UCA Advice + Elka Suspension - Advise Please

Do you have any front bumper or steel skids? Wondering and hoping the improved weight elka springs will solve my front end sag due to the c4 lo-pro bumper + skids. Any insight is appreciated.

 

@raimieb that 700lb Elka spring will absolutely solve your sag issue

 

Yes I have a C4 Lo pro front bumper with bull bar and the factory TRD skid. I’ll be adding a winch shortly. I spoke directly with Elka and they confirmed the weight would be no issue at all. I don’t have my Elkas installed yet but I can report back soon.

 

To the OP,

I’d check in with the folks at Accutune, see what they say.

I have a full steel plate bumper, winch, and skids, but just #600 springs. No sag and a good balance of compression and rebound for daily driving and fast/technical trails. TBH, I was surprised how well it worked. The point is that maybe #700 is too much.

Every situation is different but I’m very impressed with how it turned out in my case.

It might be worth a call.

Good luck and Cheers
Mike

 

Post a picture of your alignment bolt positions for the front and rears.

 

Important question, appreciate your insight. With this kind of 2-3" lift, do we need rear sway bar spacers?

For the front I've purchased Dr. KDSS' front sway bar bushings and adapter plate (to avoid any sway bar binding).
For the rear, to adjust the rear trac bar to proper geometry, I've purchased the BOTCK (trackbar kit).

 

Glad your sag is solved!

 

There are no spacers for the rears that I know of. Here's a link to extended rear sway bar. They sell them as pairs (front/rears), fronts or rears separately. There's other option besides these, such as Dobinsons, Superpro etc..

Sway Bar Links – DRZ OFF ROAD

 

Will do as soon as the rain in SoCal takes a break.

 

It's hard to find a definitive answer on the forums since peoples use/age of trucks/lift height/alignments all differ. It's equally difficult to find true/unbiased reviews, since most people want to justify the fact that they spent a ton of money on mods OR they're "influencers" giving a positive review on products for social media recognition. I spent time speaking with the two off-road shops I frequent, and they both agreed that the Adapter Plates are well worth the money, along with KDSS Rear Spacers, but the BOTCK seemed to have negligible impact (for my use anyway). I'll list my personal viewpoint on the mods I have installed so far, hope the feedback helps:

- Dr.KDSS Front Adapter Plates: Great mod, definitely improved bushing angle on my truck.
- Dr.KDSS Sway Bar Clamps: Good mod, but I only did the two outer position clamps, not all 4. Still effective IMO.
- Treaty Oak KDSS Spacers (rear only): I couldn't tell if this was necessary or not, but with them on I have barely any lean (less than ¼"). My buddy with a GX has them as well, and his lean is dramatic, nearly an inch. It's a toss-up.
- Dr.KDSS BOTCK: I'm at about 1.75"-2.00" of lift in the rear and the shop that installed the BOTCK said my panhard was still in acceptable position, so it wasn't entirely necessary.

Note: You cannot use the Front KDSS Spacers (Treaty Oak style) with the Adapter Plates from Dr.KDSS. It's one or the other. I chose the latter to avoid any skid plate clearance issues.

 

I don't have KDSS so this might not be worth much. I have purchased the linked sway bar linkedin above end links but not installed. Have 3" lift and maybe a little more with tires.

Stock sway bar and end links. Have done a lot of off roading and it's been fine. Sometimes i think maybe the end link might break after a few years of this but whatever. Can be fixed and the truck can run with no sway bars.

 

@slixx1320 curious to get your thoughts, as I don't know much about this positioning of these

Driver:



Passenger:

 

Ask the alignment tech if he could adjust/point the rear adjuster out to max, this max’s out caster, then adjust the front adjuster inwards, this adjusts camber. That should get you fairly close to spec on camber and you’ll be (most likely) out of spec on caster due to the UCA. Then lastly, adjust the toe’s by using the tie rods.

 

will give it a shot, thank you.

 

Quick question, what are you going to use for shock guards on the shafts to avoid pitting and for the lower shock guards? I called Rago Fabrication but there lower shock guards won't fit due to the base of the elka's being larger. Open to any suggestions. I'm hesitant to put 4k$ of shocks on without any protection.

Please let me know your thoughts.

 

Aren’t elka shafts already protected by a rubber boot?

 

Have you tried RCI? Honestly I hadn’t looked at rear shock guards yet!

 

Wow! I feel absolutely ridiculous. Ha! You're 10000% correct. They already have boots. Thank you. In waiting for them to ship, I had literally forgotten what the photo of them looks like. Ugh.

 

I was at an alignment shop today who has a lot of 4x4 Toyota experience. They were saying SPC is the best and easiest. I plan to change my icon billet to SPC.

 

I'm guessing it wouldn't hurt to add even more protection if you so wish too. Would something like the ICON shock shin guards work on the Elka's? You'll possibly have to maybe, crush the rubber boot a tad bit from the looks of it?

07-UP FJ/03-UP 4RUNNER REAR SHIN GUARDS 07-UP FJ/03-UP 4RUNNER REAR SHIN GUARDS - Icon Vehicle Dynamics

 

Ive heard this about some arms that have caster already built into them. Ironman would be another like this.

They correct the caster, but doing that with the UCA alone actually sucks the tire backwards in the wheel well, not allowing some people to clear body mounts or mudflaps. If your objective is to clear mudflaps and body mounts, you want a neutral UCA that allows caster adjustment at the lower UCA so you can move your tire forward in the wheel well.

Tinkerer talks about it here at 6:30.

https://youtu.be/huMztKaHsUE?t=382

 

Major bummer. I would have thought that with the Dobs billet having fully adjustable distances on the bushings (threaded bolts), a trained shop would be able to adjust properly. Seems like a ton of room to get it within spec. I can understand your frustration though.

 

I'm not saying this is necessarily the case with the Dobs billet as I don't know much about them yet. I'll have to look at them closer.

I'm saying this is the case with some UCA's that have a good amount of caster correction built into them.....like the original tubular dobs and ironman UCAs. I'm sure there are more.

 

I watched the video after you posted this and read up on the subject and you're right, it's definitely working counterintuitively. Will likely switch out to the SPC's at some point...The main reason I was attracted to the Dob's UCA was the factory style maintenance free ball joint.

 

I'm getting the Elka 2.5 DC's installed Monday and went with the SPC Upper, I'm also going with 33" tires. They will be doing a slight bumper trim as well.

 

Just curious which size 33's you are going with. Depending on the answer what load rating?

(Just checking because there are lot of 33in options. Common sizes are 285/70R17 and 255/80R17. Both those sizes have less than and more than 33in tall options )

 

I went with Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T’s in 285/70R17. I wanted to keep things a little lighter and got the STD ones instead of the heavier E load tires.

 

Very good choice imo. I don't like the firm ride on Load E as well. I had to sell one set because my wife hated it.