DIY Mid & Long LCA's / UCA's.....and everything else you'll need to have and know

[5StarCustmSolutns]

[ Mod: feel free to move this to a different place if you think it needs to be somewhere else? ]



WELL....for what seems like FOREVER now (since August '24), I've been collecting parts and trying to digest all that is Off-Road Suspension Geometry and the pro's and con's of all the different setups man has come up with over the years. All my front end time revolved around Mid and Long Travel IFS. Didn't really spend any time on solid axles, with exception of the few parts the two systems share..

For the 1st couple months I was kind of taking in everything re: the rear end. Mostly for the purpose of trying to decide what system might work best for my (overweight) Pre-Runner build. Sometime around Halloween I discovered the Reverse Triangulated 4-link system. I knew almost instantly that That was the route best suited for what I was trying to do back there. Why?? The gas tank! W/o moving the tank there is just no way to run a normal 4 link rear suspension under the back of a GMT900 platform vehicle. A little later on when I get into build specs, I'll show how discovered the Rev Tri 4-link!

So why start this now?? Bc I got my tires yesterday. ....and rarely in my life have I been this excited about tires......simply put, they're the best looking off-road tires I've ever seen, and they were my last big purchase needed to go full tilt at this thing.....and away we go

Kenda Klever M/T2 in 35 x 10.50 x 17LT
34.76" t x 11.06" x 17. Triple threat three layer sidewall. New Blockchain sidewall lugs. Havent found too many people saying anything but great things about them?!?!

I guess we'll see??

Looks like somebody's got their work cut our for them....

 

[Charlie207]

So... what about the front control arms?

 

[5StarCustmSolutns]

So... what about the front control arms?

It was this video

back in August (and the co$t of all the LT kits) that motivated me to build my own. More specifically the 80 second monologue about "Why" he built his own that starts at the 14:05 mark. I've been teaching myself how to weld for a couple years now and felt like I was up to the task? To best of my recall, I've never put to words what Phinn describes in his monologue, but looking back on the last 10-12yrs as a Gen Build Contractor, I've gone from one challenge to the next...

One of the first things that got my attn in the video was when he described how much trouble he had trying to extend the rounded square shape of the factory Lower's vs the ease with which he was able to extend the aftermarket tubular Upper's he installed a few months earlier. He just cut the tubes and used sleeves that matched the i.d. to extend the ball joint out 3" and forward 1.5". My immediate thought was I needed to find some aftermarket tubular LCA's!

The only three I could find in the next two weeks were all lowering, "drop" LCA's. After a couple weeks of looking at them, seeing them show up in search after search (a lot of times I'll search then go to images and scroll to find _____(whatever it is), I had the thought "Why can't a guy flip the ball joints over on these and run them upside down, on the opposite side they were designed to be run on, and get 4" lift out of them???

So I asked a dude that I thought might be in the know, someone I assumed might be an outside the box thinker, and he said "nope won't work" before I even sent him the pictures lol! These things are mirror images of each other. I could not see how it wouldn't work?

That just motivated me more. So I called one of the manufacturers and asked for someone that could answer technical product questions? ...annnd I might as well have been speaking mandarin chinese to this guy lol.. He was completely unable to grasp what I was asking, suggested I call skyjacker or a lift company....smh. So I called the next one....and got basically the same result. Then I called the third, Wulf Suspensions, and got a design engineer on the phone. I asked the same queston, he paused, then replied: "Well yeah Dan, that could work just fine" So, I went with Wulf Suspensions 4" drop, lowering Upper and Lower Control Arms. Made a deal with them for two sets of uppers and lowers, for like $600? Gave me like 40-45% off? One set was returned and scuffed up a bit. Plan to powdercoat them white anyways..

Now I needed a jig... So.... bought some OE Mevotech replacements from O'Reilly's, ripped off 2- 2'x2' pieces of 3/4" plywood, fab'd some "L" brackets, bolted the OE LCA's to the boards, made sure the ball joint was in a central / neutral position, marked the tip of the ball joint shaft on the board, and drew a 5" x 10" grid centered off the ball joint location. Then swapped out the OE's for the Wulf's, and that's where they've been waiting for 6-7 weeks now as I've been sourcing the rest of the parts necessary to attempt to pull this off..

The Wulf's are 1.5 dom tube with .120 wall. That leaves a hollow center of 1.26" Ordered some 1.25" dom tube for the inner sleeves and some 1.50" to go around them. The plan is to sleeve them inside with three inch extra on both ends, and make three linear plug welds at 12, 4, & 8 o'clock(every 120 degrees) around the circumference, then clam shell over the section of exposed sleeve... I made that plan up in about 30 seconds a couple monts ago and, so far, nobody (that knows how to weld) has hinted that it was a bad plan so I'm rollin w/it

Before I returned the OE replacements I bought a couple magnetic digital angle finders and went over them at all the important locations. They've got about a 6 degree kick up after the shock perch. Sometime in the next 10-12 days I'll bring the truck in and start figuring out the geometry for my LT LCA's...



So that was kind of a long answer, but I was gonna have to explain all that sooner or later anyway, now it's done.. I probably could've waited a few more weeks to start the thread? Got excited because of the tires lol..


If anyone has any suggestions on the LCA's or the weld plan, I would love to hear?

Next post should be parts list and what I'm doing with CV axles... ttys