You take your stock Ranger out for a trail ride almost every weekend. The trails you ride are easy, but you inevitably scrape over rocks and slide over logs when you take it out. Your A-arms are scratched and dented from months of abuse and now you’re thinking that you better start taking it easy before you break one. But it’s normal for your suspension to get dinged up, right? That’s just the way it is with a side-by-side.
It doesn’t have to be like that. It’s time for you to start thinking about high clearance A-arms. They’re aftermarket A-arms that give you more ground clearance without changing the way your vehicle handles.
Here’s what you should know.
If you’re ready to stop dragging your suspension over every rock and bump on the trail, but you don’t want to go through the hassle of installing a lift kit, a set of high clearance A-arms are a great alternative.
They give you 1.5 to 2 inches of extra ground clearance for your suspension without lifting your machine. They use bends in the tube structure of the lower arms to raise the profile of the suspension. The result is A-arms that more closely match the path your axle makes from the hub to the frame rather than hanging low to the ground, and that means you won’t get hung up on stuff as much when you’re driving off-road.
They don’t change your overall ground clearance (the distance from the ground to your skid plate) but they do increase your usable ground clearance.
High-clearance A-arms maintain the same suspension geometry as your stock A-arms. Suspension geometry refers to the location of your shock mount, the distance from the frame to the hub, and the location of the tie rod mount.
This is important because the location of each of those connection points is responsible for the way your machine feels. Keeping them the same means your UTV or ATV will still feel like stock even though you have more ground clearance.
That’s one of the biggest benefits of going with high clearance A-arms over a small lift kit, which does change the shape of your suspension. A lift kit will affect the suspension travel, steering, and overall cushiness of your machine.
There are high-clearance forward offset A-arms that also affect your geometry by moving the hub forward an inch or two. They have their own benefits (like more stability and clearance for larger tires), but do change your turning radius some.
We can’t speak for everybody out there but our high-clearance A-arms are designed to be stronger than stock. We use thicker tubing and stronger materials in key mounting locations. So you’re bumping into less stuff because they’re high clearance, and when you do hit something, they’re strong enough to not break on you. And even if they do, our A-arms come with a lifetime warranty.
Like we said, we can’t speak for other companies’ A-arms, but you’d be hard pressed to find any high-clearance A-arm that doesn’t have some strength advantage over stock A-arms.
A full set of front RZR S 1000 A-arms will run you over $600 from Polaris. Going aftermarket is the better choice here where a full set will cost you under $400 from SuperATV. Prices vary with other aftermarket companies but the only arms you’ll find that cost $600 or more are built for very specific applications like racing or competitive hill climbing, AKA overkill for a casual rider.
The only negative of aftermarket is that you can replace single arms from most OEM manufacturers, and when making the switch to high-clearance, you’ve got to replace the whole kit. However, when you order from SuperATV, you’re covered with a lifetime warranty so you can purchase knowing that if you break it, we replace it for no extra cost to you. That’s a lot simpler than hoping your machine’s warranty department smiles on your claim.
So with aftermarket high-clearance A-arms, you get more ground clearance, stock suspension geometry, more strength, and you spend less. If you think you’re content with your stock machine, you should really give these A-arms some thought.
They give you lots of benefits without changing anything else about the factory machine you love.
4 Comments
I have the 2019 rzr s900 and added the superatv 1.5 offset high clearance a arms. I also added the superatv 3″ lift kit with rhino 2.0 axles. Should I change trailing arms?
Hey Tom, thanks for reading! As far as your question, it’s more of a personal preference. Some people don’t change them until they bend or break the OEM arms, while others swap them out so they don’t have to worry about it later. We always recommend it because not only are you gaining strength, you’re gaining ground clearance as well.
If I install high clearance a arms will I have to replace top a arms as well?
Hey Santiago, the only time you should have to replace to install high clearance arms is if they’re forward offset A-arms. Thanks for tuning in!