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Why You Should Consider High-Clearance A-Arms

By Kavan Wright | Behind The Wheel on February 27, 2020
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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.

1. High Clearance is Like a Lift Kit Without a Lift

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.

Polaris RZR XP Turbo
High-clearance A-arms give your suspension extra ground clearance by curving the lower A-arms up. This RZR 1000 gains about 2” of ground clearance with these A-arms installed.
Photo by SuperATV

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.

2. High-Clearance A-Arms (Usually) Don’t Affect Suspension Geometry

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.

SuperATV black tubed A-arm
High-clearance A-arms mount in the exact same location as your stock arms. They’re the same length and the same shape so turning and hitting bumps feels the same as it did before.
Photo by SuperATV

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.

3. Aftermarket High-Clearance A-Arms Are Stronger Than Stock

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.

Honda Talon 1000R
If you look at the tube thickness of these arms compared to the axles, you can tell that they’re much thicker than stock. The A-arms in this picture also have chromoly for the ball joint housings and pivot blocks.
Photo by SuperATV

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.

4. Aftermarket High-Clearance A-Arms Are a Better Value Than OEM

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.

SuperATV high clearance black A-arm for Kawasaki Mule FXT
It’s not just front high clearance A-arms! You can get rear high clearance A-arms too. There are also high clearance trailing arms and radius arms for side-by-sides that need them.
Photo by SuperATV

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.

Go High Clearance

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.

RELATED CONTENT: A-arms27 new riders25
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15 Comments

  1. Avatar for Tom morton Tom morton says:
    March 3, 2020 at 7:41 pm

    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?

    Reply
    • Avatar for Tyler Lichlyter Tyler Lichlyter says:
      March 4, 2020 at 10:51 am

      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.

      Reply
  2. Avatar for Santiago Santiago says:
    June 3, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    If I install high clearance a arms will I have to replace top a arms as well?

    Reply
    • Avatar for Tyler Lichlyter Tyler Lichlyter says:
      June 5, 2020 at 3:03 pm

      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!

      Reply
  3. Avatar for James Clare James Clare says:
    July 28, 2021 at 1:47 am

    Do you make them for trucks? What do you recommend for a 2020 Ram 2500?

    Reply
    • Avatar for Tyler Lichlyter Tyler Lichlyter says:
      July 28, 2021 at 9:37 am

      Hey James! Unfortunately, this isn’t something that we currently offer for trucks. We appreciate you tuning in!

      Reply
      • Avatar for Todd Leslie Todd Leslie says:
        August 18, 2022 at 4:50 pm

        I am putting high clearance a arm on my 2019 Polaris general plus I am putting on 30 x 10 x14 in tires will that make it wider then 62.5?

        Reply
        • Avatar for Kavan Wright Kavan Wright says:
          August 22, 2022 at 8:22 am

          Hey Todd, that probably will put you over 62.5, but not by much. It really depends on what wheels you end up using. A wider wheel with the same offset as stock will make your machine wider. But if you put a wider tire on a stock width wheel, it will bulge out more and make you a tiny bit wider too.

          Reply
  4. Avatar for Logan Atwood Logan Atwood says:
    August 19, 2021 at 9:33 pm

    Hey just wondering I am new to this they don’t make a 1.5 for the front of my 2022 I expect in October can I run a 2 inch a-arms setup in the front and a 1.5 inch in the rear??

    Reply
    • Avatar for Tyler Lichlyter Tyler Lichlyter says:
      August 20, 2021 at 2:40 pm

      Hey Logan! What machine do you have?

      Reply
  5. Avatar for Carlos R. Aponte Carlos R. Aponte says:
    December 23, 2021 at 6:40 pm

    I need two doors for a Jeep pickup 1962 as sonó as posible please

    Reply
    • Avatar for Tyler Lichlyter Tyler Lichlyter says:
      December 27, 2021 at 10:38 am

      Hey Carlos! Unfortunately, we do not offer doors for Jeeps at this time. Thanks for reading!

      Reply
  6. Avatar for chris chris says:
    February 8, 2022 at 12:11 pm

    I would love to upgrade my suspension; unfortunately nobody makes ANYTHING for the Ace 900xc!

    Reply
  7. Avatar for Dale Jackson Dale Jackson says:
    February 20, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    Do you sell A arm kits for my 70 Baja bug

    Reply
    • Tyler Mingione says:
      February 22, 2022 at 4:15 pm

      Hey Dale! Unfortunately, we do not. We appreciate you reaching out, and wish you the best of luck.

      Reply

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