UCA recommendations

Looking to buy a UCA for the 4Runner with my new lift set up. My new lift will be bilstein 6112/5160 about 2.5/2 inch lift. I was looking at JBA UCA but heard it will rub the UCA with 285 my rims offset are 0 I’m trying to avoid spacers.

 

I run element hard parts billet UCA’s. Not cheap, but worth it.

 

I have icon bullet. Do not go with icon billet.

Edit: to add some color here. For some of the adjustability you need to remove the UCA, guess, reinstall and check. Then possibly have to remove and adjust and guess again. That's absurd, time consuming and expensive.

 

Very happy with my Old Man Emu UCA's.

 

I have Dirt King UCA but will likely be putting stock uca back on. Stock was good enough with my 2.5/2 lift. Not happy with DK uca long term.

 

Thanks for your input was so close to pulling the trigger on some Dirt King also

 

I have JBA’s with 0 offset wheels and running 285/70/17 tires. They do not rub. I did delete the front mud flaps and pushed in the plastic in front inner wall.plastic tho.

 

Nice. Did it rub the body mount?

 

No BMC required.

 

I also have jba uca but with -12 offset and there's a ton of room to the uca.

As for the rubbing on the body mount. I know alot of people will say their running 285s with out chopping the body mount. Since I'm running a small lift(1.5") I just chopped it. That way I dont have to worry about it. But since your running 0 offset wheels it SHOULD clear.

 

I have had the dirt king tubular arms for about 15k now and so far they have been great. at 3" lift I was able to get 4* caster. When I had a 2" lift I had them at 5*. They still look and function like they were brand new out of the box, but I also greased them well at install and at my last 10k oil change.

 

I have a bit over 25k on my Dirt Kings. They had been good for a while but the bushing don't seem to hold grease anymore or something. I get about 2k after grease and retorquing the bolt before the bushings are knocking again at every bump. Grease visibly coming out various places over time around the bushings. Other than the annoying knocking bushings, they are fine i guess.

 

Anything but Icon unless you want constant squealing.

 

Is there any problem if I torque the upper control arm/ ball joint while still on Jack? Or should I do it with the vehicle weight on the ground? Sorry first time swapping out Control arms

 

I torqued mine when its on the ground under its own weight.

 

I appreciate all the individual feedback on the different options.

I too have been considering the options (leaning BDS or Accutune), and didn’t realize there were so many out there. It’s not exhaustive, but here’s the spreadsheet I’ve been using to keep all my notes.

 

Wow nice I appreciate you for sharing will look into it some more with your spreadsheet

 

Supposed to do it on the ground.

 

Just know that the UCAs with more built in caster achieve this by pulling the top of the spindle toward the rear of the truck. This gains caster but pulls your tire toward the rear, getting closer to the body mount.

I suggest watching all of Tinkerer's Adventure videos on Toyota IFS to really understand how it all works.

Tinkerer's Adventure - YouTube

 

If I was buying another set of uca. Id probably go with dobinson uca. They really have some great stuff.

 

Per this video Dobinson uca seems to have easy replaceable ball joint, oem like bushing and few more advantages.

https://youtu.be/6WDyscFarpA

 

I second the Dobinson's UCA. They are maintenance free and use the same OEM ball joint that is readily available at all auto parts store. They are beefy and I achieved 3+ caster with them no problem.

 

I have had the Dobinson UCAs for about 50,000 miles now. Good as gold!

 

Based on his videos and a few of the local 4Runner owners I went with Ironman4x4 UCAs.

 

Would it be worth it to spend the extra 200$ for Dobinson. I’m planning on JBA as of now. Don’t really do much off-road maybe once every month or so

 

Besides price, their biggest difference is the bushings, urethane (JBA) vs rubber (Dobinsons).

The rubber will be quieter, less maintenance and a little more forgiving of the road. The urethane will require greasing regularly, and will probably squeak from time to time, but they’ll provide a more responsive feel (you’ll feel more of the road and steering) and be slightly less sloppy.

 

Exactly right.

I've never had to sell replacement bushings for the Dobinsons UCA's, they last so long.

 

Even with greasing the bushings every 5k miles my jba arms clunk every so often.

But yes if I was you I'd pay the extra and get dobs.

 

You should check if they're making contact with the coilovers. I've seen that with JBA's before as they offer a lot of droop travel, but the inside profile is as big as stock, so it can hit the coils at full droop.

Photo attached from this post:

 

Thanks everyone dobinson was my second choice also