Steering follows every bump after leveling kit...
- Thread starter kgssully
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3wbdriver
New member
I'm at 2" lifted with factory UCA's. Mine tends to be a little darty at highway speeds, especially in crosswinds. But not enough for me to consider it dangerous. I just look at it as a reinforcement to actually concentrate on my driving. Caster "within spec" doesn't necessarily mean it is enough either. It just means it's within the minimally required factory spec. At 2.5" you probably don't have enough adjustability to get it back to tracking like it's on rails, so I either recommend you get the UCA's or learn to drive it "within spec". And I'm not trying to be a smart alec. I'm actually trying to be helpful. :wink2:
Jhalko
New member
If you did a ton of research I don't see how you could have missed that 2.5" of lift is on the line of needing UCA's for most. Many comments on that are that itll drive ok but not great, on highways being twitchy, every truck is different so you just don't know until you try.
That being said, maybe you didn't get a great alignment, post up the sheet and I'm sure folks can more accurately help out to confirm.
philsey
New member
This. Mine acted like yours bone stock. Wandered around, crosswinds were a b!tch ... first alignment place did it "to specs" = no help. Went to my dealer and said "I want the caster as close to 4* as possible". 5 years ago, tracks on rails ever since.
wfo9
New member
For some strange reason.. new 4runner owners seem to think they can do a little research (read one post...) and suddenly that means they are immune to physics... it cracks me up. Just because one guy on the forum claims he has done X with 0 problems does not mean that will hold true for you.
Anyway, the issue is your caster. It might be solvable with a better alignment where the tech dials in more caster (more than the factory specs.. it often needs ~3+ once lifted - get as much as you can)
But it is also very possible the stock UCAs won't allow the caster to go high enough for it to track well. EACH TRUCK IS DIFFERENT Things move around over time. That is why it is adjustable...
If you are going to lift.. be prepared to either
A. Live with it
B. Install aftermarket UCAs
C. Get lucky
BTW, I know quite a few people who have lifted 5th gens... I don't know one that still has the stock UCAs. Many of them (including me) got by for a while, but eventually almost everyone ends up with them. It's not coincidence....
Anyway, the issue is your caster. It might be solvable with a better alignment where the tech dials in more caster (more than the factory specs.. it often needs ~3+ once lifted - get as much as you can)
But it is also very possible the stock UCAs won't allow the caster to go high enough for it to track well. EACH TRUCK IS DIFFERENT Things move around over time. That is why it is adjustable...
If you are going to lift.. be prepared to either
A. Live with it
B. Install aftermarket UCAs
C. Get lucky
BTW, I know quite a few people who have lifted 5th gens... I don't know one that still has the stock UCAs. Many of them (including me) got by for a while, but eventually almost everyone ends up with them. It's not coincidence....
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sandcrawler
Senior Member
absolutely. new UCAs should be budgeted for all lifts of any significance. 99% of the time time you're not going to "get away with it" on the stock arms and you'll just wind up taking it apart to replace them anyway.
related, i find it kinda crappy that OME is still marketing its lift COs as "designed to work with stock control arms" when the fact is that, if you lift beyond a certain height, you simply have to replace them if you want to maintain reasonable driving manners.
Thank you for detailed reply. I've attached my alignment specs. Let me know what you think. I had emailed Daystar and talked to several members online about the leveling kit. All said to just install it and align and no other mods were necessary. I can live with the way it drives, just would like it to be a little more stable at higher speeds.
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Jhalko
New member
Thank you for detailed reply. I've attached my alignment specs. Let me know what you think. I had emailed Daystar and talked to several members online about the leveling kit. All said to just install it and align and no other mods were necessary. I can live with the way it drives, just would like it to be a little more stable at higher speeds.
Hey, can't see the link on my iPad... You can replace the UCA's, if I can do it, anyone can!
