2016 4Runner SR5
Senior Member
I don't love that the Dobinson arms don't have grease zerks though.........
Upper Control Arms - Brands
- Thread starter SteadFAST 4Runner
- Start date
gdvan01
New member
Damn man, the DK's are nearly twice the cost of the JBA's.
Jetboy
New member
No issues so far with mine. It's a bit of an odd design to me, but it seems to work pretty well. If you are really worried you could weld the flange to the arm in a few spots then just cut the welds to replace. Or use some red loctite on the bolts.
MyanRagahis
Member
No issues with mine and I have over 4000 miles on them. I have 5-6 threads showing with mine all tightened down. I was weary about it at first, not using a cotter pin or anything. It's all held up great though.
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2016 4Runner SR5
Senior Member
No issues with mine and I have over 4000 miles on them. I have 5-6 threads showing with mine all tightened down. I was weary about it at first, not using a cotter pin or anything. It's all held up great though.
I'm talking about the 4 bolts that hold the ball joint to the arm, not the single nut that holds the ball joint to the spindle.
2016 4Runner SR5
Senior Member
Difference between the 2 is 100 bucks
MyanRagahis
Member
Ah. I'd have to check back with you on that. But if it helps, it's still in one piece after 4000+ miles lol.
gdvan01
New member
Jetboy
New member
What is the value of a heavy duty UCA? Are people bending or breaking their UCAs that aren't made of boxed 1/4" plate?
I'm aware of only one OEM UCA ever having a failure and it was the result of something like 10,000 race miles on a Land Cruiser 200 with 37" tires in the 2016 Baja 1000. The 2010 Toyota 4runner finished the Baja with stock control arms. It's the closest analog I know of. Has anyone ever bent or broken one on a 5th gen? Is there a reason for wanting something stronger?
I'm certainly not doing tens of thousands of miles of this (don't get me wrong, I want to, but realistically I'm not doing anything close):
I'm aware of only one OEM UCA ever having a failure and it was the result of something like 10,000 race miles on a Land Cruiser 200 with 37" tires in the 2016 Baja 1000. The 2010 Toyota 4runner finished the Baja with stock control arms. It's the closest analog I know of. Has anyone ever bent or broken one on a 5th gen? Is there a reason for wanting something stronger?
I'm certainly not doing tens of thousands of miles of this (don't get me wrong, I want to, but realistically I'm not doing anything close):
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gdvan01
New member
From the folks at JBA below:
Whats the difference between the JBA STD and JBA HD Toyota UCAs - JBA Offroad
Jetboy
New member
Looks like mostly marketing to me. The loads on the UCA are small by design. But I guess that's why I'm asking. If no one has ever bent or broken one - maybe it's not necessary to reinforce them?
Edit: after some searching - it looks like there was a series of the Light Racing UCA's that were prone to failure in the same way. The failure mode seems to be limited in examples I can find to the heat affected area of the bushing sleeve flexing and ultimately fracturing.
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tral
New member
Jetboy
New member
That zip tie isn't how Dobinson normally expects you to attach the ABS wire is it?
2016 4Runner SR5
Senior Member
Standard JBA is $450 and the DK is $538. I like the Dobinson arms also but I don't like that they don't have grease points on the ball joint, seems silly to me.
New to the 4Runner world but not Toyota. Just bought a new 2018 TRD Off-road that the dealer had installed a spacer lift on with 285/75s on aftermarket wheels.
It still has the stock UCAs on it so I had them put on the alignment rack to double check the alignment. Best caster they could get is 2 degrees.
Will any of these fixed UCAs (Icon, JBA, etc.) get me to 3.8 - 4.0 degrees or do I need to go for SPC arms with the adjustable ball joint to get 3.8 - 4.0 degrees of caster?
Thanks,
Mitzer
It still has the stock UCAs on it so I had them put on the alignment rack to double check the alignment. Best caster they could get is 2 degrees.
Will any of these fixed UCAs (Icon, JBA, etc.) get me to 3.8 - 4.0 degrees or do I need to go for SPC arms with the adjustable ball joint to get 3.8 - 4.0 degrees of caster?
Thanks,
Mitzer
alphabeast
New member
Looks like mostly marketing to me. The loads on the UCA are small by design. But I guess that's why I'm asking. If no one has ever bent or broken one - maybe it's not necessary to reinforce them?
Edit: after some searching - it looks like there was a series of the Light Racing UCA's that were prone to failure in the same way. The failure mode seems to be limited in examples I can find to the heat affected area of the bushing sleeve flexing and ultimately fracturing.
Though I would agree that JBA has their fair share of marketing (as does everyone else), I have seen a far higher ratio of SPC issues as apposed to JBA A-arms/UCA's issues... in fact I have yet to see a JBA A-arm major failure yet on this forum. With regards to the picture you referenced, how is heat a factor in the failure of that UCA? Can a rubber bushing cause enough "heat" to cause this type of failure?? This doesn't add up....
Jetboy
New member
The heat affected zone is a weaker area of the metal created by the welding. The base metal around the weld tends to recrystallize in a way that is weaker and prone to cracking. It's especially problematic with high strength steels. Most of these are made with basic mig welders and not pre or post heat treated. That's not bad. As long as the material thickness and design is sufficient for the type of use it's a completely normal way of building them. It's just that if you use them far beyond the normal intended use you can have problems.
The area flexes - which is probably partially due to rubber bushing having more flex and the brittle zone then cracks. My guess - and this is just purely a guess - is that the same arm with a poly bushing would last longer. The down side of the poly bushing is that it absorbs less of the force so the other parts of the arm - like the ball joint - will have more force on them and the ride will be less dampened. It's a balancing of various choices. None are "right" or "wrong" just different. The only one that's really "wrong" here was the SPC arm. It was simply built with too small of a sleeve area and possibly the wrong material choice and/or weld process.
Jetboy
New member
Most all of them should get you to at least 3 or 4 degrees. I personally measured OEM, Tough Country, and JBA side by side. TC actually made it worse overall. But the JBA adds 4 degrees. So at the same setting you'd now move to about 6 degrees of caster. You'd then be able to move your arm back to a middle of the range setting and still probably get around 4* with room to adjust camber to spec as well. I think most all of them are similar in that regard.
