Upper control arms with less than 2inch lift

Hey guys,

I’ve searched the forum and didn’t come up with much regarding running a set of after market upper control arms on my truck with less than 2 inches of lift. Just ordered some fox coil overs for the front end to replace my bilstein 5100s and I’m only planning to run them at 1 inch of lift as I don’t want anymore lift. I already feel like my alignment isn’t great with my current setup as I get some wandering on the hwy even though i’m at the lowest lift setting (.85in), so I was planning to get some upper control arms to go with the new struts. Problem is all the after market control arms say they are designed for 2-4 inches of lift. Is it going to create problems trying to run less lift than 2 inches or is it still worth it to go with some aftermarket control arms to help with alignment?

Any insight on the matter from anyone would be helpful.

 

Upper control arms from SPC or JBA still might be beneficial if you want more caster in your alignment. Might help with the wandering. Also if you're running larger tires, it'll help with clearance between the tire and body mount.

 

This. Adjustable uppers make a big difference.

 

My $0.02 (I have the high JBA’s high caster UCAs btw) - you likely don’t need them.

Put your coil overs on, get aligned, drive it. Likely your drive and numbers will be fine and you don’t need the expense or extra effort of new UCAs.

YMMV, of course, but I wouldn’t bother.

 

Doesn’t hurt to get UCA’s, I’d go with SPC tho, after 3 years of my JBA’s I absolutely hate them.

 

I put TRD Pro suspension on mine. ~1-1/2" of lift in the front and stock height on the rear. Stock UCAs and don't experience any wandering. What size/brand of tires are you running?

 

What don't you like about them?

 

Paint is chipping, I can’t get more than 3* of caster on either side running around 2” of lift (My dad has an alignment machine). I think they’re jusy designed to get you into factory spec at 2”+ of lift, not get you any really high caster numbers. Plus, I’ve replaced both ball joints 3 times now. Overall, spc is better with far more adjustability and their ball joints last longer. I’ll be swapping mine out for SPC’s very soon.

 

I wouldn’t waste my money on UCAs at 2” of lift or less until giving an alignment a try. Something to note is what are you current alignment specs with the bilstein setup? At 0.85 of lift your factory ucas should do just fine, sounds more like what you are experiencing is a bad alignment that could easily be fixed by a knowledgeable shop.

 

I recently put on 6112s at the 3rd notch and added JBA UCAs at the same time. If I were to do it again, I'd just change the shocks, see how it rides, and then change UCAs if required. The 5100s I had before gave about 1.5 " of lift. I had a bit of tire rub (on the stock mud flaps) but not too bad with the 5100s and stock UCAs. With the new set up, the JBAs give positive caster, which results in the centre of the wheel moving towards the rear of the truck a bit. This made my tire rubbing (on the stock mud flabs) worse and I ended up replacing the mud flaps with Rokblokz mudflaps, which helped the problem.

 

Hmm all good info... I am running 3rd Gen trd pro 16s with 265 70 r16s. No rubbing whatsoever but I’ve never felt like the alignment was right. I’ve tried 2 times at different shops. Always have had some positive camber. It’s a 2015 2nd Gen with 40k miles, so I’m thinking about replacing uppers and lowers along with struts so that all ball joints and bushings are new going forward. Do y’all think it’s worth it or should I just install struts and get an alignment and wait a while to replace all the rest of this stuff?

 

Alignment specs aside, one thing to consider is that the factory UCAs are going to be close to contacting the coil on those 2.5s. The larger diameter coil is going to be a tight fit with the stamped steel UCA. They’ll severely limit your travel/driveability even on the street without making contact.

At 40k miles I’d say your LCAs are still fine unless there are obvious signs of wear or rust.

 

My thoughts as well. Running OME 2.5" lift on a 2013 for 40k miles or more. That said, the caster on the passenger side would not quite come into spec but handled fine and tire wear was negligible given regular rotation.
If your steering has issues, what is the alignment say on it now, or possibly other parts worn out??

 

At 40k miles they're just getting broken in.... I'd leave them. I'm still running my original LCAs on my 2010 with about 130k miles.

 

Everyone that says aftermarket UCAs aren't needed are leaving wheel travel on the board.

If you're running extended travel Fox coilovers you will definitely benefit from an aftermarket UCA, even with just an inch or two of lift.

 

So 2-4 in lift upper control arms will still work on a zero to 1 inch lift? I have no problem spending the extra money but want to make sure I’m not gonna end up with too little lift to make them work.

 

I had SPCs on my Tacoma. I liked them, but eventually the bushings failed. I had to cut them out and replace them with poly bushings. After 10 years, they weren't pretty anymore.

I got the JBAs on a good deal. I didn't know about the ball joints until after I bought them. I'm not really a fan of the design. I was able to get 4° of caster on my 4Runner though. I'll see how they hold up.