JBA Offroad Upper Control Arms And Suspension MEGA Thread BS thread

I am running OME 885s and Dakars, wheels are trd trail teams, tire size is 285/75r16 with a 1.25" spidertrax spacers. I have about 3 finger width between UCA and tire, the only place I was rubbing was the wheel well.

I was running 255/85r16 with the old arms, only had 2 finger width from tire to UCA but never rubbed, when I put these new arms on I had 4 fingers (roughly 2")

So, I have had two different version of 33" tires on my truck with these new high clearance arms and didn't have issue with UCA rub at all, compared to old HD Arm. Hope this information helps. Cheers

 

Where the best place to get a deal on these bad boys? I was thinking bout the LR Arms but read bout all the horror stories so thinking these will be better

 

what you recommend?
im mostly on-road but do go north from time to time and hit the trails
any promo codes also?

 

that what i was thinking
any deals for the forum?

 

ok sweet figured i would ask.
sucks arms are cheap but you pay for what you get

 

My JBA standard HC UCA's came in on Sunday. Installed Monday, got an alignment on Tuesday morning. I asked the tech to give me as much caster as possible, toe 0, camber 0. I was surprised with how much caster I got.

I'm running 5100's on all four corners with OME x885 set at 0.

What do you think of the alignment numbers?
https://www.tacomaworld.com/media/20151215_083546-1.494337/

 

My Truck is an '09, but I installed the 5100's and OME x885's last week, so my recent suspension is only a week old or so. I got around 2.5 inches of lift.

The truck feels a lot more stable on the road and drives straight since the alignment. I drove to and from work with the UCA's w/o the alignment and if felts super switchy and pulled right.

 

The alignment was wayyy out of wack with the stock UCA's with the 2.5 inchs of lift so I went with the JBA's to get my alignment in check.

 

Very interesting. I've not driven a truck with that much caster before. I believe it's common for LT trucks to be high in that category.

I would do some controlled driving over bumps to see if your truck now has any bump steer. Bump steer is when the wheels steer themselves without any input from the steering wheel.

 

I am still watching this thread.

 

Hey guys, with so much caster, guys have been asking for pics of my set up.

Here we go:

Here is the alignment numbers after 5100's @ 0 with x885 coils and stock UCA's last week. The alignment tech drives a lifted Jeep liberty with JBA everything so he's very familiar with JBA products and even recommended them to me. Note that he couldn't get the camber down on the driver side even though the caster and toe are acceptable numbers.



Here are my alignment numbers after installing the JBA STB HC UCA's. My alignment was done this morning. The tech was actually dialing down the caster to around 2.5, then I asked to give me as much caster as possible while keeping the toe and camber at 0.:



Here is the picture of my set up. 5100's @ 0 with OME x885 coils, JBA STD HC UCA's. Driver side is LEFT, Passenger RIGHT



Here is a pic of my truck's stance after alignment and lift.



Comments, edits, things I should fix?

My observations:

Truck rides very stable on the highway. I work on a farm with a bunch of bad roads so far, no issues with regards to bump steer, wanderings, etc... I'm due to a rotation and balance, so I think that will get rid of my slight right pull, or that can be from the wind. Not sure.

There is a growling coming from the front end in the 25-40 mph range, but that a known issue with lifted 4x4 2nd gen tacomas. The infamous front differential bearing growl. That will be solved soon with the EGCS bushing install.

 

Long thread, been following it from the start. Sounds like the design has settled. I thought for newcomers I'd provide a thread summary - please correct me where I get things wrong and I'll edit this post. I'm going to throw out a few questions at the end and add the answers as hopefully people answer them!

WHAT ARE THESE?

Drop in replacements for the stock UCAs with the following features:

• Use ball joints that are commonly available for replacement as needed in the future with zerks for easy maintenance
• Ball joint angles and UCA hoop shape allow for more travel than stock UCAs thus appropriate for slightly greater shock travel in a "mid-travel" setup using the stock LCAs
• Use the OEM bushings that are lower maintenance than fancier poly bushings used on many other aftermarket UCAs and are also unlikely to squeak
• Shift the range of achievable caster compared to stock so that lifts in the 2-4" range can get caster around 2.5-3.0 (considered desireable range for stability) while keeping camber where you'd want to prevent tire wear

Current options are for Standard or Heavy Duty design, the HD having larger tube size and some extra gussets. All current product is "High Caster" design (see development history for what legacy "low caster" would be).

WHAT ARE THEY NOT?

These UCAs are not "adjustable" like the Light Racing UCAs. Instead they are designed with a permanent offset compared to stock to end up where you'd likely adjust the LR UCA for a truck with a 2 to 4" lift. Other aftermarket UCAs do the same thing. The benefit to JBA/TC/Camburg fixed offset is there is nothing to slip and send things out of whack nor is there an unusual UCA adjustment that confuses barely literate alignment techs. The benefit to LR of course is you do have the adjustment and could run low caster at stock height or high caster lifted with the same UCA if for some reason that was important to you.

They are not uniballs like Total Chaos or a variety of other "racing" UCAs but they do still offer a very wide joint angle range much like a uniball while being lower maintenance than a uniball. Similarly they don't use poly bushings that most of the "racing" UCAs use and instead stick with the OEM bushings. Poly bushings are unlikely to tear over lots of travel and should last the life of the truck but they require maintenance (greasing) and many of them squeak too. The OEM bushings the JBA arms use don't squeak and don't require routine maintenance but you may need to replace them after many tens of thousands of miles.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY AND PROBLEMS

Much of the first 20 some pages of this thread deal with problems in the first released versions of the JBA UCAs. At the point of this writing these issues appear to all be resolved and all new purchased UCAs do not have these issues. People who were early adopters have had their UCAs replaced or in some cases need to request a replacement if they don't like their present caster numbers.

The very first version of the JBA ended up having an interference problem on *some* trucks - but of course not on the trucks it was developed on. This resulted in bent UCAs and other suspension components for the unfortunate folks affected. The solution was to change the bend shape of the tubing to provide more clearance. The first version had a almost strait section with 45 angles at each end the second version changed this into a broader curve giving more clearance on the inside of the UCA. All purchasers of this version were contacted and their UCAs replaced with the fixed version.

This new second version had no clearance issues but many people were not getting what they considered adequate caster on lifted trucks. To many the whole point to the aftermarket UCA was to improve caster on a lifted truck and the improvement over stock was not as much as hoped for. How much of this was variation and how much was just not enough angle in the initial design is not clear, but Marlin produced another version, the HC or "High Caster" version with more angle designed in. Everyone appears happy with this HC version.

People who had the initial "low caster" version and we're happy with their alignment probably have no interested in changing UCAs again. But folks with that version who were unhappy can contact Martin to get the new "HC" version. For a brief period Marlin sold the remaining stock of the "LC" version at a discount at the same time the new "HC" version was being sold. At this time only the "HC" version is available. Again, there are standard and heavy duty versions of this same HC version.

As a note, Marlin appeared to stand behind his product and produced many free replacements to those affected by the development problems. Naturally this was still a painful experience for those that had to swap UCAs multiple times.

QUESTIONS (PLEASE ANSWER IF YOU KNOW)

• Are the ball joint angles and clearances sufficient for the various "extended travel" coil overs out there meant for "mid-travel" designs and is anyone actually using such a configuration?
• What are you "losing" by using OEM bushings vs. poly bushings?
• What kind of off road driving would people consider the threshold for moving to the HD design? (obviously this is very speculative, but for example distinguish slow rock crawling, fast washboard, hard running over whoops and so forth)

PLEASE PROVIDE CORRECTIONS FOR ANYTHING I'VE GOT WRONG!!!! I'm no expert, I'm just trying to summarize 30 pages of posts accurately to make sure I understand the product and trade offs and hopefully this will be helpful to future purchasers too.

 

Nice write up. Thanks.

 

should be fine. the factory uca will contact the coil under suspention droop, these arms would not.

The rubber bushings are "set" into place when you wrench the UCA nut tight. The rubber has a finite range of motion. The rubber bushing always wants to return to static condition, which should be ride height. They will wear out.

After wrenching UCA nut tight, a poly bushing does not care, it will allow rotation without much resistance.

A poly bushing is harder and will not deteriorate like the factory rubber. it should last as long as the truck. The draw back is they can and will squeak and can be a pain from everything I've read.

I would say the HD is probably for people running their trucks hard, even jumping their trucks. lol

Good job reading all the pages.

 

Before you two circle jerk too hard:

A) Those aren't TC upper UCA's.
B) I'm 99.9% sure the Uniball UCA's in the example are these $250 ebay arms that no one in their right mind would use lol. See attached link:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Silver-...ash=item3f467d57a1:g:BioAAOSw5ZBWHxXH&vxp=mtr

Sure, ball joint UCA's are great from a maintence standpoint. However from a strength standpoint the Uniballs are better. Honestly, both work, but if you are going to work them hard go with the Uniball. Don't try to upsell a ball joint as the better option unless you are looking for low maintence in a mainly onroad application. I went through the decision making process and I'm glad I went with a uniball UCA from a reputable seller. I would hope that Martin would be reputable enough to do a comparison with some real good Uniball UCA's instead of horrible eBay knockoffs lol.

 

I feel sometimes like it's the opposite way. Lots of guys on here defend their LR UCAs like they are a flawless gift from God. Anyways, a person should always match up the product to their needs. There is nothing wrong with most UCAs for someone out there. If anything though I didn't want some smuck to think that comparison was made to some real reputable uniballs UCAs.

 

Fair enough, but with all the teething issues these have had I would of expected more. One of the reasons I didn't go with these arms has been the lack of testing and information at each step before people have used them. I never heard back on how much travel these have before they contact the spring nor did I hear anything back on if adjusted alignment numbers could cause the ball joint to bind (check out the ball joint style and you'll notice in can only travel in a straight line so many degrees, so in theory an off alignment due to a unique truck could cause binding...)

I didn't want to my truck to be a test case trying to use these for mid travel, so instead I went with some used arms in good condition with the knowledge that I'll have to replace the uniball yearly given my environment but I'll never have to worry about failure or the arms causing issues.

 

Sorry, I wasn't aware this was a "only if you buy this product should you comment" thread. Given the issues Marlin has had, and his admirable trait of fixing them after they've happened, my comments are valid. Maybe instead of a snarky comment you could work on answering the questions I left and getting some real specs for these arms instead of posting eBay worthy comparisons on your shiny new UCA's.

 

A simple Merry Christmas might of been more genuine lol. Have a good one. No offense was met. You are Marlins contact on here though for all of us. Some more information would be appreciated.