Igor: Double Cab 4x4. Frankenstein's Helper

Again...

 

Haha sorry guys. I will type up a story for you tonight I think.

 

long tonight eh?

 

Indeed!


So here is my tale of Solo LCAs.


I bought them in April of 2019 to replace some very sketchy worn out OEM LCA bushing. I didn't like the OEM design anyways and never liked how you had to replace them so the Solos fit the bill plus a few other things.

They are very nice and beefy.








The install went smooth and I also did Cam tab gussets and had just put in new ADS front coils over so the front was pretty stout.



Alignment with stock UCAs was good too. I gained roughly 2 degrees caster and all rubbing disappeared on the firewall, not that I had a lot to begin with.




The wheels definitely looked more pushed forward now in the wheel wells too.





Went of several shorter trips through out the summer.


Memorial Day 2019-17.jpg by Monte Nickles Photos, on Flickr




Now, fast forward to the fall. I'm on a 2 week trip in Colorado bouncing all over the place.

We have a few issues and have to bail and are in town trying to solve some problems with Mike's truck who blew a coilbucket. We stop for lunch I happen to look at my LBJs as we had been on the highway to get a trailer in a town over. The handling have been scary for me on that drive, every little dip in the road would make my truck dart all over. Well I found grease pouring out of the LBJs which were brand new in April.

Fuck

So figured they were bad somehow and went and ate lunch before tearing it apart to swap on spares.

As I get the truck torn down the wheel is loose, I can move it with my hands

A closer look reveals that the LBJs are hand tight, the cotter pins long since sheared off.

https://youtu.be/pW6-tHXnuPg

Baffled, I try and just tighten the LBJs back down but I run out of threads on the stud. The eyelet on the LCAs has been too deformed although you wouldn't know it look at it.

The fix was to get some big washers to put on the stud to get it to suck tight again.

It too two of these huge thick lock washers to make it work.



(not torqued in this photo)




Needless to say, Im baffled and not very happy that a $1400 part failed in 6 months of use. I had done wheeling and such but nothing horrible to them.

I got the truck home though and drove it for a few more months before tearing it apart to get to the bottom of it.






First step was to try new LBJs. I bought another pair of brand new OEM LBJs and swapped them in. Still needed the washers, so I knew the LBJs weren't the issue, it was the LCAs.


I took this info and emailed Solo a lengthy email talking through my issue and how I'd fixed it and if they had ever had this before and honestly just wanted to let them know it was an issue they should probably look at. At this time I thought I was going to just put my LT kit on Igor from Frank, which I ended up not doing.

Few days later I got a call from a guy there who's name I can't remember. He came off as a sales guy more than a fabricator and wasn't the owner. He told me that they were pretty puzzled by it and had only ever seen it once on a LT kit of theres years ago. So he said that either I could measure the gap and they would machine me a spacer to take the place of the washers or I could ship them for them to do it.

Naturally I said I'd ship them as I'd rather they just take a look at them in the first place.

So sent them off.

Lot of time went by, and I finally called back to see what was going on and I was told that instead, they were going to repair them. They planned on just cutting the slug ends out and welding in new ones. I was much happier to hear this and said great. Of course Covid was in full swing so things were slow and I was fine to wait.

A lot more time went by again.


I called again to ask for an update and "carl" was not there due to them having to work with 25% staff and he was the one with the plan and I was asked to call back later in the week.


So I did.

Got a hold of the owner this time, or rather he answered. He knew exactly what I was talking about and said "yeah we are just going to send you new ones, it's just easier for everyone."

Sweet!

I thanked him and was told it would be a while but would happen.


Another 5 weeks later I had a new set of LCAs shipped to my door and installed them.





I haven't pulled these ones yet to check how they are doing but its been over 6 months now and things are still tight feeling so that is good. I don't know if they changed parts or what.


This is pretty much what also happened to @austinmtb and he was able to get his replaced as well. I don't know of anyone else who has experianced this issue.








All in all. I still like them and man, major props to SOLO for backing their products. I was very pleased with how they handled the situation over all.



They are not perfect though. Other gripes I have about them:

- no secondary shock mount...come on, for the money this should be on there.
-no grease zerts, bit of a bummer. I ment to put some in on my 2nd set but was on a time crunch. Will add them latter.
- They are not as easy to jack off of. The OEM ones you can use a floor jack on pretty easily, these are angled in a way it doesn't work so well, helps with clearance though so bit of pro/con


Otherwise. Have enjoyed them!


@chrslefty @CoWj

 

too busy doing write ups to play some halo? tisk tisk

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.... so would you buy them again?

 

Haha yeah plus got a new bed so actually wanted to go to bed haha

Yes I would.

For what I'm doing with the truck they are great. So far I haven't had issues again. If I do again then I'll just pull them and slap the old ones back in.

That said, there are ways to make the stock lcas just as good if not better. You can get the gussets for the lcas from @eimkeith then even a secondary shock kit from total chaos. Then bushings from sorran steel to get rid of the oem design.

Be a bit cheaper and just as good I think. But more work obviously. But that's what I'll do if I have to replace these.

 

so what was the ultimate issue? LBJ tapered bore too short? Curious, as I haven't run mine yet...

 

I don't know. Never got a straight answer. First guy said they had been using the same slugs for 15 years.

But somehow it pulled through eventually.

 

Excuse me?

 

weird.

 

Did you miss it?

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/clear-colorful-colorado-oct-2020.693653/

​

 

Yeah. Twice.

Monte was referring to the trip in 2019 when the RedHead broke. This ^^^ is the 2020 trip.

 

Oh, yeah, I guess he was, wasn't he? I figured everyone knew about Redhead Down; you're famous. Oh well, both were great!

 

wasn't in the front range anyways to stop by!

Yeah same thing happened to @austinmtb too. Brett is the only other I now on here that's active with them. Not sure he's seen any issues.

 

Zero issues to date.

 

I was thinking about going this route.

 

not a bad route honestly if you have the welder and time to do it.