Lift + Sway Bar & UCAs

Howdy. I have a '23 TRD Sport with 15K on the odometer that I'm gathering parts for a lift right now. This is a daily driver, ~25 miles/day with the occasional trip through pastures and river roads. Nothing extreme. The lift is going to be for some tire clearance and looks only.

I'll be going with the basic Bilstein 5100 lift at 4th or 5th setting up front, factory coil springs, and AAL in back with the 5100's there as well. That part I've done my homework on and the parts are already on their way. After that, I'll be adding aftermarket wheels (0mm offset?) and will upsize the tires to either 265/70-17 or 275/70-17. I'm not married to any tire size or wheel spec just yet, though. That's just for reference.

My questions are about UCA's and the sway bar. With a 2" or less lift and say 275/70's, will the factory arms have enough latitude for a good alignment given the usage that I have above? Also, since the Bilstein's appear to be valved somewhat more firmly that stock, will leaving the sway bar off cause a noticeable difference in body roll? I'll try the SB both on and off myself for comparison, but figured someone here has been down this road already.

Thanks guys,

 

Hi, I haven't had a swaybar on my 2016 on 33s for over a year and am OK with the mild side to side sway at 1" front lift on 620 lb coils and now at 1.75" front lift on 660 lb coils. We don't transport any children ever and aren't driving over 80 anymore, so neither of our trucks (an FJ) run swaybars.

But yes, you test to you and situation, and replace if you decide to or if situations change. I still have mine on the wall in case.

I still have stock uca's and can align ok with max caster cam on lca. Again, try it first. You can always get uca's if you need or want them.

 

If your not planning on adding a front steel bumper and winch, why don't you stick with Bilstein's recommendation to keep the stock coils?

 

I have just over 1" lift in the front (it's a 1.5" lift but with all my extra weight it's closer to 1") using factory UCA with 255/75r17 tires on 0 offset wheels and I can hit all the alignment specs except my caster, it barely hits 2 degrees but I haven't felt any negative side effects while driving. A side note, which I'm sure you have read, is the higher you lift the more likely you will need to replace the needle bearing.


As for the sway bar I took mine off when I did the lift and haven't looked back, besides improving off road performance not having a sway bar on road makes hitting pot holes feel less violent.
My truck is around 6000lbs when fully loaded for trips and I regularly get it up to 80+ mph. There is more roll but not so much that I have ever felt like the truck is going to roll over, the only thing I notice is I need to take clover leaf ramps a little bit slower.

I would recommend taking it off and driving around for a few hundred miles to see if you like having it removed. It only takes a few minutes to remove if you don't have a skid plate, if you do have a skid plate you will need to drop the plate to get the bar off.

 

It's been said many times on here but lift does not equal tire clearance. Once it compresses the tire ends up right back where it was.
For such a mild use skip the lift or keep it real low around 1" front and rear (maintain a front to rear rake don't level it). If you want to upside your tire and a daily go to a 265/70r17 or a 255/80r17 bolth clear at stock height on a 0 offset wheel with minimal clearencing required. Odds are with a good alignment 275 would fit aswell but the wider you go the more it will hit mpgs and increase the odds of rubbing.
Other considerations during a lift you you stick to needing a lift.
Front clamshell bushing, you may not have vibrations early on but from what the majority feel on here it will happen eventually.
Carrier bearing drop/angled blocked. Keep that drive shaft and rear diff in alignment to reduce odd vibrations.
Cv boot and ball joints wear. Iv cooked through 3 cv boots now due to increased angles. Done the slide mod seems to extend the life but this is an added maintenance item to consider. I kill my lower control arm ball joints pretty much once a year now now is that how much gravel I drive at speed possibly but at my factory ride height for the first half of the trucks life before the lift this was not an issue.

As to the original questions.
I pulled my sway bar 2 years ago and it sits under my deck now. I'm on elka's with a 650lb spring and I run some extra low speed compression on the street to really aid in body roll but it was very manageable before hand.
On a primarily street driven truck I would keep it on just track down some spacers to help get things back in line. If your kit does not include these.
Stock uca should be fine upto 2" you may see some less than ideal camber but not way out of wack. Most aftermarket uca's add a ton of positive caster which makes fitting larger tires harder i have dirt kings on mine and they have been great except the built in caster has made high offset larger tires more difficult.


17x9 +0 265/70r17 all stock

Same wheel and tire 2 - 1


Same wheel and lift 285/70r17

The first option was the best daily hands down and still capable enough to go 98% of places i go today.

 

Yes, keep stock springs until or unless you need a change- lift, droop from weight, ride preference, etc. Use the Bilsteins to adjust until adjustments aren't fitting the bill anymore.
Don't do like me and giveaway stock springs right away and set a course for multiple spring changes over lift and weight changes.

 

Good info, guys. The sway bar was more of a curiosity thing, but I'll probably put it back on barring any wierd real estate issues up there. The A arms do concern me, however. I'll give them a try & see what kind of numbers an alignment gets me. I definitely don't want to kill $500+ of new front tires right off the bat.

P.S. I am keeping the factory coil springs. I originally wrote OE, but edited it for clarity. I'm not adding any additional weight up front.

 

Yep, I ordered the ECGS bushing kit along with a carrier bearing drop when I ordered the shocks. The bushing kit seemed a good idea since I was going to be right there, anyways.

 

Hey J, not sure if you have the double cab or access cab, but keep this in mind, regarding the 4th & 5th clip. See below.

(I have the double cab 5ft box, so I was able to use the 2" top clip, and absolutely love it).

 

Yep, I seen that right after I started looking around at lifts. Didn't know that the 5100's existed up to that. Mine's a double cab, short box.

P.S. I seen pics of your setup. That's a good looking truck

 

1st nice thing you'll notice is getting rid of the oem Brake dive. These are a bigger wider shock than the oem Bilsteins, so the ride will remain smooth @ 2".

Mine sits perfectly level with 33" tires and a 1" block in the rear. (I don't carry anything heavy in the back, hence the block).