If you keep your stuff on jackstands in the garage they never break

If you lose a bracket or link you've either crashed or have a shit fabricator and have bigger issues than "redundancy".

You only have 2 links connecting the axle to your vehicle. That’s more force on your 2 frame points. Radius arms don’t have as much adjustability of the pinion during suspension travels. They definitely both have ups and downs. If you’re welding that stuff with a harbor freight 110 welder then you have a lot more expensive lessons to learn about fabrication. 3 and 4 links are definitely a step up from radius arm suspension.

The argument for redundancy is a red herring. You only have one fuel pump, and one ECM, and one transmission, etc etc. There’s many things that are critical, so you just build them right and depend on them. One might even say that a radius arm system has an unnecessary arm that isn’t necessary.

Good food for thought. As someone who's had both radius arms and a three link on the same vehicle, I've got quite a bit of experience with both. The radius arm articulated just fine, but I was running rubber bushings. Those bushings gradually wear over time and in my case the slop that gradually grew in my suspension contributed to death wobble, which in turn started wearing other components like tie rod ends, balljoints, etc. So I went 3 link so I could run Johnny Joints throughout. The lack of redundancy is certainly a concern, but it's worth it to me. Just make sure not to let Cletus weld the mounts with his 110v HF welder! :) Another thing I like is the caster that can be designed into the 3 link system as the suspension cycles. But I agree with you that the radius arm setup gets a bad rep and that's not justified. For me and my rig, though, I'll be sticking with my plans to continue with a 3 link as my tons go in. Keep up the good work!

My thought with radius arms is that they will have some sort of binding in them, but that would make it so you did not need a swaybar to prevent body roll. I used them on the front of my scout project as I did not have a good place to mount a swaybar. Running the radius arms also allowed me to use the stock exhaust parts on my 5.3, so I did not have to buy new headers and get crazy with the exhaust, which also allowed me another inch of uptravel so I could get the thing sitting low and still have decent uptravel. I also thought that if I ran the radius arms and learned they sucked, I could reuse most of it and add a third link.

I think if 3 link is good enough for KOH its good enough for me.

I think each set up has it's advantages, but I think 3 link is better during most failures. 3 link has 3 connections on the frame side and axle side, and radius arm only has 2 contacts on the frame. Radius arms have 4 connections on the axle side and this gives it an advantage during an upper control arm failure, but on the radius arm the upper control arms are supported by the lower control arms so if a lower arm fails, the uppers also fail. The upper control arms on a 3 link are tucked up high and would be hard to hit with objects hard enough to cause a failure. Your video brings up the possibility of poor welding causing a failure on upper control arms, but lower control arms are also susceptible to poor welding, so both design's are susceptible to the failure.

Also, many companies have 3 link factory rear ends. Liberty, 99-04 WJ, nitro etc are Ann trailing arms and upper wishbone with a small ball joint for the upper attachment point.

Use quality suspension system/parts etc and it's a moot point! Plus the fact, full coverage insurance! It pays for everything to be replaced with only a small amount of money for deductible! 3 link is much better than radius arm kit, might as well kept short arms.

The radius arms rely on bushing deflection for articulation, no way around that. If you lose the lower control arm mount on the driveshaft side your driveshaft is either going to overextend and fall apart, or donkey punch the tcase off the trans...

Dang bro! I was just thinking about your Dakota. Glad to see you’re still at it!

Jeep liberty rear is wishbone 3 link and I agree with you on redundancy but the chance of failure is less on a 3 link because all the links and joints are only seeing tention and compression loads radius arms bind and add bending forces to you brackets, links and rod ends that will never be present in a 3 link

The rear suspension on certain year libertys, grand Cherokees, dodge nitros and maybe some others have 2 lower arms and an upper wishbone. And it mounts to the top of the diff with a ball socket

As someone planing a sas on my 05 Hilux radius arms are definitely the way I'm going now. Tha ks for the ex event video, keep em coming pls.

58 Chevys had a upper wishbone three link rear suspension

Three link rear suspension is good for street cars, but off road you need more beef.

Great vido! I agree radius arms are ideal for the majority of build. When i build one ill use them for eases. As for manufacturers the wj used a tiype of 3 link rear suspension thoes thing flex great for stock arms but stuck to replace. Also the last year of the sold axle mustangs use a 3 link. I am actually building a 3 link in my 68 mustang for a gopd do everything car the 3 like is vercital but has its major downfalls.

Ford Aerostar rear end is a 3link, mostly. It has g body shuffle when the wheels lock up. It’s fucking terrifying.

If your axle, crankshaft, camshaft, driveshaft, etc... Breaks what redundancy do you have?

doesn’t mention anything about anti squat or radius arms unloading on an incline 🙄👎🏼. although on more street driven less hardcore rigs radius arms are the correct choice for the average person.

Want to see more of your dakota! There is a place and a reason for all suspension systems in my opinion and I think 3 links are for purpose built crawlers that live on a trailer. I have friends that drive their 3 link jeeps on the street and I think they are nucking futs ! They work well though and are stable on the highway. Hopefully their junk doesn't break

Thanks. That was helpful.

Isuzu Trooper has a factory 3-link in the rear.

Except with a Radius Arm setup you have even less redundancy than with a 3 Link. Sure you have 4 mounting points on the axle but you only have 2 mounting points on the frame with a Radius Arm. You lose either of those 2 mounting points and you're day is toast!

And this is why you carry a generator welder in the back

Now if one of your lower links goes the whole thing is also smoke. Would a 4-link not be better from not only the sake of redundancy but also a great or amount of tunability as well as dispersion of force on more points on the frame?

Thanks for dropping some knowledge. I am just getting into all this and you just helped me out a lot.

IROKS came with 3 links from the factory. Your welcome😁

if a lower link breaks on either suspension setup your whole day is ruined and probably the majority of the front end is going to need to be rebuilt, doesn't matter what system you have. and let's not forget the radius arm is the least useful as far as a radius vs 3 vs 4 link in suspension tuning. there is a reason you see go fast trucks using 4 links and crawlers using 3 links. not to say a radius arm is bad just that your arguments are bad, specifically when you try and pretend a broken lower arm on a radius arm will be any different to a broken lower arm on a 3 link or 4 link. if you need real word data i broke a front lower link on my jeep Cherokee 4 link setup and the entire axle was trash not to mention other damage that was done as a after effect to that, like my shock bent steering smashed fender. point is opinions are like buttholes everybody has one.

My current wj came with a long arm clayton kit, radius arms, i have has four link and three link rigs i built them al, they rode and flexed better than this clayton, i will be changing itl

S197 Mustang’s have rear 3 link suspension.

Old opel RWD cars have a 3 link suspension setup.

Would using spherical bearings help with the binding issues or are they not used because they transfer everything to the frame?

Keep up the work mate

Build it right and they don’t break

great info thanks

I'll take a 3 link over 4 link any day, much easier setup very little lost in terms of flex. If your worried about breakage build it right the first time 🤣

I agree.

If using radius arms what would be the disadvantages of using the ford mounts with the ruff stuff arm kit and saving all that work?

Redundancy, you sound like a process engineer 😂 just kidding only saying that , because I know the importance of redundancy , and it's purpose meaning .

Can Johnny joints be used on radius arms? Why or why not?- conflicting answers when going through google….

Great video

I agree and disagree. If one of the chasis side bushes dies on the radial arm. Your axel is toast. Also very interesting video on lite brite channel with their mega 3 link. The builder there was very confident with their 3 link.

If your vehicle gets to the point your talking about, that means you don't maintain your shit. That goes for any suspension. Just drive and beat the hell outta your stuff until it literally falls apart and being oblivious to all signs of part failures, maybe you should stick to a bicycle. Oooh wait that requires maintenance to perform correctly. Last options, walk, uber, or public transportation. Then you don't need to maintain anything.

Can/Should radius arms be used in the rear? I have seen a lot of front radius set ups but don't recall ever seeing them in the rear. Trailing arms maybe.

It’s been 2 years when is it gonna be done?

Radius arms are complete garbage for offroad use. Can't believe anyone is still recommending them.

Whatever happened to the Dana 60 Dakota ?? Did I miss something or did you finish it ?

Is it the same for a 4 link setup?

I wheel harder than you could ever imagine and never seen a 3 link fail proper set up. 3/4 bolts with 1 1/4 heims is pretty hard to break. Stop giving false info. Raduis arms is the worst off-road suspension design possible.

Is that true with a trac bar? Maybe 3 link with no trac bar

Amen.

Where are you in this build

What happened to this guy, he said he was working on putting out more videos then just vanished.

Nice video but one mans opinion. But sometimes that’s what we can fit.

good👍👍

Been waiting on an update And im months late.

How bout we just not let “Cletus” do any fab work or welding on your rig at all. Much less with his 110v welder…

I understand the concept of redundancy. True, with a three link, you don’t have redundancy on the upper link. Remember that with your radius arm setup, you have the front axle located with only two frame mounts. You lose one of them and your axle is gone. You will destroy a lot of parts. If you want redundancy, a true 4 link is what you need. Why do you think stock axles are located with 4 links? Redundancy and liability. Parallel 4 links don’t flex as well as a triangulated 4 link or a 3 link.

You're arguing redundancy, seriously. How about the lack of setting anti dive/anti lift. How about stop fabricating junk and build you rig so it doesn't break rather then worrying about what happens when it breaks.

Weight on the springs will keep the axle from rotating as bad as your explaining. This is dumb