Why upgrade Lower Control arms?

I am not in the market for lower's or anything, but I was curious as to why someone would replace the lower control arms for aftermarket parts except to be able to fit a bypass into your suspension?

I've done research and cant find a straight answer, can anyone enlighten me as to why/when upgrading lower control arms are important?

 

I would think mostly for strength, maybe better bushing material and uniball in lieu of ball joint.

 

When you go long travel. That's about it.

 

Not necessarily. Plenty of guys run mid travel set ups with aftermarket stock width LCA's. Just most go LT if they go that route because it really isn't much more $ if your going full built MT to jump to LT.

Strength -

Ball joints can fail especially if preventative maintenance isn't done. Yota's are notorious for this. (LBJ failure becoming prevalent in high mileage lifted 1st gens) Looking for pictures of a 2nd gen, can't find any in my quick search so here's a pic of Blackdawg's first gen who suffered catastrophic LBJ failure TWICE!





2nd Gen Stock LCA's do have a weak spot other than the ball joints. (Only guys who should worry about this are those who run serious trails on the regular)
Found this pic showing the weak spot:


Aftermarket LCA's allow for easier bushing replacement which are grease-able w/ zerk fittings.

Ability to run secondary bypass shocks and with some companies LCA's hydro bumps.

Uniball's also allow more travel before binding & strength

 

Thank you for all the information. So when it comes to someone who down the road will be adding kings/TC as my set up, the lower control arm isn't inportant unless I really wanna put my truck to the test?

Wojld you say the average off roader has to worry about them? Or only if they're truck is reaching high mileage

 

Just pay attention to your lower ball joint play and check the LCA for cracks before/after trips. Some guys have caught it and welded in patches/gussets. I wouldn't be worried about it - just be aware long term.

 

I replaced mine, because my lca had messed up bushings and slight bend that couldn't be aligned. I took it as an opprotunity to upgrade. I live in ga and do not need long travel. But I figured for a few more dollars I cold get a sick ass set.

 

I'll domthat, I don't think I wheel my truck hard enough to worry about my LCA except for a scrape here or there but keeping an eye out is always a good thing

That's exactly when I would probably change mine, if they break. unless I had the extra money to buy them with the new set up

 

I think Toyota learned from the 1st gen lower ball joint design. They flipped the ball joint, which gives it less chance to completely fail as bad as they were with the 1st gens.

On the 1st gens the ball joint attached below the hub, so as the joint wore down it would fall out of the socket causing a major failure.

The 2nd gen ball joint attaches from above. Even if the joint wears down its still pressed into place by the shock giving it less of a chance to fall out and causing such a bad failure. Still needs to be inspected and replaced, its just a better design.


1st Gen lower ball joint





2nd Gen lower ball joint

 

Good info!

 

No OP.......the average offroader doesn't need to worry about this.

 

I was contemplating switching to Tc lowers but ended up just changing my LBJ's to greaseable ones and making sure the bushings are still good.

If you break an OEM lower control arm, you are beating on it pretty hard.

 

heres a pictures of my old Lca's 2nd gen. i have a prerunner so i kinda use it as that and the paper thin arms kinda fell apart . But to OP the average tacoma wheeler wouldn't have to upgrade lowers, i just beat on mine pretty bad

 

You should think about reinforcing all other areas of the truck if you're destroying the stock lowers. You don't have a trophy truck! (just it's little cousin)

 

The problem from my understanding and pretty thorough explanation from Dustin over at Dirt King when I talked to them about it is that the stock bushing pressed into the factory lower control arms have a lot binding force to them upon flex. The primary reason Toyota used them was to reduce and avoid transmitting a lot of NVH back to the steering wheel and to maximize ride comfort. That's all fine and dandy, but I could see that same exact binding being a huge problem when pushing the arms during spirited off roading and causing additional stess at the welds of the eyelets those bushings are in place in. You eliminate the binding at the source by replacing the bushings, add greasable zerk fittings and gusset those areas known to break and you just nipped the issue right at the bud.


To answer the OP's question, there are several benefits to upgrading the LCA's. If you already have UCA's you will benefit from even more increased articulation out of the fact that the lower is now fitted with a uniball. Of course that may depend a lot on the type of shock you are running as well. Another benefit would be added strength. You are upgrading from a much thinner walled steel control arm from stock to a much thicker much beefer (yet surprisingly, not much heavier) walled steel control arm, with better reinforcing and gusseting in the key areas that stock arms are known to be weak at if pushed hard enough. Additionally, because of the fact that you are now using much better and thicker steel on the control arms, this opens up the ability for you to use hydro bumps. I'm a personal fan of them, because they serve almost like a short shock, without the increased stiffness in ride unlike a secondary shock which would change your ride dynamics entirely and you would most likely end up hating if you still want the truck to be streetable and have good manners.

My own ride:



Comparison between stock and Dirt King LCA's:

 

This all makes perfect senses guys thank you. It's not a neccessary mod for me, but there is definitely no harm in replacing them if I can .

12TRDTacoma, thanks for the complete answer and clarification, also that stronger lighter steel doesn't suprise me for the cost of the things. It's probably a steel alloy mix that has a stronger elasticity than normal steel and weighs lighter. So more material same weight, and I bet it's probably triple the strength with the design and material choice

 

If I remember correctly. I believe the box that was shipped out to me with both UCA'S/LCA'S weighed overall less then 40lbs. The material they use if I can recall right is 304 stainless steel. Though I'm not sure they use that material throughout the entire LCA. No problem man! I'm here to help!

 

If you guys found a set of TC uca and lca for $1,400. Should you take the deal?

I only plan on going MT, probably won't go LT since I use my truck for grocery shopping, hauling my bike around and don't see myself doing any race type wheeling speed. Just moderate wheeling through the desert.

 

You could tell me where that deal was if it exists still

Thanks for all the posts in here folks! Super helpful.

^now that's what I'd call a bad time!

 

So this isn't the first weld I've seen pull back and rip the stamped metal like a banana. This is the forward lower mount on my factory LCAs. Replacing them with factory but second guessing and considering way-too-expensive aftermarket options