Lift - Upper control arms

Aaronjs777 · December 13, 2020

I am working on a 2 ¼" front lift on my 2018 Silverado. I have purchased almost all the pieces to this puzzle. I'm not using lift blocks, I got the Bilstein 5100 shocks that are longer and will do 1.85" of lift, and I will put in a ½" top spacer on the strut. The problem with the upper control arm is the angle of the ball joint is stretched, and the new arm corrects the angle.

My question is what brand of upper control arm have others used? I have searched and found so many. A common problem I keep finding people have is with the ball joint breaking on these. The ball joints shouldn't fail so quick. I'd like to buy something more quality that I don't have to worry about it for 30,000-50,000 miles. I don't go off roading, so I'm not concerned about rough driving abuse. It appears to me that too many mid grade brands have paid off Google so better ones don't show up in any searches. Looking for other choices. Thanks

dieselfan1 · December 13, 2020

Kryptonite.

$500

Lifetime warranty.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Vasa1 · December 16, 2020

Leave it stock, problem solved.

Aaronjs777 · December 16, 2020

Jim Devaney, thanks for that. I had not found that one, I think I like it.

Joey, I can't leave in stock. I am doing some upgrades mostly to help the suspension for towing my camper trailer. One of those upgrades will raise the rear end about 1 1/2", and then it will look pretty odd. I have to raise the front to compensate. The stock upper control arm doesn't like that angle of the ball joint when you raise the front end, so I need to replace it. Thanks

Vasa1 · December 17, 2020

Fair enough

Trouble_shooting · December 18, 2020

On 12/13/2020 at 10:05 AM, Aaronjs777 said:

I am working on a 2 ¼" front lift on my 2018 Silverado. I have purchased almost all the pieces to this puzzle. I'm not using lift blocks, I got the Bilstein 5100 shocks that are longer and will do 1.85" of lift, and I will put in a ½" top spacer on the strut. The problem with the upper control arm is the angle of the ball joint is stretched, and the new arm corrects the angle.

My question is what brand of upper control arm have others used? I have searched and found so many. A common problem I keep finding people have is with the ball joint breaking on these. The ball joints shouldn't fail so quick. I'd like to buy something more quality that I don't have to worry about it for 30,000-50,000 miles. I don't go off roading, so I'm not concerned about rough driving abuse. It appears to me that too many mid grade brands have paid off Google so better ones don't show up in any searches. Looking for other choices. Thanks

I have the Zone 2313 control arm installed on my 2018. So far so good. I have what equals out to a 2-5/8” lift. I have bilstein 6112 set at the top setting and made custom 3/8” bottom spacers.

The upper control arm is nice and square to the spindle. The cv axles that’s a different story,

to correct that, I put in 1/2” diff spacers to help.

In reference to what the OP is doing to his truck I beefed up the rear suspension with Zone Add a leaf and Monroe Load adjusting shocks. It gave the rear about a 2” lift over factory

I have recently been researching the topic of the droop stop. Since we are still working within the same operating envelope as stock. We are putting the suspension near it’s “topped out” position. With aftermarket arms they change the geometry to allow further travel. The problem is the strut only goes so far.

added pic since we are talking trucks