joint off and installing a aftermarket ball joint. That way it would make the stock arms camber adjustable. But I've always felt like the stock ex width is horrible. There so much more stable with +1's or +2's. CJM is right on the those measurements. I would recommend the +2's with 4x1 front rims tho. You'll be losing and inch over the stock rims, but you'll be gaining less feed back in the handlebars with the 4x1's. Basically with 4x1's, you'll have less leverage outside pass the balls joints.

[CJM]

Buy stock arms, cut off the ball joints and replace with regular ball joints. Not really hard.

http://www.trx450r.org/forum/94-suspension-chassis-drivetrain/194807-stock-arm-camber-mod-how-made-easy-pics.html

But your still using the so so stock arms.

[quadmanw]

I'd go with a nice new pair of extended ones...:devil:

[250x_kyle]

i used to ride about 90 percent woods and some track on my old 450r with +2 housers. as long as the trails are not terribly tight then you would be fine but there is also the 4:1 wheel offset if you can find a nice set of plus ones. best advice is shell out the money for a good set now and save yourself later.

[chronicsmoke]

Unless you're actually racing XC, a little wider is more fun to drift on and screw around on.

Depends how wide the trails are around you.

FWIW - I'm going to be doing a couple WORCS style races this year and I'm leaving my quad at MX width. I also clear the trails on our property to about 10', so I have no issues flying at ~49.5'' (even before I trimmed the brush I never had an issue being that wide)

[brokenmike]

In the 8 years I have had my americanstar a-arms I only went through one set of outer Heims. I don't know why everybody says they wear out fast. I spray some WD-40 on them and they stop squeaking.

[quadmanw]

They must be better than full flights because theirs were junk. I'd rather have ball joints personally..

[250x_kyle]

Originally posted by quadmanw
They must be better than full flights because theirs were junk. I'd rather have ball joints personally..

just measure your studs and match up the shank and thread on spherical heims and get a set of ball joints for them not real hard. personally i think im going to switch my tie rod ends over to heims.

[quadmanw]

I just bought a pair of GTT arms with frap balljoints and im deff gonna keep the tie rod ends balljoints.. For the kind of trail riding and and XC racing I do i think the balljoints are better imo

[250x_kyle]

Originally posted by quadmanw
I just bought a pair of GTT arms with frap balljoints and im deff gonna keep the tie rod ends balljoints.. For the kind of trail riding and and XC racing I do i think the balljoints are better imo

dont disagree at all i just like the fact its much easier to tell when heims are worn out. they go faster but a shake to the tie rod and you know. my whole reason for possibly switching them out.

[quadmanw]

If you pull on the balljoint and it's loose then it's bad.. But I understand your reasoning. Everyone likes something different! Lol