Light Racing UCA Durability

I know this subject has been almost done to death, but I'd like to try and put everything in one place to give everyone looking for new UCAs something to go by. I've read the LR UCAs had some problems in the past due to some manufacturers defects, and hopefully that's mostly been fixed by now. Since it's been long enough for some of our guinea pig members to do a long term test I was hoping you'd share your experiences for the rest of us.

None - Light wheeling = 20% and under time off-road.
Moderate - Heavy wheeling = Anything over 20% time off-road.
Broken or Replaced = They failed on their own and not due to accidental/intentional damage. (nicking with an angle grinder, highway accident, voodoo curses)

I'm doing a similar one for the other UCAs. (I forgot to add >50k option in the LR version, sorry) And the Total Chaos UCA Poll. Link to Camburg Poll.


Please share your specific experience in the comments below.

 

I have done very little off-roading, mainly just to get to camping spots. So I'd say about 90% is on road and I had to replace the ball joints about 2 weeks ago after having them on for maybe a year now. I do plan on doing more off-roading in the near future once my daughter is a little older so we'll see how they hold up.

 

Sorry, took me forever to make the poll. Sounds like you're in the 1-20k miles, none-light wheeling, broken or replaced. category

 

As far as I know, those issues were with their "first gen" UCAs and have since been fixed. I have had mine for a little over a year with no issues yet. ~20% or less wheeling but other factors hinder my abilities to go (the main park around here is +/- 3 hours away and generally busy on the weekends)

Hope to get out there more during the winter months when there is little to nothing to do around here

 

I'm in the same category, not much off roading, but I'd rather drop an extra 2-$300 at the beginning rather than have to buy another set down the road.

 

I think the guys who had issues with the first gen UCAs, SPC replaced them for just the cost of shipping; not too bad IMHO.

 

It's true, I haven't heard as much out of them since they've went on to the next gens. But there are still a few here and there that get fed up and switch to some of the other brands. I'd like to know how many.

 

FYI, the issue is a: over torquing the bolt so the arm can't move freely and b: not enough grease on the bolt cause it to seize in the bushing (especially in northern states), also inhibiting movement. Pair that with cheap welds and you get broken UCA's.

If you torque it properly and grease the bolts properly (dont use the LR crap) you should be ok. If you are concerned, you can gusset the arms at the welds. You can also drill and tap out some hole for grease fittings.

 

Sounds like you don't trust them to begin with if the poll only goes to 50k miles.

 

It's not that. I figured that any defect would show itself somewhat early, and it would take me 4 or 5 years to put 50k on them anyway. Plus I was trying to keep the poll somewhat short. Maybe it'll let me add more options...

 

I've had mine for 4 years , 20% logging / industrial roads , no issues yet

 

I have the newest version and I have 32,000 on them. A bunch of trips to rausch creek in PA countless trips to local wheeling spots and a bunch of high speed playing in farm fields and light light jumping (I mean like barely off the ground off the ground light) and no problems so far.

 

No issues here. About 5000 miles on them. They were put on the truck around the new year.

 

54k on mine. Light to moderate wheeling couple times a month. My truck is a 2010, so four years of use. No problems so far. Only had 1 alignment done. No weird wear on tires either.

 

Got 25 000 miles on em in the last 2 years. Lots of rough forestry roads with heavy loads. Even jumped my truck slightly a couple times. I didn't have any problems with my LR UCA's as of yet.

 

Excellent info. I'm going to start a similar threads on Camburgs, Total Chaos, and Icons.

 

Honestly, I kinda wish I had spent the extra money and went with TC. Mainly because I want to redo my suspension for a mid-travel setup and not sure on how the LR's would hold up with it versus a unibal setup

 

This reply coming from a man that does not wheel his truck! Ouch
Lol. But anyway. I have LR UCAS and wheeled the crap out of them with no issues. Probably depends on how you install them or when made?

And I have the extended travel king coilovers if you wondered.

 

Mine crapped a ball joint, SPC stepped up and replaced it for free. Mileage was about 15k. I would say around 20 off road.

 

Wheeled my truck three times actually . Anyways, got that directly from the SPC engineers.