Light Racing or Camburg UCA's

Anyone try to move a LR ball joint this far off plum:

Because that's 82 degrees. I'd like to see it, that seems pretty extreme to me without something popping out.

 

I just emailed the Camburg people and asked if the knew what the degree of flex is with the Ball Joint type UCA's?

 

82 deg of total movement from one extreme to the other.... or 41* from center.

 

From the light racing site:

So it's not 82 (or 85) degrees off plum. It's 82 degrees of total articulation which, if setup perfectly, gives you 41 degrees of off arc movement versus 35 degrees with a uniball and 32 degrees with the stock setup. That makes sense.

 

You beat me to it lol.

Sorry, for some reason someone had me thinking it was travel off plum and I was like "wtf" for the last little while.

 

Sorry b that wasn't intentionally being said to you but felt this topic may be moving in that direction as many forums seem to have the DB battle and like you said, to each his own. I'm not sure if you've ever seen a DB kit both in form and function but they are way more rugged than many believe. Personally I still don't know how more guys don't embrace them after having trail experience with both out here in Hawaii. Don't get me wrong though, some DB kits are built way better than others. I had a 3" OME on my 07' FJC then a 3" Toytec Ultimate on my 06' AC before switching to a 6" Fabtech Dirtlogic. Now I have the 4" RCD with 1.6" additional on my 12'. I like this one the best of all the lifts because the ride quality, handling and full tire clearance. My previous rigs all had to be body mount chopped to truly fit a 33x12.5 and I really didn't like how they handled because you essentially lose most down travel=bottoming out constantly.

 

I'll personally never go with a DB lift if I intend to OR because it doesn't give me any more ground clearance, only angles, and the trade off is cutting out shit from my truck I don't want to cut out. Personal preference, usually DB lift components fail before the truck does when pushed hard and that has given them a bad name.

That being said I know someone who wheels one and has had good luck. Then again, he takes things pretty slow and does check out the welds and other common failure points often.

 

It doesn't give you more ground clearance at the cross members unless you run a taller tire, which you can because theres more clearance in the wheel wells plus if you've ever had to forge mud or water, you know the benefits of having more clearance for your motor, intake, tranny, etc.. which a DB kit does. I've never had welds break and don't know anyone who has but I'm sure it happens but so do OEM ones. All good brother

 

I think it's safe to say there is someone out there who has broken just about every product available at some point. Maybe even several different people. I've seen more than one broken 5100, but those things are admired like golden vagina around here.

I went with the SPC because they are adjustable, cheap and do what I need them to do. I might have bought the Camburgs if they were similarly priced. Camburg makes a great product, but it's expensive and their customer service sucks.

I think either way will work out fine.

 

Wow

 

How much lift do you have?

 

2.5" or thereabouts, definitely not a full 3".
Driver side Icon is showing the full 2" of exposed adjustment thread which manufacturer says not to exceed, so that is where I stopped.

 

Everything is pointing me towards Camburg Uniballs tomorrow. A local group member just had another LR failure:

From my group the anti LR hatred is real. A half dozen failures, including the one above, is pretty sketchy to me in a small community. Were the arms installed properly? Did they grease them enough? I don't know, but I do know those aren't questions people up here have about other uppers.

I've found two guys using the Camburg Uniballs and both of them have over 3 years and 50K on them no issues. It's a small sample size but the one guy has far more weight and OR miles on his arm than I will put on and his review was solid. Good enough anyways that when he gets his new 4Runner he's ordering Camburgs. Quite a few people at running TC arms too and have similar great reviews.

@Torspd I tried to find out more information on the cracked Icon aluminum UCA and the story I heard was that the arm was cracked along it's length. It did not fail on trail, they noticed the failure in the morning though and patched it up to get home. When the arm was taken off the heim joints were shot and not rubber booted. This all happened before the club I'm in was formed a few years ago and is now legend. When I mention rubber heim boots I got a response. Do you know who makes them? Were they supposed to come on the Icon aluminum arms? In summary, people here do run the Icons but the uniball is only available from Icon (you can't use a replacement aftermarket uniball because the size is proprietary or something to that effect) so people usually go Camburg or TC instead. Maybe if you live closer to where Icon ships from that would be a non issue. I couldn't find anyone running the Aluminum arms currently here.

 

Dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttttttttttttttttttttttttt

 

Cool. Thanks. I plan on getting 884's at the same time I get UCA's, and the 884's should put me at about 2". Hoping to get numbers like yours.

 

Try to find a local alignment place that will work to your specs. Dealer or chain-store lifetime free "toe-and-go" didn't get it done for me. The shop I go to does mostly modded imports and I pay every time. Never see another truck in the place.

 

A quick search found these.

http://www.mooreparts.com/fk-dust-boots-seals/

On my other phone I have another saved link. Those are something which will coincide with any future heim jointed UCA installation.

 

It'd be a good idea to inspect them regularly if you go that route and will be around water regularly. What protects can also trap right

 

I could not bother reading all the bickering.

I never ran LR suspension arms. I had read about failures posted here. Never pursued the reasons why.

Years ago, I bought a set of Camburg ball joint style upper arms. I do recall that Camburg did not want these arm to have Moog ball joints used at that time. Apparently, Camburg had measured a bunch of Moog ball joints and found the machining tolerance were not consistent. There were a couple of times where people posted that they used Moog ball joints and they were difficult to install (too tight) and did split the cup on the A arm.

I purchased s et of low mileage oem A arms, pressed out the ball joints and used those as recommended by Camburg back then. I have had no issues.

Seeing the link that shows Camburg now sells these with Moog ball joints already installed AND they come with the machined caps, makes them even more economical than the previous offerings.

If Moog is preinstalled and still has the grease fitting, these should last a long time.

I could have gone with the uniball setup, but needed longevity or strength. Camburg also new the limiting factors of the ball joint and per their info have angled the cups to provide the most possible travel without binding. Uniballs will be stronger and provide more movement before binding, the trade off is the uniballs do not last well in wet conditions.

I would have no concerns running the new Moog version upper arms.

PK

 

Well the Camburg UCA's came yesterday. I assembled all the bushings and such, put in the zerks. One issue the dust caps don't stay on, they pop right out with almost zero pressure. The last set I had you had to lightly bang the dust covers in with a rubber mallet. Suggestions on what to do as the lift gets put in Saturday and don't want the tops of the Ball Joints exposed for Winter. I emailed DownSouth Motorsports to get new ones but highly doubt they will come by Friday for use on Saturday