Lift Disaster, Dispair, and Correction

@greenEFSI any insight?

 

Wow. The SPC arms have gone way up in price since I bought mine. I just checked headstrong. The first generation of SPC arms had issues if they were torqued before the trucks weight was on them. That issue was solved years ago. They're good to go. The JBA arms had issues in their early days -these are a much newer product than the SPC arms. They only made Jeep products until recently. ( JBA is short for Jeepin' By Al). They seem to have gotten the kinks worked out. There are several members who love them. If you need to spend more money to fix this problem, just make sure that you go with a well-known product that has been proven to work.

Best of luck

 

No plan for bigger tires on this girl. And yeah I'm going to take off the brackets but also test her without the sway bar to see how it feels.

And even all durability questions aside, if I was to spend as much as the spc's cost I would feel inclined to just get the camburgs as they are the same price. The JBA's stock caster arms are cheaper and also greasable which makes them better than stock.

So if I do change the arms I feel like it would be best to either get the stock style JBA's or the camburgs because they still appear to have less caster than what my current arms have.

Jeeze man I appreciate that, it really seems like the area I'm in is just full of people that don't really care about vehicles or anything like that. yeah I do see a few Jeeps driving around but I don't really see people off roading or doing anything like that...

Hell even my family thinks I'm bonkers for worrying about "frivolous" maintenance items such as...

• Changing the transmission fluid
• Changing ball joints
• Changing bearings
• Changing tie rods
• Etc

Most friends or family have vehicles that might be somewhat clean but just really haven't been taken care of, I have a spreadsheet and I keep track of absolutely every bit of maintenance I do and people act like I'm insane or something...

From looking at pictures I believe that the brackets were installed correctly but several members have stated that the brackets are not necessary for this low amount of lift. (Needed for like 3"+)

I am going to remove the sway bar and the brackets, first I will test her without the sway bar to see how I like it, if it feels like I need to keep the bar on I will put it back without the brackets and see if there's any contact during steering.

As far as the cams, just to make absolutely sure that we're on the same page... we're talking about the two camber bolts that hold on the lower control arm right? From what I can tell it looks like they are adjusted to push the arm/tire as far back as possible. I assume this was done to lower the caster, to move the lower ball joint closer to the top to reduce the angle.

From that logic I presume that if the uca had less caster then the lca/tire could be moved forward again back to normal-ish range.

 

Will see they have the same price as the camburgs, and from what I read camburgs are very good...right? so for the same price I feel like it would be better to get the camburgs.

I wish there was a way to figure out how much caster they add and to compare it.

 

I'm not far from you in Lilburn. If you want, when you get your new coils, just grab a spring compressor from advanced auto parts come over and i'll teach you how to change out the springs on the 5100's and also how to take them out and reinstall on the truck. It's not hard at all. I got all the tools needed to do the job.

 

This is all speculation but.....

The LCAs being push the whole way to the back is definitely part of the issue.

The UCAs have / are creating too much caster and to compensate, the LCAs are being adjusted towards the rear of the truck to lower the caster to its current numbers

The wheel is way behind the center line of the suspension/wheel well and is causing the issues.


This is my take from what has been posted.


You can run 2.75” of lift. A 285 tire. A wheels with negative offset. And still set the caster to 5* on both the driver and passenger side and the combo won’t touch the cab mount/inner fender area if the alignment is set correctly using the correct parts.

When I was sub 3” of lift, my sway bar would bind and contact the strut/spring. Moving the mount forward corrected this. They are definitely beneificial to sub 3” lifts.

 

How much caster do the UCAs add straight out of the box? I missed this skimming over the thread. Sounds like it’s entirely too much.

My UCAs are SPC’s set at +1* of caster over stock. 3” of lift. 285s. 8” et-10 wheels. Caster is set at 3.3* driver and 3.9* passenger side. No inner fender well clearance issues. I actually had them set at 5* of castor initially and still had no issues.

 

Hey I appreciate the offer, I may take you up on that depending on how things go.

Yes what you said is basically what I've come to believe... but I think because the tire is so far back compared to the sway bar being moved forward that they are way out of line.

Out of the box they took me from like 2.7 or around there to 5.5 and 5.7 the first time.
So yeah I think they just had way too much for a close to / sub 3" lift.

When I had the 5.5 degrees steering was ridiculously hard and the steering wheel was all over the road going over bumps. Bump steer I believe it is called? I was worried about the stress that it might have been putting on the steering rack and also it's just not enjoyable to drive with that much.

So for now here's the current plan:

• I will remove the sway bar and the sway bar relocation brackets.
• I will test drive the truck to see how she handles without the sway bar
• If I decide to put this way bar back on I will leave off I will leave off the brackets.
• After a little bit more time I will replace the upper control arms with something that has less caster and I will also lower to 883/884 coils.
• After that I'll get an alignment reevaluate the sway bar.
• Finally I'll have a Mega dinner to celebrate

 

caster is an interesting thing.... too little and you get wander, too much and you get negative effects of pulling with road crown and "bump steer" I have gone from 1.5* all the way to 4* and have found mid 2's to be ideal with a smidge (.2-.3*) extra on the driver side to account for typical road crown.

A smidge .1ish deg per side of toe in to help track straight (3/16's of an inch of difference between front and back wheel track width measurements)

And a smidge .2-.3 * of POSITIVE camber (just like the spec sheet says) will get you to an easy turning truck that tracks pretty nice.

Beauty of the SPC arms is i can do an alignment at home fairly easy

 

^ this is all 100% correct.

 

For the same price, would you get the spc's or the camburgs?

 

I love the adjustability of the SPCs. Ive had them on my truck for 5 years/60k miles now and over all I’m happy. I did have to replace the ball joints and bushings once though. I like that they are completely serviceable and rebuildable since suspension components do wear out....

I actually purchased them used as well so they are 5+ years old.

I have no experience with the Camburgs though.

 

spc hands down. More adjust ability, sealed ball joints etc etc

 

I put some built right uca arms on mine with a uniball their like 469$ i bought mine used but they helped align my truck and ride better theres a thread on them.

 

decide if you want ball joint or uni ball. Uni ball is much higher maintenance, especially if you live in a salty/ wet/ or wintery environment. Ball joints are very low maintenance and easy to replace (on SPC and JBA atleast). I believe Camburg add 2 degrees of caster. With my UCAs set at 2 degrees, the alignment guy was only able to squeak another .5 degrees with my 3 inch lift.

 

Now a 3rd option, delta joint by Icon dynamics, and you c as n put them in total chaos and other uca's, like a ball joint with more articulation.

 

Oh my, a new brand to look at!

You know I read a lot of stuff supporting both types back when I was picking out a pair, I cannot remember what made me choose the uniball honestly...it does bother me that you're not supposed to lubricate it...

Those sound crazy haha, I don't think I need that much.

 

Delta joints last longer than uniballs and are grease able, best of both worlds.