Fender trimming or adjust UCA?

[FDMD]

Hello,

I am still experiencing a little bit of rub from my aggressive offset wheel/tire combo. Before I start hacking away more plastic, I wanted to check with the group. I took a pic of where I still have some contact upon wheel turn. The area in red is the contact point. Behind that is a metal bracket that would be exposed if I trim that highlighted area away and that would be undesirable.

The second pic a a screen grab of promotional material from a vendor who sells SPC UCAs, which I have installed.

My question is, can I make some adjustment to the UCA to shift the wheel position forward and eliminate this rub so I don’t have to cut any more, as the SPC product description suggests??? I did notice that this last rub emerged after my last alignment.

If not, can anyone share what they have done to trim and tweak tire contact in this area?
Thanks.

 

[Markuson]

My wheels/tires were definitely moved forward when I put 35's on last Summer. So yes, your alignment guy can move them forward with your SPCs. I'm the wrong guy to tell you specifics there, but it definitely can be done.

 

[TexAZ]

option 1, big friggin hammer. just knock that portion back a little. the bracket is paper thin.
option 2, use the adjustability in the upper arms. I spoke with one of the techs at SPC at length about doing this.
they say you can go up to a maximum of 3/4" forward adjustment without compromising the driveline and suspension geometry.

the arms will go up to almost 1 1/2 inches of forward adjustment, but you will have CV angle issues......in moab, 15 miles from anywhere, at midnight.....

somewhere I posted a couple pics of the adjustment and what it is capable of. with 35s rubbing on same spot you're dealing with.
make sure the alignment shop is familiar with lifted trucks and even better if they have worked with the SPC arms.
print out the instructions from SPC and give them to the tech.

 

[TonyP]

Tin snips make easy work of that bracket also.

 

[FDMD]

@TexAZ I searched and found some of your previous comments on this topic:

I use socal chevy's specs when I get my alignment done. truck handles great.
the adjustability within the SPC arms allows for castor and camber adjustment at the UCA.
The last line of the instructions that come with the UCAs mentions that if you need more clearance front to rear you can adjust the lower control arms all the way forward (roll adjusting cam full narrow in front and full wide in rear) and set castor/camber with UCAs.
When I went to 35s I was rubbing on the body mount and bolt for the mud flap in the rear of the wheel well.
I had a shop follow the instructions and roll the arms full forward and picked up an inch of clearance in the back. Now I've had to trim the front bumper, but it's just plastic and would be gone with an aftermarket bumper.​

Can you clarify the bit about the SoCal chevy specs? The last part about rolling the LCAs all the way forward, is this where I can realize that 3/4" gain without messing up other geometry?

I couldn't find any of the pics you posted.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[TexAZ]

adrenaline: When I had my tundra I looked into keeping the tires from getting torn up due to caster/camber issues. Saw way too many lifted IFS trucks looking / '''' \ and having burned through tires @ 20k miles. From Tundratalk.net, user socal57chevy offered a good thread on alignment specs and local shops experienced in lifted trucks. this is lifted from that thread.

"Remember...The numbers I'm posting are recommendations only, based on my alignment experience in general. I am not the "be all, end all" of alignments. Every vehicle does not react the same and sometimes the alignment specifications need to be altered for specific vehicles in order to get them to drive decent and/or not wear tires. Alignments numbers for stock, lifted, or lowered vehicles aren't really that different. The difference is what it takes to get those numbers given factory adjustment limitations. For stock and lifted applications, these numbers are within Toyota tolerances. (I just narrow down their window of what is "acceptable") So.......here's what I recommend.

STOCK TRUCKS:Camber: +.1 degree camber on both sides.
Caster: As much as possible without sacrificing +.1 degree camber or causing a cross caster pull.
Toe: +.12 degrees per side for a total toe of +.24 degrees. (some guys have had to drop toe to +.04 to +.5 per side/+.08 to +.10 total toe)

LIFTED TRUCKS:Same As Above ... BUT if you have wheels that have more negative offset than factory wheels, increase the camber to +.2 degrees. (or even +.3 degrees if they just can't get there with the amount of adjustment allowed by the eccentrics)
Adjustable upper control arms are available for cases where there just isn't enough adjustment left in the eccentrics to get a decent alignment."


I'm running the SPC adjustable upper control arms. The local shop I went to set the factory cams to neutral and used the upper arms to align everything. When I step up in tire size, if I need to shift everything forward or back, I can use the cams to get more clearance then re-align with upper arms.

From my thread on the tundra ifs install, I went with the lifted tundra specs for alignment. They are all within the Toyota limits, just a little fine tuned:

 

[TexAZ]

To adjust the wheels forward use the lower control arm adjusting cams to bring the front narrower and the rear wider. Don't go all the way in or out. Half way on each is enough to clear 35s and not bind the CVs.

 

[Supra88]

I just installed SPC UCAs and had an alignment performed. I set the UCAs to +1 caster and a little more than halfway outboard for camber.

Long story short the alignment was completed, but now my 285/70/17s rub severely on the mud flaps! damn it. The other concern is that he didn't touch the UCA whatsoever. Is this fixable with the method described in this thread (move LCAs forward)?

 

[TexAZ]

Most alignment shops have no idea how to work with the adjustable upper arms. Call around or find a shop that specializes in lifted trucks.
I print out the SPC instructions and give a copy to the shop.

285/70 shouldnt be rubbing.
If you're lucky you can go back to alignment shop with the SPC instructions and have them do it the right way.

If not, a big friggen hammer helps as well.

 

[Supra88]

I can see they didn't come close to maximizing the LCAs for clearance away from the mud flap. I'll try another alignment shop.