A FNG looking for Ball Joint/Lift Advice

[Truckie84]

I am new to the forum, (lurking for about 2 months). I purchased a 2005 SR5 V6 about two months ago. I have had quite a few lifted vehicles, well trucks mostly, having made some good and REALLY bad decisions on lifts. So I have been searching t4r, looking at the all the awsome builds you folks have done. Wow alot of good looking rides.

My 4runner is my daily driver and will be mostly beating the pavement. My "wheeling", so to speak, will be mainly the beaches of the outer banks, very light trail leading to our cabin in WVA (my FIL drives stock jeep cherokee up the trail), and some light muddy farm trails on the family farm while hunting, fishing. Ok, yeah I give, a pavement pu**y. Going for looks.

So to my question(s). I really like the looks of the daystar 2.5f/1.5r and the spidertrax wheel spacers with 265/70r17 tires on my stock wheels. I have read about this lift putting me at the max in my alignment adjustments (caster right?). So I have read that by doing aftermarket UCA's will fix this issue. However they are really not in my budget at this time. Few years down the road, maybe.

Question 1:So will this daystar lift combo put me outside my adjustment or will I just be at the be at the max? Which is ok with me.

My other thought/fear is that with the this lift will take a toll on my ball joints/cv joints. Having a steeper angle on them. I have had a another vehicle (Tahoe) and with a lift I couldn't keep ball joints in it. I will put 15,000-20,000 miles a year on this vehicle so ball joints/cv axles once a year is not a option.

Question 2: Will I eat up ball joints/cv joints? other steering components? Alot of highway miles.

Yes I used the search option. But I didn't see these direct questions being discussed. Thanks for ready my whole post. Your opinions and thoughts mean alot.

Truckie

 

[mrpurplepenguin]

Q1: I'm running the same lift on stock UCAs, it works fine but you can definitely tell there's less caster. It's still within spec, but it wanders a bit more on the freeway and takes steering corrections more frequently to keep it pointed straight. Nothing dangerous, just a slight annoyance.
Your wheel spacers and tire size won't affect your alignment numbers, but you might have to do some trimming to make that fit. I have Spidertrax with 265/60r18 and they fit with minimal rub at full lock, a 275/65r17 will be slightly larger.

Q2: I think most people here would tell you your CVs will be fine, if you're worried you can purchase a differential drop for ~$25 to lessen the angles. I haven't heard of many failed CVs from too much lift on the T4R, most of them seem to be from wheeling too hard or the boots leaking all the grease out and running dry.

 

[Truckie84]

Q1: I'm running the same lift on stock UCAs, it works fine but you can definitely tell there's less caster. It's still within spec, but it wanders a bit more on the freeway and takes steering corrections more frequently to keep it pointed straight. Nothing dangerous, just a slight annoyance.
Your wheel spacers and tire size won't affect your alignment numbers, but you might have to do some trimming to make that fit. I have Spidertrax with 265/60r18 and they fit with minimal rub at full lock, a 275/65r17 will be slightly larger.

Q2: I think most people here would tell you your CVs will be fine, if you're worried you can purchase a differential drop for ~$25 to lessen the angles. I haven't heard of many failed CVs from too much lift on the T4R, most of them seem to be from wheeling too hard or the boots leaking all the grease out and running dry.

Thanks for the input. What about your ball joints? They holding up? How many miles on your set up?

 

[mrpurplepenguin]

What about your ball joints? They holding up? How many miles on your set up?

My ball joints are fine, they're 110k old with 10k of that lifted. I _think_ (I could be wrong) lifting <3" doesn't really stress the BJs too much; they just spend their lives at a slightly different angle, and that shouldn't cause any extra hardship for them. People like to upgrade to uniballs to get greater range of motion without binding on the upper control arms, and because many aftermarket UCAs come with uniballs.

The only extra wear I've had due to my setup is the band clamps on the CV boots. The increased angles on the axles seems to have strained the clamps too much, and a couple of them started leaking. I simply replaced them with worm clamps, injected more CV grease into the joint, and problem solved.