What Upper Control Arms

So I am getting ready to dive into the suspension of my 17 TRD offroad and I am curious what UCA's people recommend? I am only planning to level the truck out with an adjustable coil over but I am thinking I want to do the wheel studs and upper control arms at the same time. The goal with my truck is functionality and reliability on long road trips with some pretty hard back country adventures.

 

If you're staying under two inches you can still use stock. Even if you do old man emu you can use stock.

For us to help you please advise either brand of lift or target height you're going for.

You said you want to level the truck, that technically means only a .85 inch lift with bilstein 5100's.

 

You won't need them unless you start going 2" + of lift. Leveling the truck only requires about a half inch to maybe. 75" up front. Measure from hub center of wheel to fender front and back and you'll see. Keep lift to just a level and you'll likely save yourself a lot of head aches in the long run.

 

What are you doing with the wheel studs?

 

Consider the ECGS bushing as well since you'll have it apart

 

I like spc uca. The 2 main styles are ball joint and uniball. Uniball are stronger and allow more down droop angle before binding but are overkill for many and require more maintence and have a habit of squeaking. If you arent going too crazy id stick with a ball joint. I like the spc because of price and performance. They are pretty solid, work well and are very adjustable. Just beware many alignment techs are not the smartest and if they havent seen the spc uca, they will not get the caster adjustments. Best to install them close and cross your fingers

 

I will check out the SPC. Thanks for the input. I am just looking at options.. To answer the previous questions, I have no doubts the stock will be fine... lol hell I never need to touch the truck.. haha. I am looking to do about 1.5 inch lift.... To give specifics I was being vague on purpose I did not want this thread to turn into a product bashing.. But I have a feeling its gonna go that way eventually anyway. I am currently waiting on the bilsten 8100's to show up. I know I can use stock UCA's but the front bumper I choose really opens up the view of the front suspension so for the sake of astectics I want to spruce up the look of the suspension and a nice set of UCAs will definitely help. Ultimately I dont want the sqeeks and clunks that go along with a hyme joint but I will tolerate it if no better options exist..

When I installed the wheels it didnt take long to realize the front factory wheel studs are a bit on the short side. I had to get the extended lugnuts to grab a few extra threads. I dosnt feel like that is a great solution considering I plan on going deep into back country and will no doubt put the struck in some stick situations. I would hate to shear off the studs when I am far from civilization so in order to alleviate those concerns I am just going to install longer wheel studs so I can get the right amount of thread on the wheels..

Thanks for all the input

 

Sounds to me like you had/have the wrong nuts. Some wheels are designed to have a shank on the nut past their seating surface:



See how that extra bit comes out beneath the conical seat? (Labeled .315") If you have wheels that are expecting such a shank and you use non-shanked nuts you're not going to be nabbing enough threads on the stud.

As long as you're not playing with spacers, the studs should be plenty long.

 

JBA UCAs with their ball joints. I like them a lot. Lots of travel, easy installation nd I'd prefer a ball joint to a uniball living in the NE. I'm worried about corrosion with the open uniball. The ball joint is sealed and easy to grease.

 

+1 here

I'll be running BP-51s with JBA.

@mrnoodley are those SD or HD arms.

 

Is there supposed to be a gap between the UCA and washer?

 

These are the HD arms.

 

There's no real gap there. The bolt is tight, and there's a bit of deflection in the bushing, that may look like a gap here.

 

I second. Been very happy with my TC UCA.

 

I like this... I was going to suggest icon uni-ball since they have covers/cap to keep the environment out to avoid cleaning them once a month. Any limitations to the ball joint like droop?

 

If I recall that ball joint has great movement range than a uniball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6tvb7Sv8Q

Terrible video but good info. Skip to 4:10 for range of motion

 

Might be looking into these since I was cleaning my Fox and UCA this pas weekend and realized my all-pro uca are rubbing my shock tower.

 

Yup those are what I got. But still I want more... lol lack of black lug nuts in that style also, so I had to use chrome. Which look fine but my OCD is killing me

 

+1 for TC. I wipe down the uniball with tri-flo lube every 3-4 weeks. No squeaks so far.

 

Lots of great options and info coming from you guys... thank u for all the help... what else is out there?