RC Forged Aluminum UCA's.....Hear me out

Preface - I do NOT like Rough Country at all! Lets get that straight!

After looking into UCA's recently I found these in my search.

https://www.roughcountry.com/toyota...74201.html?find=2015-toyota-tacoma-4wd-738360



They are cheap, $269! Maybe for a reason? They specify that they work ONLY with 3.5" lift kits, but I don't see the issue using them on 2.5"-3"-ish lifts. I would assume they don't affect the alignment too much to put them out of spec for a 2.5"-3" lift. I like that they have rubber bushings, that the ball joint is sealed and they are greasable. I don't know what ball joint is used, but I'm guessing it will be supported for quite some time in the future. But for a forged aluminum UCA with sealed ball joints at $269, this is absolutely the cheapest aluminum or steel UCA's out there. I have a hard time believing they would be the worst UCA out there, but I'm not sure how bad they "could" be. I know there are plenty of people using the RC 3.5" lift kit that includes these and haven't seen any issues regarding the UCA. So it leads me to believe these are at least decent.

I know what most of you are going to say.... "Don't bother" or "Stick with JBA or Light Racing or whatever you're a fanboy of". Which I fully understand. But these aren't far off aftermarket OE replacement UCAs, which makes them very appealing.

Thanks for reading and I'm curious to hear what your thoughts are.

 

I've heard their customer service is good too. Maybe they are turning a page in quality? Especially considering GM uses their shocks on their Trail Boss/AT4 1/2 ton trucks which leads me to believe they may have learned some things about longevity and valving specs when working with GM.

EDIT: GM uses Ranhco, NOT Rough Country...my bad guys.

 

My thoughts, since you asked, are that they're probably cheap garbage. There are many places on the truck it's ok to go cheap if you want- lights, radio, bed rack, etc. The suspension on my truck is not a place I'm going to be pinching pennies. That doesn't mean you have to buy the nicest stuff, just established and proven stuff.

 

If you want quality and made in America without breaking the bank then this is a great option. This is the same shop putting out multi hundred thousand dollar race trucks.

https://jdfabrication.com/collections/05-15-6-lug/products/tacoma-05-18-upper-arm

 

I'm not disagreeing with you there (though I'm not one to cheap out on lights, I'm a lighting nerd lol). But I doubt RC would put out a product that is unsafe that would potentially ruin their name. Looking at the install instructions on the 3.5" leveling kit it says to "align to factory specs". So I would assume it improves caster and ball joint angle like every other performance UCA does. My current set up is 6112's w/ 600lb springs (5/4 clip setting but still getting lean, I only gained a little over 2" lift after settling), OME Dakar Med leafs, B110 5100's in the rear. I want to step up the front spring rate to avoid the lean, but I'm not doing that until I get UCAs.

Ya, I'm sure it's to cover their a** that they say ONLY for 3.5" lift so normal RC buyers aren't confused.

No doubt those are amazing! Their R&D on the lower pivot mounting and long travel kits is amazing!! I also like that they are made in the USA, but $799 vs $269 is a lot of money saved for other parts. I would consider myself frugal, but not cheap. I will always spend extra money where it's warranted but sometimes it's a tough decision when Part A is a 1/3 of the price as Part B. Don't get me wrong, my dream is to be able to do the whole JD Fab 2.25" long travel kit! But I have to be realistic and living in NW IA puts me 8+hrs from trails that are worth traveling for and I drive the truck to and from said location. So I am not able to get on trails as often as many and generally don't go hard because I know I have to drive it home.

 

It doesn't necessarily have to be unsafe to be a shitty product. You could get 12 months out of the bushings/ball joint before needing to replace them.

You're looking at the sealed uniball inner bushing. If you get it with rubber bushings it's $529.

 

I think I'm too naive to understand how those would be an upgrade over the OEM steel tubes...

 

Additional built in caster via ball joint positioning for lifted applications. Otherwise OEM is fine for stock height and only mild 1-2” lift.

 

I saw these the other week. I’m quite surprised a forged arm is sub $300. Similar companies with overseas manufacturing have been at the $599-699 introductory mark at best. The other potential scenario is they are pricing cheap for now and in 6 months when word gets out they shoot up to $400+.

For the price, I’d be curious the quality of the included ball joints too.

That being said even cheap stuff like freedom offroad ucas aren’t giving people any trouble so may be a non-issue. I get leary though of products matching prices of garbage resellers like ksp.

 

Oh right, 3.5in lift required. Can you tell that's not my thing either?

 

I do find the “only fits with 3.5 of lift” as someone else noted, goofy as hell too. Either that’s just them not knowing their product or these have some whacky specs. 3.5” isn’t a popular lift number, 2.5-3” captures most people out of the range of OEM UCAs. It’s either that or people go to 4-6” drop brackets.

 

You may be mistaken here bro. I've got a 2019 Trail Boss in the driveway and the shocks are Rancho, not RC.

 

You're right! My bad, I looked on my phone and all I saw was "sealed" in the options and didn't see that it referred to the inner uniball. OOPS! That's a good point. I would assume, not knowing the ID, that you could put OEM or OEM replacement bushings in. As for the ball joint, I don't see a replacement part number. Though I did email them about it, we'll see what they say.

Wel, the OEM UCAs are stamped steel, have limited range of motion not allowing for lifts higher than 2.5" and they do not change the caster when lifted.

Oopsie daisey, my bad! I'll correct my previous post. Though I haven't been a fan of Rancho in the past either, I've replaced many with 25k miles on them that were blown. But I'm sure GM engineers worked with Rancho for longevity and hopefully it's not going to be an issue.

 

Yeah but do you really want to be dealing with replacing ball joints and bushings prematurely? Of course this is all hypothetical at this point, just a point of discussion.

At the end of the day, it’s still a cheap, made in China product from a company not exactly known for quality. I would rather spend a little more and complement those nice 6112s with an equally beefy quality control arm.

 

I wouldn't touch those ucas with a 10 foot pole.

 

I totally agree with you! I'm just curious if anyone has experience with them. It seems they are hit an miss on the silverado forums. Some have no issues for years and 10's of thousands of miles where others have issues within 4 months with the ball joint. But something not mentioned in my brief searches were, wheel/tire weight, suspension height (maybe too high) or proper alignment specs.

My plan is to use either Light Racing, JBA or JD Fab to compliment the 6112's once I get heavier springs.