Front Suspension Upgrade
So first off, let me preface this post by explaining what prompted the upgrade, as I was very content with my old set-up and really wasn't looking to put any more mid-travel parts on the truck. A couple months ago I was contacted by a local member (@mcwalke2) that was interested in starting his build. After a little back and forth we started to kick around the idea that this would be a good way for us to help each other out in that he would be able to buy my current set-up from me at a great deal and that I could upgrade... Win, win. Thus the search began. Was already aware that my friend up north was selling a great rear set up, so that started the ball rolling. Just needed to figure out the front.
A few weeks ago, we had our first mod day on his truck that just consisted of a headlight restoration. His vehicle was involved in an accident that netted him a new driver side headlight, but also left him with a passenger side headlight that looked like garbage.
During photo (wish I would have snapped a before, but it slipped my mind, but trust me, it looked like ass):
Afterwards, it looked brand new:
So after a lot of research, here is what I came up with on the front.
For coil-overs, the brands on the table were Fox, King, and Icon. For styles I was looking at standard and remote reservoir flavors. Ended up buying the same thing that I already had on there, Fox 2.5" extended travel non-res. I decided against the reservoirs because I couldn't justify the extra couple of hundred bucks for what I do which is daily driving and slow rock crawling. Extra fluid capacity doesn't really help me as I've never experienced fade in the type of driving that I do. If I were doing high speed desert stuff, it'd be different. So the deciding factor basically boiled down to price. A common theme for my build has always been "budget conscious". I run a lot of used parts that I was able to find great deals on. I don't have the luxury of throwing an unlimited budget at my truck. I already loved my Fox's, so getting another set was really a no brainer.
After shopping around, I found what I was looking for for $1,009.95 SHIPPED at
4wheelonline.com. That's about a 22% savings off of the MSRP of $1295. I called them and their customer service was pretty good. They first told me 4-6 week lead time which I thought was a bunch of bologna. I ordered them anyway and they showed up in 6 business days.
Next to my old set:
A couple subtle differences I noticed right away. The old set up has an adjustment as well as a locking ring. The new set up only has the adjustment ring which was a new split clamping design, though you can't really see from this picture. I guess it's for quick adjustment and assembly/dis-assembly, but I'd hate to see what would happen if somebody loosened it while the coil was loaded. The new ones had a little more pre-load set from the factory then what I was running on mine currently. And the new ones were just a tad longer. Hard to tell from this angle, but I've got the top hats even, and you can see that the shock body is a little longer and coil and coil perch are just a little lower.
For upper control arms, I went with Tuff Country Uni-Ball UCA's from
Suspension Connection for $450.96 plus shipping. You can actually get them at
sdtrucksprings for $449.95 shipped! I knew that I wanted to upgrade to a uni-ball style arm from the ball joint set up. Other brands that were on the table were Fabtech, Camburg, Icon, All-Pro, Desert Products, Total Chaos, Readylift & Pro Comp. I'm really a big fan of the boxed style like the Desert Products and Readylift, but again the decision ultimately boiled down to price, and I was able to find these for just a little bit more than an SPC or Camburg with a ball joint type. I've not heard of these and don't know of anybody that runs them so I literally know nothing about them, but I was willing to roll the dice and be the guinea pig for this price. I figure if anything, I'll at least be doing the community a service by either being able to tell folks to steer clear of a bad product or be able to offer a more cost effective solution to the folks.
Next to my SPC Light Racing arms (These are not the same side):
These say they're designed for vehicles with 2-4" of lift.
My initial thoughts:
The Bad
- The finish wasn't what I'd call perfect. Just some weld spatter, surface imperfections and some areas where the powder coat was flaking off from either not adhering to the sharp edges or may have been damaged by pressing the uni-ball in. Doesn't bother me, since working with powder coat for pretty much my entire career, I understand the nature of it and I'm not a too picky about a fabricated part looking perfect, but it was worth noting.
- Suspension Connection says 3-8 days lead time. Mine made it in 7 which fell within that window, but I was banking on them making it in 6 business days, which ultimately caused me to push my install back almost a week. This really isn't a reflection of the product or even Tuff Country, more of the supplier I ordered the parts from, but I was kind of pissed by it.
- The inserts with the taper that mate to the spindle were very thin at the tip, so they were sort of deformed. Easy fix though, I just pounded the bolt through them from both sides to form them back to round.
The Good
- Grease fitting on the bushing rings. Not really sure who else does this, but it's a nice feature.
- These appear to have come with Total Chaos bushings because the had a TC-002 Part number on them. And I think these were actually Nylatron not Polyurethane.
- Uniball
- Price
- Don't know if they always do this or if it was a mistake during packing, but they sent me two complete sets of bushings, grease fittings and bushing sleeves. So I'll have an extra set if I ever need to rebuild the bushings and then some.
- They pivot very smooth after install. I remember the SPC ones binding from torquing... I think it was with the bad bushing set up though. Probably why some people had failures as well. I believe the update fixed it, but these did not have that issue at all.
-Gusseted connection from arm to bushing ring for added strength.
New parts installed:
First Impressions
- The UCA (uniball-cup)
will smack the coil at full droop. These coil-overs have a lot of travel.
- The ride is a great deal softer than my old set up. Which confirms my thoughts that my blue coil-overs where valved very stiff as well as probably have heavier coils than these. This equates to these being a lot faster reacting and smoother, but I've got some added body roll for sure.
- They also seem to be quieter. The blue ones have that occasional "clunk" that is sometimes associated with coil-overs. Haven't heard it here yet.
- I believe these were set up from the factory for 3" of lift or so for a stock V6 FJ, Taco, or 4Runner, but not for a V8 with a bumper and winch. So I lost about 1" of height at the current setting, but I've also gained about 1-1/2" of droop from the lower ride height and slightly longer shock.
So that's it for now. Proper shake down will happen at the end of the month on our Uwharrie trip. Truck is getting aligned as we speak. Will probably try to live with the lower height/addition droop for now and see how I like it before any adjusting. Doesn't appear to be any additional rubbing (maybe even less).
