Are the Total Chaos UCA worth it? (2 Viewers)

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Looking good doanlaw

Do you have your post alignment report data? If so post it up here. If you have had it done more than once they should have supplied you with the data in hard copy. I'm betting you have incorrect castor settings with that torque steer going on.

Mind you, with the low flying, take-off and landing regime you have going on there I'd expect you would need a regular check and reset of your plan's undercarriage alignment anyway.

Perhaps you should see how it performs if you reduce the coilover preload by 10mm or so (assuming they are not at their lowest preload setting already). That would lower total ride height by maybe half an inch or more and might make all the difference.

As a matter of interest what size coilovers and spring rates do you have. Looks to be landing real nicely.

Here is the post alignment printout. The shocks are the fox 2.5 IFP series, no idea the spring length but pretty positive they are set at minimal preload. Fox 883-02-030

2011 CA Cruiser with Fox 2.5 CO front, OME springs and Fox shocks Rear

image-3005184808.jpg
 
Just got the lift installed. Ironman. Rides great and tires are next, but the alignment shop pointed out not being able to get it to spec which now that I read this makes sense.

I'm not getting pulling on acceleration or any other symptoms but worry about tire wear. Question is, are UCAs something you think is mandatory? And if you forego it how is your tire wear over the long haul?

On a side note, the shop that put in the lift (ACC) was very impressed with the beefy upgraded parts on the 200 compared to the Hundies, and I'm a huge fan of Hundies having owned and driven the crap out of one for 6 years.
 
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There are so many other variables that come into play when considering tire wear/longevity that it would be impossible to identify with any certainty how much extra life you get from you tires by improving the UCAs. i.e: terrain, use, tire profile, pressure, compound, rotation regime, drivers right foot and braking habits etc...

But I have just rolled over the equivalent of 70,000 miles on my road set of Cooper Zeons LTZs and there is still life in them yet. If you take it easy on the wheel, rotate the tires every 5000 or so and keep the pressures up you might never even notice the loss of tire life. Many guys who lift never even bother to replace the arms so dont fret unnecessarily.

What I would say is that you will have noticed a marked improvement in handling after your suspension upgrade, correct? Possibly you had no real idea how much poorer the stock setup was until after the upgrade? Well that will be the same with the overall steering and handling post upgrade to UCAs I'll bet.

But then again, Ignorance is bliss afterall.
 
There are so many other variables that come into play when considering tire wear/longevity that it would be impossible to identify with any certainty how much extra life you get from you tires by improving the UCAs. i.e: terrain, use, tire profile, pressure, compound, rotation regime, drivers right foot and braking habits etc...

But I have just rolled over the equivalent of 70,000 miles on my road set of Cooper Zeons LTZs and there is still life in them yet. If you take it easy on the wheel, rotate the tires every 5000 or so and keep the pressures up you might never even notice the loss of tire life. Many guys who lift never even bother to replace the arms so dont fret unnecessarily.

What I would say is that you will have noticed a marked improvement in handling after your suspension upgrade, correct? Possibly you had no real idea how much poorer the stock setup was until after the upgrade? Well that will be the same with the overall steering and handling post upgrade to UCAs I'll bet.

But then again, Ignorance is bliss afterall.

To answer your question, the ride is so much improved, stable, solid etc... I'll plan to run it through a few rotations and see how it goes. I did upgrade the UCAs on my hundy, but did battle torque steer before that upgrade. Don't have any symptoms with this lift.

Thanks for the reply.
 
Update. I took a 1500 mile trip last week and noticed tire wear and driving impact of being out of alignment. I had already decided to get the TC UCAs so they were waiting when I returned. Installed, aligned and my opinion, at least with the Ironman lift at 4", is that UCAs are if not mandatory, at least highly recommended. Complete change to the handling and I could tell the tires would have lost a lot of life without them.

Just FYI.
 
Update. I took a 1500 mile trip last week and noticed tire wear and driving impact of being out of alignment. I had already decided to get the TC UCAs so they were waiting when I returned. Installed, aligned and my opinion, at least with the Ironman lift at 4", is that UCAs are if not mandatory, at least highly recommended. Complete change to the handling and I could tell the tires would have lost a lot of life without them.

Just FYI.

Hey Steen,
Are your height measurements the same or have you gotten any settling?
 
Hey Steen,
Are your height measurements the same or have you gotten any settling?

Hasn't changed. 23.5 front, and 24.5 rear.
 
The Total Chaos UCA's allow for more down travel because of the unibearing design. Your up travel still remains the same and that is the max compressed length of your strut/coilover.

The Total Chaos UCA's will correct your alignment so your problem with your 200 series pulling to the right will be eliminated.

The alignment is off, or the lower bushings are bad and allowing the alignment to change. Do you have the alignment specs? Jumping a vehicle is hard on the components, and can easily knock things out of spec. Inspect the rear lower bushings for excessive movement.

The advantage of using the Total Chaos upper control arms has two major benefits. First is allows your factory alignment to back to stock for larger lifted applications, the stock uca doesn't have enough misalignment. Secondly it will let you have additional down travel because of the unibearing design. We have installed a lot of these UCA's on FJ Cruisers, Tacomas, 100 and 200 series Land Cruisers. We do have them available and if you have any other questions let me know..

SLEE is now offering UCA for 200 series... No description on their website, but is there a way to compare them to Total Chaos ?

LT? bjowett? thanks!
 
Im thinking off buying a set of UCAs. Now that Slees are new on the market for around $500 do you guys think Total Chaos' price will come down a bit?
 
Im thinking off buying a set of UCAs. Now that Slees are new on the market for around $500 do you guys think Total Chaos' price will come down a bit?

Nope.
 
Read through the thread, caught my interest cause all of us that had FJCruisers have been through this aready.

Yes all this applies to your LX570, it is the same rig, essentially.

You all are in good hands with LT, no doubt.

One thing I would add is that TC is known, tried and true for desert racing and desert overlanding. Depending on the region you live in there may be a UCA that is moore suited to your region. I picked the Light Racing version for my FJC, cause I am in Colorado..

Yes you should get slightly better tire clearance on that inner tire wall, not sure if that is designed in or a by product of design. You will be able to get factory/OEM alignement specs as LT mentioned and that does feel differently than when you first lifted your truck without aftermarket UCAs.

One thing we all learned with our FJCs is that aftermarket UCAs are a must not just a nice mod to have at a later date. If you have lifted your truck, get the UCAs, when you can.

I am waiting for my Light Racing 100 series UCAs to be available, supposed to be anyday.. :)

LT correct me if you have a different perspective.

Hope this helps.

Ok back to my 100 closet...
 
Read through the thread, caught my interest cause all of us that had FJCruisers have been through this aready.

Yes all this applies to your LX570, it is the same rig, essentially.

Just curious...since when is the Lexus LX570 and the the Toyota FJ Cruiser the same rig...essentially?
 
Just curious...since when is the Lexus LX570 and the the Toyota FJ Cruiser the same rig...essentially?

Gotta think he meant same as an LC200... I hope.
 
I have occasionally had the same pulling problem under acceleration with several of my LC's, both 100's and 200.

This seems to happen to me often after the truck is completely raised into the air and then lowered back down on the pavement.

It seems that a torque can get built up in the driveline.
in my case, i have fixed this problem by:
1) raising the truck, spinning the tires, and then letting it back down.
2) going through mud or sand and spinning the tires.
has anyone else experienced this?

This has happened to me when I installated shocks and diff locks.
 
SLEE is now offering UCA for 200 series... No description on their website, but is there a way to compare them to Total Chaos ?

LT? bjowett? thanks!

Those are the Light Racing UCA's. They are made similar to the factory UCA where it has a sealed ball joint instead of a uniball. One part of the arm is stamp steel and then a tube is welded on the other side. They are manufactured in China but all the R&D is done in Colorado. We have sold a fair amount of them in the FJC/4Runner/Tacoma world and we do now have those as an option.
 
Can you adjust camber and caster with the SLEE UCAs?
 
You can adjust both camber and caster. The arms are not stamped steel, they are actually tubes with a cast piece where the balljoint goes. The tubes are welded to that and the sleeves for the bushings. Everyone calls them Lightracing, but they are actually SPC. The company is here in Colorado.

[edit] - Checked with SPC, the 200 series (as well as all Tundra, early Tacoma and 3rd Gen 4runner) arms, castings, welding and quality control is done in the US. The ball joints themselves come from China. The late model Tacoma, FJ Cruiser and 4th and 5th Gen 4Runner arms are made in China. For the arms produced in China all quality control inspections are still done in the US.
 
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You can adjust both camber and caster. The arms are not stamped steel, they are actually tubes with a cast piece where the balljoint goes. The tubes are welded to that and the sleeves for the bushings. Everyone calls them Lightracing, but they are actually SPC. The company is here in Colorado. Where the final parts are produced I don't know, but probably in the east somewhere.

I like my Slee UC arms you put on last week. The 200 actually drives straight now. :steer:
 

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