35"s and 3" lift 1"BL questions

Getting parts together and was going to ask this in that other thread but its closed lol
I am thinking of making some upper arms that are the same length as the TC and Camburg, but with maybe .5 to 1" forward uniball placement.

I see people saying to add more caster and this would do the same and would be easy to do when building the arms

what do you think?

 

well that doesnt help lol

 

You're welcome lol

 

do it. I was planning on building my own LT some day

 

Moving the uniball would lower castor not add it. And what does making control arms have to do with 35's 3" lift and a body lift

 

it would give you less caster then stock. moving the wheel forward helping keep the larger tires out of the firewall. generally when lifting your truck the stock upper arms need to be a little longer then stock (camburg, TC and others do this) to help get the alignment back to stock numbers.

 

I think you have a couple things off there. I think most aftermarket UCA's are adjusted to provide more caster because that is what is limited when you lift. You also want that caster. With less your truck will float and wander the road. Longer UCA's will affect your camber, right? Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Also, I think I have heard somewhere that the proper amount of caster on our trucks (3*) actually helps with clearance of larger tires.

 

you are correct, I will need to measure the caster once i build some arms and see what it is, so maybe i will start with the same measurements of most aftermarket arms and go from there. I understand i want caster as i have delt with that a lot on my solid axle trucks. when i build my arms for a 03 i noticed that the aftermarket arms were around .5" longer (IIRC)

i already plan on chopping the cab mount so i guess i will see what it looks like then either build another set of uppers to play with it (guess you can always build upper and lowers moved forward a tad to help, but then you run into other issues with steering lol)

 

You sound like you are on top of it. Starting at some aftermarket UCA dimensions sounds like a good plan. Luckily, if you are making your own you have the ability to do exactly what you want!

 

I'm not sure if they're LONGER, but they usually add caster, moving the balljoint/uniball toward the rear of the vehicle.

There is absolutely no way you can move the upper joint forward, lift the vehicle and correct it with the lower cams.

Making the upper arms longer will result in positive camber which will also be impossible to correct at the lower cams considering you're already trying to add caster.

I like your plans, I just don't see them working out.

Also, you can add/subtract caster with SPC arms if you wanted to try that first.

 

yea, i think the plan is to just build some from measurements to match aftermarket ones. and go from there. just gathering parts still
plan for suspension is

• Deaver expo rear leafs
• Fox 12" DST rear shocks on custom mounts (already have the shocks and aprox valving on them for a expo truck)
• Fox air bumbs for rear (already have them and will make custom mounts)
• Long brake lines (already have them)
• custom upper 1.25uniball control arms (need to make)
• Fox DST coilovers for the front (need to order)
• 35" tires (trying to find a more skinny tire then a 12.5 still) (need to find)
• 1" body lift (already installed)..
• cut body mount and replate.

 

I think your right about aftermarket UCA's being longer than stock. But I still think they are to short. I used jberrys write up to do an at home alignment on my truck. I maxed out caster at the LCA, to push the tires forward as possible. But even with using light racing UCA's, I still have negative camber. I had to back off the caster to get proper camber numbers. If the UCA's were longer, I could have more caster (more clearance) and proper camber numbers. If you are going to build your own UCA's, I suggest maxing out caster and seeing what your camber is like. It will give you an idea of how much longer you will need to build your UCA's.

 

Moving the lower control arm forward would increase caster. Moving the upper control arm forward would decrease caster.

 

Like this:

 

correct, so building both a top and bottom that moves the pivot point forward the same amount will allow you to keep the caster, but i am betting i would run into other issues.

 

Yes, I remember reading a post a while ago about this, but I can't remember what the other issues/problems that were brought up.

 

Someone wasn't adjusting correctly if you ran out of adjustment on the LR arms. You could have added caster on the uppers to reduce some of the negative camber you had. I'd be curious to see your lower cam settings. The LR arms have so much adjustability that a half competent alignment tech should have been able to get your alignment in spec unless you have other issues happening(something bent). No other arm in the industry offers as much adjustment as the LR arms so there had to have been another reason for your poor alignment.

 

I wanted the most clearance I could get. If I add positive caster with the upper control arm I would loose some of that clearance. Also, you can slide the ball joint in and out for camber, I didnt think changing the caster setting would also affect the camber?

 

They both change each other when adjusting. You can't adjust one with messing with the other...similar to the way changing camber also changes toe.

I'm guessing your rear cam was adjusted OUT as far as possible and the front was adjusted IN as far as possible(for clearance)?