Camburg UCA's

No noise from the ball joints. I think strength is all you sacrifice with them and I think they are fine for trails... High speed desert stuff is where uni-balls seem useful. There is also probably a slight bit of resistance in the movement of a ball joint compared to a uni-ball, but I don't see how it could possibly be noticeable on a trail rig.

I'm not an expert on these, just using common sense...
 
Ah, here is a thread for my $.02 on this subject. However, because I'm in the hospital with my Wife this will be the cliff notes version.

The uni-ball version is HANDs DOWN stronger than the ball joint version. Their is absolutely no room for discussion there. The ball joint version is absolutely more reasonable for a daily driver... again no room for discussion there either but the statement does have to be qualified for the masses. Especially those who've spent 5 mins on the interweb and are self appointed master mechanics and have "first hand" experience because they have had uni-ball UCAs on their own truck for a year or two.

Cliff note part in laymans terms and generalities:

Uni ball
Uni ball stronger in all ways and generally have a greater range of motion
Uni ball requires maintenance (cleaning)
Uni ball WILL (if actually used regularly) wear to the point of making noise regardless of maint
Uni ball can become noisy at any point if ball becomes contaminated
Most don't know how to/are unwilling to/even worse THINK they know how to maintain a uni ball UCA and accelerate said wear

Ball joints
Ball joint UCAs put the ball joint back into its designed range of motion and just like uni ball UCAs put you back into the proper range of castor for the purposes of alignment
Ball joint UCAs only give up strength AT the ball joint, rest of UCA every bit as strong as uni ball UCA
Ball joints generally do not have the range of motion of a Uni ball
Ball joint requires maintenence as well, but that maintenance consists of 2-3 pumps from a grease gun every 5-10k depending on use
As a general rule ball joints don't make noise and need to be replaced if they do

Have installed numerous of both and put Camburg ball joint UCAs on both mine and my Wife's FJs for a reason. I wheel the shit out of mine including it leaving the ground... One of the pics of that are around here somewhere
 
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Zeusmotorworks said:
Ah, here is a thread for my $.02 on this subject. However, because I'm in the hospital with my Wife this will be the cliff notes version.

The uni-ball version is HANDs DOWN stronger than the ball joint version. Their is absolutely no room for discussion there. The ball joint version is absolutely more reasonable for a daily driver... again no room for discussion there either but the statement does have to be qualified for the masses. Especially those who've spent 5 mins on the interweb and are self appointed master mechanics and have "first hand" experience because they have had uni-ball UCAs on their own truck for a year or two.

Cliff note part in laymans terms and generalities:

Uni ball
Uni ball stronger in all ways and generally have a greater range of motion
Uni ball requires maintenance (cleaning)
Uni ball WILL (if actually used regularly) wear to the point of making noise regardless of maint
Uni ball can become noisy at any point if ball becomes contaminated
Most don't know how to/are unwilling to/even worse THINK they know how to maintain a uni ball UCA and accelerate said wear

Ball joints
Ball joint UCAs put the ball joint back into its designed range of motion and just like uni ball UCAs put you back into the proper range of castor for the purposes of alignment
Ball joint UCAs only give up strength AT the ball joint, rest of UCA every bit as strong as uni ball UCA
Ball joints generally do not have the range of motion of a Uni ball
Ball joint requires maintenence as well, but that maintenance consists of 2-3 pumps from a grease gun every 5-10k depending on use
As a general rule ball joints don't make noise and need to be replaced if they do

Have installed numerous of both and put Camburg ball joint UCAs on both mine and my Wife's FJs for a reason. I wheel the shit out of mine including it leaving the ground... One of the pics of that are around here somewhere
Click to expand...

^^^^^
Pretty much agree with all this from my limited experience.

One thing that I always here though is the statement:
Ball joints generally do not have the range of motion of a Uni ball
Click to expand...

I've also had people tell me you don't get as much travel with ball joints, but I don't think that is true, since the shocks and other components of the IFS are what limit travel. I don't care what the uniball joint can do in terms of range of motion if the shocks only have so much travel. In my experience the ball joints can cover the full range of travel for even an extended travel shock. YMMV
 
wfo9 said:
^^^^^
Pretty much agree with all this from my limited experience.

One thing that I always here though is the statement:


I've also had people tell me you don't get as much travel with ball joints, but I don't think that is true, since the shocks and other components of the IFS are what limit travel. I don't care what the uniball joint can do in terms of range of motion if the shocks only have so much travel. In my experience the ball joints can cover the full range of travel for even an extended travel shock. YMMV
Click to expand...

You are mostly correct IF we are talking about OE travel and aftermarket UCAs that address putting the top joint back into proper alignment for the travel... once you make the jump to extended travel front coil overs (which is all the rage right now), compounded by more and more people dropping the sway bars, things start to get dicey. With OE UCAs and OME front suspension I've personally busted a ball joint due to eking out more suspension travel than I should have with a mixture of aftermarket and OE components. AND this was BEFORE running into CV issues. The ball joint simply ran out of travel and levered on itself. I've seen others with aftermarket ball joint UCAs come close enough to give me pause and make posts like this. Granted some tolerance stacking might be a factor, but a factor none the less.

Regardless, I still say that for 99.9% of folks the Camburg ball joint UCAs are the way to go. Sure the Light Racing are "adjustable" but ANY time you add "adjust-ability" to a component, you add another avenue for potential failure. Are there people who may need that adjust-ability to compensate for what they have subjected their rigs to? Sure. But not the majority.
 
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Ah! But remember contaminants don't just come from the top of the Uni ball... As for the ball joint, wish those covers were out when I installed mine and I have no excuse for not getting them when they did. Other than I live in Central Texas and we don't even know what "road salts" truly are :lol:
 
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