Ooof.. another LBJ bites the dust

I look at it like this.

A person needs work boots, they can buy the Walmart special for 30 bucks or get designer high end boots for 150. Both are steel toed and slip resistant but the wallyworld special will wear out sooner. So they buy a new pair every year before the sole blows out on em.

Those designer boots are still gunna have a blow out eventually and need replaced as well. No service part lasts forever, that's why they're service parts

 

Not exactly an unknown issues in here. Maintenance is maintenance. Do the maintenance.

As for the work boots analogy above, My $120 Redwing work shoes (restaurant) lasted me 5 years with regular conditioning of the leather upper. I watched people blow through $60 Sketchers or Shoes for Crews every 6 months. Somehow they were not able to do the math, and said they didn't have $120 for a pair of shoes.

Point is, find the money for quality. Yes, my $120 shoes still needed regular maintenance, but I saved $480 and my back hips and knees.

Buy OEM and buy the confidence that comes with a proper, not to mention critical safety component. And do the periodic maintenance, or buy the other ones that will work, but change them out more often, your call. My kids and wife ride in my Taco, so no expense is spared in critical maintenance. I find the cash.

 

I'm tempted to buy an OEM lbj and a 555 lbj to compare them.

 

Absolutely, I have driven 656,000 miles on my truck,
I replace them regardless at 100,000 OEM

 

There's a thread in here somewhere where a person cut the 2 in half and compared them. OEM was significantly more skookum

 

This^

 

I like your real world comparison to my boot analogy, in the long run you absolutely pay less to buy more expensive higher quality stuff up front.




But I've also been a broke kid and totally understand "not having" the funds for the better stuff out the gate.

Regardless you said it well "maintenance is maintenance"

 

Was this at the Costco in Santa Rosa?

 

Not all aftermarket is junk... Ive had ctr joints on my 4r for like a year and a half that entire time I've been driving like a dick when I'm not driving like a dick offroad and the joint in the hand is still tight, the tie rods still feel new despite just about being my limit straps

But the vast majority of it is just the lowest bidder from china

 

Damn, this is why we need a wiki. This is good info, buried. Guess I need to tear out my 555's

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ball-joints.266989/page-3#post-6650774

 

Thank goodness you found it!


I searched for a solid 10 minutes and couldn't come up with it, otherwise I woulda quoted the thread. It was that thread that made me want to only go OEM, but also gave me the confidence to run the cheap ones in the meantime I just check em for play every 3k miles

 

Greaseable 555s and sealed 555s are different having them side by side the sealed ones were tight and smooth

But the greaseable ones almost felt loose and you could feel like ridges slipping past eachother inside the joint as you move the ball

I just returned it all back to rock auto

 

Google image search made that work

Its definitely a value call, but without evidence like that, the OEM-only crowd honestly just isn't convincing. I'm not even convinced from that evidence that the 555 design is that bad, but its clearly not as good.

 

I don't think they're bad at all, plenty of people here have proven they handle offroad without failure (looking at you @jbrandt) 555 is hands down better than anyone of the chinesium brands.. the first set of dirt cheap A1Auto brand that I installed were 80 bucks for both sets of UBJ and LBJ but were sloppy after 12k. For sake of easy math let's say OEM last 100k and 555 only lasted 50k

So assuming I'd get the same amount of play in 100k on OEM I would actually be spending 640 on the A1Auto brand vs the 500 for one complete set of OEM. Where as I'd only be spending 380 on 2 complete sets of 555 BJs

 

Agreed 100%

And looking at the 555's, keeping them greased with the right kind of grease is going to be super important, but the OEM ones won't need any greasing at all.

And both should be checked for play regularly.

 

Or with those $13 LBJs from Rock Auto

 

That depends. As I write in my balljoint soapbox on my build thread, I plan to replace my LBJs at a much higher rate than what is probably really "necessary," regardless if they are OEM or not, so for me, spending double on OEM does not make sense.

The place were the boot analogy breaks down is that if your boots wear out your leg also falls off. And you never really know how many times you can recondition the leather before you're just walking down the kitchen until your leg falls into the soup pot.

If I know my leg is going to fall off, I'm sure as hell not going to try and push my boots as long as I can. I'll replace them at, say, 2 years. And if I can find a boot that I know lasts longer than that but is half the cost of the Redwings, that makes more sense to me. I'm simply not willing to try and push the expensive boots as far as I can, just to save a few buck in the long run.

I ran Moogs (OMG MOOGS!!!!!) for 6+ years and my truck didn't explode. When I refreshed/upgraded my suspension, I "upgraded" my BJs as well and got 555's. My thought is to replace my 555's (which are definitely nicer than the moogs, so should conceivably last longer) around every 5 years or at whatever mileage. This is also a dedicated trail truck now so it'll see more abuse than it did as a daily driver; reducing the LBJ lifespan, hence replacing the higher quality BJs and a shorter interval than my moogs lasted, just out of an abundance of caution.

I'd love to replace the crap design with uniballs, but those are redonk expensive . I might eventually see a return on that kind of investment, but only after I bequeath my truck to my kids, lol.

 

Your post gives me this thought


If a person HATES doing regular maintenance, buy OEM balljoints.

If a person doesn't mind checking things periodically, best bang for the buck is 555


If a person is a masochist and likes doing the same work more times than necessary, buy Chinesium

 

Well we all have been there. There is always a reasonable application for budget conscious decisions. As long as it's a necessary, tradeoff and one is aware what the pitfalls are, there is nothing wrong with the decision. Of course one would alway be prudent with the application of that philosophy. I bought aftermarket turn signal housings. They are NOT of OEM quality but it wasn't necessary to buy a $200 plastic housing that holds a light bulb on a 16 year old truck. Even I love a great deal!

Everything I've said all of us know. LBJ's are just one of those subjects in here that evoke strong opinions.

 

If a person HATES doing regular maintenance, they shouldn't own a truck that's old enough to drive itself (or even drink), and should just lease, or take the bus.