Aftermarket LCA stock length?

Hi,
anyone here upgraded their stock LCA to an aftermarket one? TC? Dirt king? I’m talking about stock length not Long Travel.

It seems like not a lot of people here upgraded their LCA unless you’re going full Long Travel Kit.

Thanks in advance.

 

No sense in shelling huge bucks to reinvent the wheel.

The stock lower control arm is fine as is, the reason the upper gets replaced with stock lengths is the upper ball joint limits down travel and the way it's made can rub wider tire walls.

Neither is an issue with the lower so why R&D one when nobody is going to buy it?

When you go long travel though obviously you need longer A arms all around hence why they make them for long travel.

Now if you just want lighter parts you could probably comission a race shop to make them for you at $$$$$ but if you're really concerned about a lighter and stronger lower A arm for racing then why not just go LT and reap all the benefits?

Why do you need to replace your lower control arms anyway?

Rebuild them with Energy Suspension Poly bushings.

 

That’s good to know. It’s something I have noticed about owners with aftermarket LCA (Majority of them are running LT)

I haven’t really seen anyone running them with stock length.

I figured it might be overkill especially since it cost around 2k.

I don’t need to replace my lowers. I was just curious. Thanks for the response

 

Oh yeah, *DEFINITELY* over kill.

Hell even the lower control arm armour you can get for the factory LCAs is overkill in my mind.

The factory LCA are pretty well bulletproof. Heavy, yes, but sturdy and do what they need to do.

Now if you wanted some weird caster or camber specs you couldn't achieve with the stock isometric bolts then *POSSIBLY* but again, you'd be shelling cash and taking all liability.

 

I just got TC stock length LCAs. I dont want LT, and it also allows me to add a 2nd shock. And I deleted the LBJ.

 

OFC TC makes stock lengths.

I forgot they did that.

Off topic but is that just a gusseted stock spindle or is that a lift spindle?

 

TC gusseted stock spindle. I dont believe lift spindles work with 4wd

 

I don't think anyone makes a lift spindle for 4wd but in theory they would work it's just that 4wd are limited to about 4" of lift before the stock cv axles start having problems and most lift spindles are 6" lifts.

I think 4" would be perfect though, with your high dollar setup how much lift up front do you have?

 

3". I dont want to go more than that

 

After I ripped a OEM LCA off my truck I got a set of stock length Dirt King Lowers. Camburg also makes stock length lowers.

The side I didn’t rip off was cracked at both the bushing eye and the shock mount. While replacement lowers may be overkill for you, they aren’t for others.

The trail repair that got me 150 miles home


The cracked passenger side

 

What kind of wheeling were you doing to crack/break your lca @hoarder23 ?

 

That truck got a mix of rock crawling with little regard for the well-being of the truck, several thousand high speed off road miles on all sorts of dirt trails. It finally gave out when I tried to climb over a 30” granite ledge with all the force being put on the front drivers wheel

 

Oh my

 

I'm really happy with my TC stock length LCA's. Were they expensive bling? Yes. Do they improve performance? Yes.

They have higher ground clearance than the OEM LCA's

The uniball is stronger than a ball joint.

The poly bushings are firmer than the rubber bushings of the OEM LCA, so there is less deflection when hitting an obstacle. Firmer steering response. See video link below...

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-from-total-chaos.606128/page-4#post-23252160

Cons? High maintenance and high cost.

Here's a thread with a lot more info.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-lower-control-arms-from-total-chaos.606128/

 

I have stock length TCS as well no second shock mount.

 

Does anybody know what length they are referring to when looking at after market stock replacement LCA. It seems like every manufacturer I look at has a different length. Just not sure what they are measuring.

 

I'm running DK stock length lowers, referred to as mid travel. I don't want long arms on the truck. My reasoning for the lowers begins with strength, ease of maintenance/replacement parts and looks. I want it to match the uppers. If you look at enough photos or videos of lifted trucks with stock lowers, you'll see there is a small section that looks like it's in between the LCA body and ball joint. That little section looks so weak to me. Mind you, never seen one broken, I just don't like the way it looks.
Is it a necessity, debatable. But really, how much unnecessary crap do we all have on our trucks.

Here is a pic of what I'm talking about, it just sticks out to me.

 

That part is not the weak point of a stock LCA. I abused my truck for 5 years before I experienced a failure on the frame side of the LCA. It failed as I was trying the force my truck up a 30” vertical granite face with the tire turned hard left and jammed into the wall. That was after several thousand miles of hard off-roading, both rock crawling and high speed stuff. See my previous post here for the photos.

Unless you are doing high speed stuff and jamming your tires into the firewall or regularly breaking CVs in the rocks, aftermarket LCAs are likely an overkill.

 

Yes, I'm aware it's not the weak point. I thought I made it clear in the post it's not a weak point. It just looks weak.