Intro to fitting 35s (< 3" Lifts for those that wheel and love alignments)

No, but it stands to reason that 35s will shorten the lifespan of your suspension and steering components. Not dramatically though. The only thing I've noticed is that my upper control arm uniballs wear out faster and my truck sees a lot of dirt.

Recent pic, because, why not.

 

Not necessarily but if you are wheeling I recommend some tierod sleeves which provide a small bit of insurance. I never ran a sway bar.

 

I can't imagine reinstalling my Taco swaybar on my 1" front lift on 305/70/16s daily driver. It would be purpose defeating. My wife's FJ on 2" front lift and 315/70/17s is a different animal however. It rolls alot even with 700 lb. springs and max compression dampen.

 

Beautiful rig sir.

Very nicely done.

 

35x10.5R17 Kenda are pretty good fitting all things considered, but now I do want 12.5’s or maybe even 11.5’s. If you want the “easy” 35’s for ground clearance than yea The 10.5’s are a good option

 

are you guys still running the SPC uca's? I had 2 balljoint failures and the bushings are now starting to fail.

 

BFG KO3's in a 35x11.5x17 "C" load scheduled for release around May 2026

 

Trash those POS’s

 

what UCA's would you recommend to push the wheel forward to clear big tires. -25 16x8 scsf5 on 285/75r16 2.5" lift. If I don't push lca cams forward they rub going in and out of driveway on a turn. Aggressive cmc and spcs in position D flat SPC logo facing out.

 

cab mount relocate for extra clearance. the spcs are kinda a bandaid fix at the cost of a less than ideal castor number for driveability. going with a high castor uca will take more work to clear but truck will plain drive better. if not wanting to do that id just keep rebuilding the spcs.

there are other options like high castor lcas bit very expensive and the jd fab lower pivot kit but install is quite involved

 

I replaced my bj's last August with the latest bj that was released by SPC in June 2024. SPC reports zero warranty claims of this redesign of this spc part. If anyone has evidence of this part number failing please share pics. So far zero issues.
Part #35101
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/SPS-35101

 

My balljoints are doing well so far since I got those updated ones. SPC denied me warranty and I had to pay out of pocket. Lucky I caught it before a catastrophic failure. The bushings are still holding up pretty well with just the very tiny amount of play on one so rebuild of that is likely in my future. My vehicle drives fine at position D down the road and one would argue puts less stress on the steering rack. I am not very happy with SPC in general but the ease of alignment they offer is why I still run them.

 

Lots of good one out there, just depends on your usage and how much maintenance you are willing to do.
TC, DK, Camburg uniball with poly bushings are great, but high maintenance.
Icon DJ is great, medium maintenance
OME is good, minimal maintenance.
JBA is good, medium maintenance, but could rub tire on them.
Dirt King w/ ball joint is good, medium maintenance.

there’s prob a few others that will be good or great, but can’t think of them.

 

Dobinson offers a Billet UCA that is adjustable. It also has a sealed ball joint with no maintenance. If my current ucas fail and require me to replace them I have thought that may be a good solution but not sure about what downsides other than a bit pricey

 

Swapped these in mine last may, still seem good so far. I was skeptical of the "sealed" design but I need these arms for the 35s so I took a chance on it and have been pleasantly surprised.

 

Haven’t seen those, but I’m sure they’re similar to the Icon Billet UCA’s. I had some minor problems with those hitting the coils on customer rides at full droop. In my opinion, any adjustability to me is kind of gimmicky. Sure you may be able to squeeze a bit more out of the alignment, but at the cost of extra maintenance. Again, my opinion.

 

Last May 2024? Part number 35101? SPC told me they were released in June 2024. Previous to June 2024 they did seal the ball joint but it was the older style. From what I have read here and there that older style even though it was sealed continued to have issues so they released the new design which is also sealed

 

I wanna say it was 25001? or something in the neighborhood of that

 

How are guys determining that your spc balljoint has failed?

 

When it's really bad you can grab on to it with your hand and literally shake it back and forth. Mine was not that bad but I could feel a small amount of movement.