Anyone use Freedom Off-Road UCAs? (2015 Tahoe)

[15TahoeLT]

How many miles were on your rig when you swapped it out? My wife has close to 80k miles on hers, and the ride quality has went to complete hell all of the sudden.

Have you had enough loads in the rear to actually assure the air shocks are functioning properly?

I overhauled the entire suspension at about 40k miles. It wasn't riding poorly, but it's noticeably better now. I have never towed anything with this truck, so take this with a grain of salt. I've loaded it up with 4 adults, 2 large dogs in the rear crates and the rest of the cargo area stacked to the ceiling with guns and hunting gear, coolers etc and it's never dropped in ride height. So as far as I know, it seems to be working just fine.

 

[olyelr]

Ive never hooked any heavy trailers to her rig yet either, but I do know when we load the inside up with gear and passengers I can hear the air compressor kick on and fill up the shocks.

 

[Oh Kee Pah]

I bought a set for my 15' Tahoe that are a direct replacement for trucks with aluminum arms and are angled for 2"-4" of lift. My stock ball joints are just about shot from the Fox shocks and the lift (45k miles on them). I couldn't find any posts on these yet- just seeing if anyone has experience?

Thanks

I'm running a similar setup with the Fox shocks on my '15 LTZ. My left UCA has play and lower right - time for the UCA upgrade I figured was bound to happen.
I was interested in the Freedom Off Road UCA's months ago. They seemed like a good product, just new and a little bit of a jump.
Anyway, still working out well for you?
ARE YOU RUNNING STOCK WHEELS? SIZE?
Several of the aftermarket UCAs I've looked at online do NOT allow for stock wheels, which I am running of course, and haven't called Freedom yet to get the specs.
Thoughts?

Happy travels!

 

[15TahoeLT]

I'm running a similar setup with the Fox shocks on my '15 LTZ. My left UCA has play and lower right - time for the UCA upgrade I figured was bound to happen.
I was interested in the Freedom Off Road UCA's months ago. They seemed like a good product, just new and a little bit of a jump.
Anyway, still working out well for you?
ARE YOU RUNNING STOCK WHEELS? SIZE?
Several of the aftermarket UCAs I've looked at online do NOT allow for stock wheels, which I am running of course, and haven't called Freedom yet to get the specs.
Thoughts?

Happy travels!

Yep- ran mine with the factory 20" alloy wheels for a while, switched them out for another set of factory sized (same height/width/offset) wheels after a month or so and haven't had a single issue. I ended up re-using my factory lowers and put in Moog lower ball joints on them FYI.

 

[Oh Kee Pah]

I just got off the phone with Freedom Off-Road. Pretty good conversation.
He stated that at full lock there may be some rubbing of the TIRE on the UCA due to the thickness of their tube. However, he could not confirm 100% that this would happen on my Tahoe. He said the exact lift/leveling setup and the wheel/tire combination is what causes some of their UCAs to rub at full lock and others don't.
I spoke with Rough Country and they wouldn't even discuss the possibility of rubbing at full lock with OE wheels. He just told me "they'll work fine - my arms are good." RC has a forged UCA and not the tubing.

That being said, and after your response - Freedom Off-Road UCAs are being ordered today.
https://www.freedomoffroadusa.com/2...fu-front-upper-control-arms-for-2-4-lift.html

Spoke w/Moog this morning and he gave me lower ball joint part K500245.
Already ordered: https://www.fme-cat.com/overlays/part-detail.aspx?pNum=K500245&partType=Ball Joint&brandId=MC

Thanks for your help!

 

[Tiki]

Cognito is another route when using OEM wheels, however tires likely rub on larger than stock sizes.

 

[Tiki]

@Oh Kee Pah any update?

 

[Oh Kee Pah]

@Oh Kee Pah any update?

The Freedom Off Road UCA's are running fine so far - almost 3k miles on them so far.
I can confirm that there is a slight rub on the UCA itself at FULL TURN -> just as Freedom Off Road told me there was a chance of...

However, there are caveats to this rub.
1) I have the NITTO Ridge Grappler 275/60r20 that has significant blocking on the inner & outer sidewalls. This few millimeters of rubber on the sidewall just might be enough for the rub.
2) Alignment - when first installed there was no rub. Went for alignment and rub appeared. However, I am VERY happy with the alignment work. Caster got set to almost 6.0 and I am really able to run the truck at higher speeds now. Previously, I would get a scary shake or wobble around 75mph. Now I can comfortably cruise around 80mph with no feelings of lack of control.
3) The higher caster has led to a more "grounded" feeling when turning. I can feel the front wheels wanting to stay planted. Turning at slower speeds is more challenging and hence some parking spots have become a bit of a challenge to just pull into.

So far I have to say I am very pleased with the Freedom Off Road product. Kind of makes me wish I had gone with their products from the beginning to save some major cash.
They offer a 1-4" adjustable front coilover as well as a 2" and 3" Quick Lift front assembly. The adjustable looks a heck of a lot more rugged with considerable more coil per inch of travel.
Rear shocks are rated for 0-3" lift.
They offer the UCA's with replaceable ball joints or Uniball. I went with replaceable since I'm here in Maine where they love to blast the roads with salt.


Photos of the UCA's on day of installation:






Photo of the UCA's highlighting the minor rub that has occurred:
(RUBBING IS THE GREYED/STREAKY ON THE BLACK TUBING)





Happy New Year and Happy Travels in 2020!

 

[maxpsi]

I have the same setup (Fox/Freedom UCA). What's the part # for the UCA?

 

[Oh Kee Pah]

Forgot about this thread...
How are you finding the Freedom UCAs?
I should have posted something, but I never got around to it. Freedom ended up taking my UCAs back and giving me a full refund. That was after many 1000s of miles and several blown ball joints.
I'm not sure if it was another component on my Tahoe leading to the ball joint failure. But the Freedom Off Road UCAs (listed purchase info provided below) only lasted about 4000-6000 miles before failure. It was on the third replacement that Freedom told me to just send the UCAs back to them for my $ back. I did so, and I guess that was the final push for me to go with my current BDS 4" lift.
I went back to OE UCAs with the BDS lift and have not looked back. Almost 20k miles on this setup and no ball joint problems, lower or upper, so far. Knock on wood.

In all honesty, I think that my truck was not lifted up high enough up front for these Freedom UCAs.
I think the angle on these ball joints would have been a lot happier with a +4" front instead of a +2.5" front ride height increase.


This is from my email purchase confirmation (on 11/05/2019)

FO-G703-1FU

Front Upper Control Arms for 2-4" Lift

This is the item on their website:
https://freedomoffroadusa.com/front-upper-control-arms-for-2-4-lift-fo-g703-1fu/