[Fried_man7]

Hey guys! Can someone give me a good reason not to go with Dobinson UCAs for my 2016 4runner? Or go with SPCs newer ball joint? I’ll be getting a 2 to 2.5 lift and eventually when my tires die, fit 285s. I’ll be going with a Dobinson set up with the lift so thought to stay with them. My truck Is my daily driver and an occasional New England Weekend warrior.


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[YellowSnow]

No reason....I’m running JBA’s and have had zero issues, even running F5 -38 offset with 285’s

[nimby]

Originally Posted by Fried_man7

Hey guys! Can someone give me a good reason not to go with Dobinson UCAs for my 2016 4runner? Or go with SPCs newer ball joint? I’ll be getting a 2 to 2.5 lift and eventually when my tires die, fit 285s. I’ll be going with a Dobinson set up with the lift so thought to stay with them. My truck Is my daily driver and an occasional New England Weekend warrior.


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One reason is you might not need UCAs with a 2-2.5" lift. Try getting it aligned after your lift to see if you need them or not.

[STX4Runner]

Yeah, you don't need new UCAs with that amount of lift. I have about 2.5" and am on the stock UCAs.

[91324]

I'm running JBA High Caster UCAs with Dobinson 302/325 (2.5" / 1.77"), 285/70 Nittos, SCS Ray10s, and SpiderTrax spacers.

I did have to trim the bumper and get a BMC to clear everything. I'm at 3.8 caster with the JBA and it drives great.

[macscac]

Originally Posted by STX4Runner

Yeah, you don't need new UCAs with that amount of lift. I have about 2.5" and am on the stock UCAs.

anything under 3" you dont NEED uca's but they help.
there is a "squirrely" feeling the truck gets at 2" w/ stock uca.
it kind of wanders in the lane at hwy speed (at least for me)
the uca helps because you can align the front end better

[YellowSnow]

Originally Posted by macscac

anything under 3" you dont NEED uca's but they help.
there is a "squirrely" feeling the truck gets at 2" w/ stock uca.
it kind of wanders in the lane at hwy speed (at least for me)
the uca helps because you can align the front end better

Yep ^

Lolz at these guys in here saying you don’t “need” uca’s when doing a 2-3” lift. Good luck with that!

[nimby]

Originally Posted by YellowSnow

Yep ^

Lolz at these guys in here saying you don’t “need” uca’s when doing a 2-3” lift. Good luck with that!

So you need UCA's with a 2 - 2.5" lift?

[a t l a s]

It's recommended to do UCAs for 2"+ lift. The additional caster than can be had with aftermarket UCAs also helps to clear 285s without a BMC, depending on wheel offset.

[Angelo]

The main selling point of the Dobinsons arms specifically is that the ball joint is sealed, like OEM, meaning that it's built to be "maintenance free". Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but all of the other arms on the market are NOT completely sealed (even if they look like they are with some kind of cap or sleeve) and therefore will require grease to flush out tiny bits of debris that gets in the joint while driving. Greasing also keeps the squeaks away.

Depending on your usage, unsealed uniballs and balljoints can also wear out faster, but this admittedly will take some really hard driving if they're properly cared for.

That I can tell, the upside to the Uniball / Unsealed Balljoint route is the travel, as in, you'd need them to fully take advantage of extended or long travel. I can't specifically tell you that Dobinsons arms have LESS travel than a uniball or unsealed ball joint, but maybe @Dobinsons Mike could...

I can tell you I am lifted 2.75" on the Eibach kit and haven't needed UCAs specifically to correct alignment, everything is technically in spec. Having said that, I do plan to add some soon because I can feel the difference in the steering after the lift, that "floaty" feeling. It's not terrible but I'd like more caster than my OEM arms can give.

[macscac]

I was literally just on the phone with Mike T @ dobinson's today and confirmed that their UCA's are a sealed unit with zero maintenance required.
I ordered a set of them today because I'm tired of the 'wandering' and I also chose to get a heavier duty front end coil

fyi, their UCA's wont ship till the beginning of July.

Originally Posted by Angelo

The main selling point of the Dobinsons arms specifically is that the ball joint is sealed, like OEM, meaning that it's built to be "maintenance free". Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but all of the other arms on the market are NOT completely sealed (even if they look like they are with some kind of cap or sleeve) and therefore will require grease to flush out tiny bits of debris that gets in the joint while driving. Greasing also keeps the squeaks away.

Depending on your usage, unsealed uniballs and balljoints can also wear out faster, but this admittedly will take some really hard driving if they're properly cared for.

That I can tell, the upside to the Uniball / Unsealed Balljoint route is the travel, as in, you'd need them to fully take advantage of extended or long travel. I can't specifically tell you that Dobinsons arms have LESS travel than a uniball or unsealed ball joint, but maybe @Dobinsons Mike could...

I can tell you I am lifted 2.75" on the Eibach kit and haven't needed UCAs specifically to correct alignment, everything is technically in spec. Having said that, I do plan to add some soon because I can feel the difference in the steering after the lift, that "floaty" feeling. It's not terrible but I'd like more caster than my OEM arms can give.

[mscot]

I have a 2.25" lift and can't get 2 degrees of caster with stock UCAs. Quite frankly it drives like shit in the mountains.
That's why I finally pulled the trigger on JBAs today.

[STX4Runner]

Originally Posted by YellowSnow

Yep ^

Lolz at these guys in here saying you don’t “need” uca’s when doing a 2-3” lift. Good luck with that!

I've driven the last 6 years and 60,000 + miles with the lift I have and stock UCAs. It's been 100% fine. I can take my hand off the wheel at highway speeds and it holds a straight line for quite a while. I'm sure UCAs with more adjustability would help in some ways and if I ever add more lift I'll get them, but it has given me zero problems so far.

[Bayou_Pro]

Originally Posted by nimby

So you need UCA's with a 2 - 2.5" lift?

They are not a " have to" have but if you want to get anywhere near the recommended 4 deg of caster you will need them. I'm a 2.5" and could only get a little over 1.5 deg with the stock UCAs. I have a set of SPCs ready to install when I get around to it.

[Crikeymike]

Originally Posted by Angelo

That I can tell, the upside to the Uniball / Unsealed Balljoint route is the travel, as in, you'd need them to fully take advantage of extended or long travel. I can't specifically tell you that Dobinsons arms have LESS travel than a uniball or unsealed ball joint, but maybe @Dobinsons Mike could...

Our arms offer the same amount of travel as Total Chaos uniball arms. I've installed a couple of sets. The travel restriction is in the length of the strut with our arms installed, so there's no issue there. Stock arms have the top of the ball joint in line with the top of the arm (flat), whereas our ball joint cup is rotated so it's basically sitting in the proper neutral position at the lifted height, so there's no resistance from ball joint bind, and the arms have a wider curve to them to keep them off the coils when hitting full extension.

And yes, you're right, they're completely maintenance free. It's not possible for them to make any noise, unless you installed them wrong. Rubber bushings with vulcanized sleeves need to be tightened with the vehicle on the ground under its own weight, otherwise you are preloading the bushings, which is what I think a lot of guys do with other brand arms, then keep blaming the arm brand for bad bushings, but I could be wrong too.