James Duff or SkyJacker

['84 Bronco II]

I'm looking into getting either the 3" stage 2 or 3 James Duff lift for my Bronco II or the 4" class 2 skyjacker lift. My bronco II is a daily driver, but I also wheel the snot out of it whenever and where ever I can. I want to run 35's and I have Bushwacker cut-out flares. So I want to hear your opinions from personal experience on which would be best for me flex, durability, and drivability wise.

I've seen pictures of people running 35's on the 3", but I'm wondering if I'll regret it because it will rub too much.

 

[TheBeast]

You can pretty much role around on 35's but they will rub under alot of compression.

 

['84 Bronco II]

You can pretty much role around on 35's but they will rub under alot of compression.

I'm not too worried about if the 35's will rub or not because i have cut fenders, and either lift would provide more clearance over the 35's than I currently have over my 31's.

Here's a picture to give you the idea

The real question I'm asking is which kit would be better offroad, on the street, and durability-wise.

 

[crawlin91]

Id say the two are even in quality and design. Ive never had a duff kit. I run TTB sj 6" coils and leaves an they flex pretty good. If in your shoes, Id do the 6" skyjacker and swap exploder axles(d35, 8.8) in while you have it apart. 35" meats will probably waste your d28

 

[ThatGuy]

Don't think you'd go wrong with either. Both are high quality and will give you the off road performance you seek. Call both and see who will give you the better deal.
Of course my hat tips to Duff, but I usually go for the mom and pop stores instead of Wal-Mart.

Look at my post about my Duff lift to see if it may have what you're looking for.

 

[Capt Jay]

I wouldn't put any more duff crap on my trucks if they paid me. Their customer service is amazingly poor. They are rude and their quality is lacking. On the other hand, I have had zero problem with skyjacker equiptment and they are a pleasure to deal with. DON'T do duff. They quality isn't as bad as superlift but it's close. Skyjacker is usually cheaper but even if it isn't, it's worth the money to go with skyjacker.

It would be a good idea to upgrade your axles to explorer axles if your going with 35's.

 

[TheBeast]

Skyjacker is a larger company. I could see why in a way they would be superior. They have more investing dollars.

 

['84 Bronco II]

thank you guys for the responses.

Don't worry, I will be putting in a dana 35 and ford 8.8 before the 35's go on:icon_thumby:
Also, if I went with skyjacker I would get their 4" to keep the center of gravity nice and low. 6" is just too tall on a bronco II in my opinion, especially on a daily driver/rockcrawler.

I'm still undecided, so maybe if some of you who have the aforementioned kits could post some flex shots and breakage pictures I could be swayed

 

[Capt Jay]

I would definitely keep it as low as possible. 6" is to tall, especially with a 3" body lift ...............and drinks. This is what happens.
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It was fun thought.

 

[Will]

Skyjacker.

I'm afraid of the newer Duff radius arms. Their kit comes with coil buckets which won't let you use anything but RBV springs because of the diameter limitation.

The old Duff kit I think is great. I think they outsmarted themselves when they changed it.

 

[4x4junkie]

...especially on a daily driver/rockcrawler

If you're planning on some crawling, chances are real good you'll end up wanting to swap out the coil springs that come with either one of these kits for something that will flex better (the rest of the kit actually has relatively little influence on flex provided you have extended radius arms and shock mounts).
Like Will mentioned, the replacement coil buckets James Duff currently ships their Stage 2 kits with will not fit anything but a stiff TTB lift coil (and they would be difficult to modify). However it should be mentioned they apparently do have some new coil buckets in the works which will accept either the TTB coils, or coils for an early Bronco. Not sure if this is something you might want to wait around for or not.
Otherwise the stock coil mounts can be used. The modifications needed to fit a different set of coils into them are pretty minor.


I run Skyjacker's Jeep Cherokee coils on mine:

 

['84 Bronco II]

Skyjacker.

I'm afraid of the newer Duff radius arms. Their kit comes with coil buckets which won't let you use anything but RBV springs because of the diameter limitation.

The old Duff kit I think is great. I think they outsmarted themselves when they changed it.

What's wrong with the Duff radius arms? I rather liked their design: high-clearance, heim joint flexibility, and don't forget the suave blue powder coat! They look very similar to the long arms they sell for early broncos; which the early bronco crowd is quite pleased with. I know that the heims provide less isolation than rubber bushings such as those that skyjacker uses, which causes more NVH and can lead to mount fatigue, but these seem like minor drawbacks to me.

Also I thought the whole point of Duff's replacement coil bucket, other than the dual shock setup, was the ability to run either RBV coils or early bronco coils?:icon_confused:

 

[ThatGuy]

To clarify,

I have a set of new Duff coil buckets. Which, if I'm not mistaken, is the only set out so far. They are designed like the EB coil buckets with a puck in the middle and a keeper to retain the coil. I posted a spy pic in one of my threads (they'd prolly kill me if they knew I done that). I have the 6" RBV coils in them now but I have a set of EB coils to swap in once it warms up a bit. I am testing the buckets for them to see a) if they work and cause no problems with the spring b) if they are practical and c)if they provide a base for a TTB to SAS swap. When testing is done and satisfies the crew at Duff, the coil bucket will be released to the public.
Here is an up close pic of mine. Pardon the mud, I went wheeling and it's just too damn cold to wash it off right now.

If you order a kit right now, you will get the regular buckets that only accept RBV coils. If you can wait a couple more months, you may be able to get this one like mine.

As far as customer support and quality, both have been top notch in my book. I walked into their shop to talk about doing a SAS on my Explorer and walked out getting to be their guinea pig for two different lifts. Their arms are pure beef, weighing approx. 30lbs each and made of 1/4" plate and 2"x3/8" wall tube with a 1" bore rod end.
I have just over 1500 miles on my kit so far and know of someone with over 30K miles on theirs. Not one single problem.
Anyone can break anything but it's HOW you break it that defines whether or not it's worth it. Hell, I work with a guy that has the Holy Grail of axles ('78 KP D60) and he's broken the knuckles off it 3 times. Ask him if that axle is worth $1200 stock----he'll say yes.

 

[4x4junkie]

What's wrong with the Duff radius arms? I rather liked their design: high-clearance, heim joint flexibility, and don't forget the suave blue powder coat! They look very similar to the long arms they sell for early broncos; which the early bronco crowd is quite pleased with. I know that the heims provide less isolation than rubber bushings such as those that skyjacker uses, which causes more NVH and can lead to mount fatigue, but these seem like minor drawbacks to me.

Also I thought the whole point of Duff's replacement coil bucket, other than the dual shock setup, was the ability to run either RBV coils or early bronco coils?:icon_confused:

(disclaimer) These are not my radius arms, but I agree with Will they should never be breaking this way. The sharp transitions in the portion of the arm that's made from flat plate creates stress risers there, which ultimately leads to it cracking and failing. A better design would be to have a much more shallow (more gradual) taper on it (similar to the stock arms) before reaching the point where the tube is welded in.

Another example on a different arm showing the start of it cracking:

It would not be difficult to plate over these areas on the arm to further strengthen them however.

 

[ThatGuy]

Junkie,
I have copied the photos you posted and forwarded them to Ms. Duff asking her to look into maybe making a change in either the design or making a smoother transition instead of a hard brake line. Looks like the die is putting quite a dent in the steel on that brake. I did not see that on my arms----maybe new die----or thicker powder coat......?

 

[4x4junkie]

If they changed the design some, then that's certainly good to hear (those pics are from around two years ago). Some more recent arms I've seen still shows a pretty narrow profile in that section of the arm though, which would still bother me.

 

[railman]

i'd say a triangular gusset on that bottom side going between the angle and flat would do alot to help it....

l8r, John

 

['84 Bronco II]

Ok, so went ahead and purchased a skyjacker 4inch class II lift because I found a website that had a killer deal ($1650 with nitrogen shocks!).

First off I have to say installation was a BITCH! It turns out that 1984 bronco II's have a slightly different frame than later models and a completely different transmission crossmember design! This made installation of the long arms a lot more complicated than it should have been and was a real show stopper! It also didn't help that they sent me 2wd ranger class I instructions, but ironically the 4wd class II instructions weren't much better. Also, The original shackle bolts are too big for the skyjacker leaf spring bushings! As if that did not suck enough, I ended up two bolts short for the new radius arms!

Despite these pains, the end result definitely justified the means. 4 inches of lift, bushwacker flares and 35's look right.

I may try to post a picture later, but the only picture I have is on my phone.

For those who were wondering a 7.5 is not remotely close to being up to the task of handling 35's! I broke my rear ring gear only 9 days after the lift and tires, mind you this was with a wheezing 150,000 2.8l v6! It turns out a half-assed attempt at a low range burn out in a parking lot is enough to destroy a 7.5 with 35's! Time to go get those explorer axles.

 

[Ranger44]

Because doing burnouts in 4Low wouldn't have anything to
do with grenading a 7.5? Lol

In any case, max tire size on a 7.5 is 33's, and it's usually the spider
gears let go, then they fawk the ring and pinion.

I'd be more worried about that D28 up front.

But running 35's, swapping in any d35 or 8.8 would be more than just a "good idea".

 

['84 Bronco II]

Okay, I thought I would finally get around to posting some pictures since threads are worthless without pics!

Just after completion of the lift:

And doing a little testing:

So far the only place I am rubbing is on the radius arms, but I have yet to take it on a hard trail since the lift:icon_thumby:I did swap in an 8.8" rear from an Exploder, and a Dana 35 front is soon to follow.

By the way, those are Maxxis Bighorns on Procomp wheels if any body is wondering...