Well that ain't right. Cautionary tale for leveling kits?

arkenzo · January 2, 2018

Bingo. Just west of maplewood meats.

You guys have cool names for areas, wish California had some of that.

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aaronarf · January 2, 2018

23 hours ago, AgDoctor said:

Looks like a RC 3.5 kit by the design of the UCA or some kit similar. Ouch.

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Where are you seeing the UCA in these pics?

I see stock Ranchos/Springs which equates to a spacer lift.

XSKIER · January 2, 2018

Where are you seeing the UCA in these pics?

I see stock Ranchos/Springs which equates to a spacer lift.

I can definitely see that the upper ball joint is broken. The ball joint nut on the spindle is clearly about 2 inches inside of the center of the UCA ball joint position.

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Daly · January 2, 2018

If you look at the second pick you can see where the ball joint has sheered. The shaft of the ball joint is still in the spindle, but the centre line of the ball joint on the UCA is sitting about an inch closer to the tire. Likely running 3+ inches of level in the front, and this is the result.

Huetatos · January 3, 2018

Anyone have some info on how the fox 2.0s effect the uppers? I know people say you don't have to get aftermarket UCAs but I'd rather fix it early on than deal with more stuff busting at once.

aaronarf · January 3, 2018

21 hours ago, XSKIER said:

I can definitely see that the upper ball joint is broken. The ball joint nut on the spindle is clearly about 2 inches inside of the center of the UCA ball joint position.

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I see the UBJ is sitting lonely -- was referring to the comment regarding "rancho 4" lift" Can't see the uppers so who knows if these were factory or not.

Either way it sucks, its a common failure on trucks with spacer lifts. The addition of the spacer allows the suspension to over droop, either stressing the UBJ or lower shock eyelet to failure. I'm curious to know if they removed the UCA droop limiting stops on the upper bucket.

5100s do not allow the suspension to over-droop.

Edit: Couldn't find the Bilstein image that depicts the difference so here is a video that explains this for anyone interested:

aaronarf · January 3, 2018

14 hours ago, snowbrdd said:

Anyone have some info on how the fox 2.0s effect the uppers? I know people say you don't have to get aftermarket UCAs but I'd rather fix it early on than deal with more stuff busting at once.

Are you going to be off-roading the truck? If you are not going with an excessive amount of lift, and purely sticking to pavement/gravel etc. where you won't be excessively "flexing" the truck and utilizing the travel you will be fine with stock UCAs. I have 5100's with the lift maxed out, and I was well within alignment specifications. I will do aftermarket UCA's when its time to replace the OE UBJ's purely because its easier and it is a worth-while upgrade if I need to be in there anyways, at that point I will cut/remove the droop bump stops entirely. (I do not wheel my truck, other than the beach, and some dirt lots at the MX track she is a highway commuter)

Huetatos · January 3, 2018

4 hours ago, aaronarf said:

Are you going to be off-roading the truck? If you are not going with an excessive amount of lift, and purely sticking to pavement/gravel etc. where you won't be excessively "flexing" the truck and utilizing the travel you will be fine with stock UCAs. I have 5100's with the lift maxed out, and I was well within alignment specifications. I will do aftermarket UCA's when its time to replace the OE UBJ's purely because its easier and it is a worth-while upgrade if I need to be in there anyways, at that point I will cut/remove the droop bump stops entirely. (I do not wheel my truck, other than the beach, and some dirt lots at the MX track she is a highway commuter)

I do mild off roading. But thats just to get to where I prep out there. I've been loving these fox 2.0s though as they are massively more comfortable than stock ranchos.

aaronarf · January 3, 2018

I do mild off roading. But thats just to get to where I prep out there. I've been loving these fox 2.0s though as they are massively more comfortable than stock ranchos.

Anything is better then those Ranchos. I bet you'd be happy with 5100s

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Huetatos · January 3, 2018

2 hours ago, aaronarf said:

Anything is better then those Ranchos. I bet you'd be happy with 5100s

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Probably but too late now. Plus I didn't want to deal with bringing the shocks somewhere to get the spring removed. No way am I touching that myself.

AgDoctor · January 7, 2018

Where are you seeing the UCA in these pics?

I see stock Ranchos/Springs which equates to a spacer lift.

Notice that the ball joint pocket is round like a pipe cut out, and you can also tell that the UCA is a round shaft. RC design.

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aaronarf · January 7, 2018

Notice that the ball joint pocket is round like a pipe cut out, and you can also tell that the UCA is a round shaft. RC design.

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Good eye! I missed it. Really makes you wonder why it failed or if it was installer error.

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Roadking01 · January 7, 2018

so any Proof ...or thoughts that would give another idea that it was just an upper control arm issue ?? I just put a RC ..2 1/2 leveling / lift kit in my '15 1500