Northern Virginia Roll Call

Here's a great read on how caster works and what that means for tire clearance.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...d-love-alignments.594309/page-7#post-20252854

 

I just came across the JD Fab lower arm pivots on their web site...wow. That seems like a pretty ingenious idea to provide positive caster at the LCA and reduce a lot of the common rub points. Do you know anyone running that setup?
https://jdfabrication.com/products/tacoma-2016-lower-arm-pivots-899-99?_pos=1&_sid=581ee110a&_ss=r

 

Not first hand, no. But there are plenty running it in the JD master thread if you have any specific questions. It's a hell of a lot of work on the install which is one of the reasons I don't want to do it.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/fitting-35’s-with-minimal-trimming-now-adding-long-travel-and-934-cv’s.626274/

 

Yeah, some assembly required. You have to cut off all the existing LCA mounts, bolt the JD lower arm pivot to the cross member to line everything up, then weld the new LCA mounts to the frame. Not for the feint of heart.

 

Absolutely not. That's a solid few days of straight work.

 

Might have to save that one for when I eventually go to 35s, but that is way down the road.

 

If you are going to do that much work, Id say just straight up to do LT while you are there, in all honesty. Gives you more time to think about it also.

Also wanted to add, dont know how other skid plates would match up with it. I havent seen JD offer a full set of skids, so if you wanted a t case skid to go with it, Im sure youd need to fab that up.

 

Dirt King has a set at the same cost as JBAs btw

 

I believe t too.

the above auction still has five days to go. Pretty sure the price will sky rocket.

 

Thoughts on this product... Gimmicky, actually works, or the.. I can't believe you bought that thing. I do not own a LED light bar. So no idea about the whistle sound. For those who do.. What's your opinion this whamma jamma? Looks interesting but curious at the same time. My apologies for it being on a Jeep.

Video

Sound difference Video

 

Well if you guys go with SPC and gusset your spindles hit me up, I scored 8 more extra low profile castle nuts than I needed through the neighbors Fastenal account...

 

I havent had any issues with my Total Chaos uniball UCAs. One pair of uniballs lasted me 3 years of nova winters. And the replacement process is super easy. Total chaos uses antiseize in assembly, so the uniballs came out very fast with a C clamp.

i grease them every trip. Just means squirting some tri flow in the top, after wiping the dirt out. Takes 5 min max.

 

I've beat the hell out of my SPCs and haven't had the nut move at all. Then again, I actually tighten it down to the tight-as-shit spec with a torque wrench. I'm pretty happy with mine.

If I need to upgrade, I'm going with JDFab for sure. First I need a welder... and a raise...

 

I have no complaints on my TCs as well. Triflow maint. Is the key

 

So the JD Fab UCAs use the OEM bushings for the inner pivots, do you guys see any issue with that? It adds $260 to get sealed inner pivot uniballs, but their website says those are for hard core wheeling.

I'm also looking at the Dirt Kings. Those seem nice and ADS carries them for a slight discount. They use urethane bushings on the inner pivots that are greasable. The only thing I'm not crazy about is the gap above the top of the ball joint. I envision constantly having to clean mud and dirt out of there. They do sell caps to cover it up, but they're $50, which seems a little ridiculous (unless they're made of titanium). I do think the DK's look nicer, which is a very important metric to consider when deciding on a suspension. Anyone out there running DKs?


FWIW, Tyler at ADS said all UCAs are basically the same in his opinion, just pick the one that has the color you like. That may be an oversimplification, but my guess is that from a geometry perspective they all have a similar design, and it's just a matter of picking the features you want.

 

For what its worth, I agree with Tyler's statement.

 

I think I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to overthink it LOL

 

Alot of people do. Its money. And you want the best bang for your buck. I dont blame you

 

For UCA, rubber bushings are fine. Zero maintenance on them as well which is nice. Poly squeaks if not greased. As far as the sealed inner pivot uniballs, they're really nice. Also no maintenance or deflection but not necessary for your setup IMO.

As far as the DK cap, you could get a black plastic tube end cap for a few bucks.

 

I like the DKs that I have on my GX. There is a guy over on the FJcruiserforums who was 3d printing pretty nice covers. I bought a set for like $20 shipped, whatever color you want. I picked black.