Don't read that Mud thread on travel. There is no useful information at all other than theory on what makes a suspension travel more, and about 8 pages of information on arm travel arc, all of which you would accomodate with adjustable arms.
I don't think it is worth messing with the front end on an 80, and that is not because it couldn't use more travel, and more importantly, a cure for the "unloading" that occurs on steep climbs with radius arms. I think the unloading gets worse on taller lifts...Robbie had posted that he was unable to get up the left line on the "waterfall" in his 6" lifted 80, and it wasn't because of clearance, but the unloading (felt as a "dropping out") of the front suspension putting all the traction requirement to the rear.
For me, it comes down to the suitability of the 80 on the kind of trails that need both dual lockers and that kind of flex. You run those trails, and you are gonna mangle the body over time. First you do the 3-link, and then you do an exo cage, and then you end up cutting off the top behind the 2nd row, taking 2 feet off the total length, and you've used an 80 platform as a buggy base and spent a fortune doing it.
The big advantage the 80 has is the ability to slap on big tires on a small lift. I'll be running 35's on a 2.5" lift...that's nothing but springs, shocks, shock eye adapters, and bumpstops for a dual locked rig on 35's, and about 4" up travel and 6" down (the front won't use all of that down travel). If you notice the bigger lift kits on the market...they really don't give you anything else but more lift (same shocks mounted in the same place means all the lift does is shift travel from down to up).
Nothing strictly wrong with this, but it points out to me that the 80 is a beast out of the box, but a difficult platform to grow substantially in terms of raw performance. In many ways, the 80 is what it is, and if you want to alter that, you are probably getting outside of the reasonable usage expectations (this is fundamentally true of most "SUV's" no matter how much $$$ we throw at them), which is why we have the most fun keeping it relatively simple and just wheeling.
Because of all of this, I am going to focus on gaining approach/depature angle clearance with bumpers built for this purpose, and trimming where I need it, rather than more lift or attempting to engineer significantly more travel. Once you take the plastic off on an 80 you realize that even on 2.5" of lift it has huge approach/depature clearance potential if you are willing to trim up the frame a bit...the body clearance is actually quite excellent. Breakover angle will just have to be driver competence and those bigger tires
That was a lot more than you were asking
Nay
