Uca Help

Uni ball vs ball joint? Which brand would you recommend? I have been looking at total chaos, camburg, icon and SPC. From my understanding ball joint uca come with less maintenance but uni ball maintenance is pretty easy. Other advantages vs disadvantages? I do get alot of snow where I'm at in the winter and sumer alot of dusty trails. I will be getting kings 2.5 or fox all the way around with an aal 3" lift with probably 33's (maybe 35's if I decide to regear).

 

Uniballs definitely require more maintenance and there are a lot of complaints about squeaking. They were designed for racing and as such were expected to be serviced regularly.

Moog style ball joints are much lower maintenance, easier to repair and have more readily available parts.

Uniballs are for racing, SPC is for endurance.

 

look into icon UCA with the delta joints. They have more articulation like the uniball but instead you can get a cap to seal it. Icon has a nice video explaining them. Also you can buy replacement delta joints which are easy to change. I have the uniballs and honestly every couple of months I wipe off the uniball and apply some dry lube. 1 year already with no squeaking or issues. Maintanence is about 45 mins 1-2 times a year for me

 

A lot of people do not like the SPC UCA's because they have been redesigned several times and in the past some people have had problems with them. That stated, many, many sets of them have been sold so for the amount that is out there I feel they make a good product at a fair price point. I ran two sets of them for many years on different trucks and never had an issue. You could also look into the JBA UCA's, a lot of people like those. Most on here will tell you to go with the uni-ball. Total Chaos is probably the preferred brand for those however I agree with @JoeCOVA and his comments above. As for Icon, I steer away from anything Icon makes as they have horrible customer service and reputation for failure. I had a friend who had the Icon UCA's and they failed and cost him about a grand and Icon did noting to remedy the situation even though they had redesigned the product before they shipped him a known faulty design. Just my .02.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'm going to go with the ball joint over the uni ball due to the maintenance and they do well with most offroading. Now I have to choose from camburg, SPC and jba(I eliminated icon delta because from what I have found it seems more people have issues compared to the other 3). If you were buying uca's right now who would you go with from those 3. I like the adjustability of SPC for the alignment on a 3" lift and this generation seems solid( I don't like the fact that allegedly people had issues previously and SPC didn't help out but there is conflicting info on that) . Camburg is a very recognized name and are known for their quality for race builds, I know there uniball uca are good but how about the moog ball joint. Also they don't have good caster adjustment for a 3" lift. Alot of people here like the jba's and haven't had issues, less adjustable than SPC but easier to get parts if an issue comes up. Do the jba's look weird with a king set up because they are red.

 

I would go with JBA or SPC. SPC has adjustability and a good warranty. The only people I know that had issues with SPC were years ago due to the bushings. That has all been worked out and they even feature a solid forged piece now as opposed to the previous two piece design. SPC are constantly improving their products.

JBA is an awesome company and feature a solid moog design. As far as red, UCA is probably the last thing I ever notice on a truck

Either of these will work, a disadvantage to the SPC is you need to find someone who knows how to align the truck with them.

 

Thanks again. I'm leaning towards the Jba's. Red uca and the king blue is the only giving me hesitation. I'm Going to search the form and try to find pictures of kings with Jba's. I know it's just an aesthetic thing but It seems like it the best choice for me. I like the Ease of maintenance, pre built caster will work with the 3" lift, it does great in most offroad situations and from everything I have read no real issues (other than rust but since corrected that issue with the ceramic clear coating on the new version) and every one who got them have no regerts lol. Only other thing I have seen is they stick out further so rubbing can be an issue. I plan on keeping my trd pro wheels will that be an issue when I lift and go 33's (i will be doing cmc) . Or will I need a wheel with a different offset.

 

I have tough country uca. No complaints and has zerks for maintenance

 

I have the icon delta joints and at accu-tune and DSM and others say they are a solid choice with not alot of negative feedback. I’ve searched and haven’t found much. Can you tell me where you saw these reviews as I would be interested in reading up on them.
I have a pair but don’t have them installed yet.
Thanks.

 

I'm relatively new to this so I kind of misspoke. It was not so much the delta joint. More the icon brand and uca's. From my understanding the delta joint is relatively new and can be used on alot of uca's. What I read here, Google and YouTube the delta joint hasn't had any issues but all the reviews I have seen are under 5k miles.

 

If you're seeing a lot of snow, I would lean towards SPC.

 

More than BC lol. From one of the previous replies the only downsides with SPC some shops don't know how use the adjustments for alignment and parts when you need them are a little bit harder to get than jba. I go back and forth between SPC and jba. I might have to revisit the icons with the delta joint also. I'm planning on getting everything done this summer so I have time to confuse my self more

 

With the SPC UCAs it is easy to do the caster adjustments on your own to your desired setting and then just have an alignment shop do the rest of the alignment.

 

From what I have experienced you can set your SPCs and forget about them. They will give you the +3 degrees or whatever you set them at, then the alignment tech can just fine tune using the lowers. Really no need to fine tune the uppers.

edit: damnit eon you beat me

 

I was under the impression the 2 piece design was the new design, am i incorrect in that assumption? It seems like a better design with the tube and forged hybrid construction.

 

SPC.

 

Is this the latest version? I'm confused on whether it is one piece forged or tube/forged hybrid.

 

These are almost 8 years old with just over 43K miles on them. Just all cleaned up and painted 2 weeks ago. They are the 2 piece welded ones with the new stile bushings.

 

I have been running on SPC UCA's 25470 (Hybrid tubular) with bilsteins 5100 @ full lift or two years with no problems. I live in baja so roads here are very shitty so its like light off-roading every day

 

You will need a wheel with a different offset or spacers. I'm just going through this now as I recently learned that the JBAs with Pro wheels and 285's will rub at full lock without spacers. I didn't want spacers, so I'm going to do the compromise and get Camburgs, but with ball joints.