I have been lurking on Ballistic Fabrication’s website for some time now and been pretty impressed with the products they offer.
I got the time and opportunity recently to use Ballistic’s Flex Joint in a set of custom fixed lower control arms I built for a fellow wheeler on a budget and was really impressed with their quality. Similar to the Rubicon Express Flex Joint but with a machined housing eliminating the snap ring on one side, and $10 cheaper than the Rubicon Flex Joint. (this is a picture of Ballistic’s Heavy Duty Flex Joint I used in that project)
A little jealous after making those, I decided to do something for myself using some Ballistic products. I didn’t really need a new pair of control arms as I already had a nice pair of TOMKEN’s, but what the hey!
I was also going to go green and recycle. As you are now saying to yourself, what?
I am a pack rat and save stuff I probably could throw away, but end up storing it. However I always find a way to use it somehow, as for an example I had my old long arms off my Coil Over setup on my CJ-7 that has been on my garage floor for 2 1/2 years now, and I have been wondering what to do with them.
Perfect opportunity for this new project I say, and cheaper too! These old arms had a weird poly bushing I could never find a replacement for and the original place I got them from went out of business. The Other end used 3/4″ rod ends and the arm itself was beefy as you can see in the pics below they are 1.5″ DOM .250 wall tube sleeved in 1 3/4″ .100 wall tube.
I was going to be scrapping the poly bushing side and then re-use the other end where the 3/4″ Left Hand Rod Ends were. I was also going to do these comp style were I use a Left and Right Hand joint on each side of the arm to do fine adjustments. You just loosen the jam nuts and turn in either direction to shorten or lengthen. Which is nice to have for the fact that 99% of the after market control arms you can buy you have to remove one end of the control arm entirely from the bracket just to adjust the length.
I had (1) Right Hand Tube insert for the other side so I only needed (1) more of those and then instead of the regular flex Joint I was going to use Ballistics’s Forged Flex Joint! These things are pretty beefy and I can get them with a 3/4″ shank to use in my recycled arms. (Read the specs on their website, the tensile strength listed is 8x the strength of a medium grade rod end, WOW!)
I decided I was going to go with (2) right hand Forged Flex Joints on one end, and then (2) of their new Forged Poly joints on the end. These are similar in many ways to the flex joint, but with a poly bushing to coincide with the flex joint in a control arm combination.
Having to wait a week and a half in anticipation for the parts to show up I was not disappointed when they arrived as I was drooling all over them. You can see the size difference when they are compared to a typical 3/4″ Rod End.
So to get started I first made myself a jig on my work bench to get the proper length. I needed to figure out how much of the actual tube I needed with the joints, jam nuts, and tube ends all put together. I matched the stock control arm length of 15.75″ that is on a XJ/TJ. These arms with the Ballistic Joints can be adjusted outward up to 18″ or more! The shank on these joints are really long compared to a regular Rod End. Once I got my measurement I then cut and drilled holes for the plug welds for the two new tube ends, but before welding them together I pre-assembled to make sure everything was correct.
Once I made sure everything was were it needed to be I welded it all up, then wire brushed, painted, and assembled. Check out the nice beauty shot to the right!
Now it was time to put these bad boys on my XJ! I removed my old TOMKEN Control Arms and you can see there is a little difference in the size of the flex joints. The Ballistic Forged Flex Joint is a little bigger than the Currie Johnny Joint used in the TOMKEN arms.
After I got them installed they definitely look better in my opinion than my TOMKEN arms. I was not particularly fond of the bend in the TOMKEN arms as the primary purpose for that is to help clear the back of the coil/shock bracket when the axle flexes downwards and I had already cut out the back part of my brackets, so I did not need that feature. The straight arm is cleaner looking, and stronger. FYI; yes when you bend tube it stretches one side weakening it in the process. (Go ask an engineer)
Definitely my taste, and I love the Ballistic Fabrication Skull! (Hey I have an obsession with skulls, Skully get it?)
I definitely like Ballistic’s Forged Flex and Poly joints. They are very high quality product in every way. I almost hated using them, they are so pretty. A minor thing I like is they use silver zinc coating, which is not that big a deal, but most products out there use the gold colored stuff, the silver looks a lot better in my opinion.
I have had some drive time on these new arms and I noticed they do not transfer as much of the road noise my TOMKEN control arms did. I think the poly material Ballistic uses in their poly busings is softer than the TOMKEN arms.
The only complaint I have is the position of the grease zerks. They are in a spot that I know will get broken off, but I had no alternatives for if I flip the joints to position the zerks to the topside, I would not be able to get a grease gun in the tight spot. Even if I replaced the zerks with 90 degree versions.
I would have liked to have gone with the overkill of the 1.25″ shank instead of 3/4″, but then that would defeat the purpose of recycling DOM material and also would have cost me more. Example for 2″ .250 wall DOM tube is running $15-$18 a foot, and tube ends for 1.25 are about $17 each. The project as is, recycling my old arms only cost me $150. If I would have went with the 1.25″ stuff; I am not recycling and it would have cost me about $240.
I am not too worried about the strength of the 3/4″ shank. I ran 35″ tires on my CJ-7 with locked axles front and rear for 6+ years with 3/4″ Rod Ends and never had a problem. Time wheeling with these arms will reveal any problems or defects. So look for an update in the future as I will get myself a season of wheeling in and do a 6 month review in the making of Ballistic’s Products!
Until then, Happy Wheeling!
