landtank said:
5* is right in the vib zone for alot of trucks and some have had damage to the axle from the limited amount of restriction of the OME bushings and those would seem to be worse.
No offense to Frankies, but if he's jumping straight into a 4" lift and counting on these to easliy solve his caster issues, I think he's got some exciting times heading his way.
I think F.O.R. is releasing a 3" lift and will be offering the 3* version if they test in an acceptable range.
I emailed the owner Hobzee asking about the flex issue (those 5* have almost no material to one edge) and more importantly, IMO, whether or not they stay in place as an offset bushing is going to want to move due to unequal pressure with the offcenter bore, and the more offset the more it's going to want to move. Hobzee said he'd used them in some serious competition stuff with no issues, for whatever that is worth. He did say that caster plates would allow better flex due to the use of stock rubber bushings, which is of course the case as poly doesn't deflect as well as rubber.
At 5 degrees I'm probably looking for a different solution, but then that's the cut between a 2.5" - 3" lift and a 4" lift...the former you can usually get away with just springs and shocks and stock arms, and the latter you are probably into full kit mode. I think that there's been a pretty clear lesson learned here that if you are going to do it you'd ought to pony up for the full kit and not mix and match, and then don't change your kit unless you want to do it all over again.
An adjustable arm for fine tuning caster/driveline angle is what we need. All of these fixed solutions are fundamentally problematic except for the knuckle turn...but even then you'd better not change your lift much. I'm not saying this is easy given the stock arm position, but it is amazing coming from a world where there is almost no such thing as a fixed arm (Jeeps) and you can fine tune your setup as you go to a world where you have to hope for a perfect match for your rig or you are halfway to S.O.L.
The company that makes these caster threads a thing of the past is going to make some good money, because adjustable arms are the foundation of a mix and match market where you can build the suspension that best suits your needs. As we get more sophisticated and more conscious of what functions well and what does not the fixed arm has to face obsolesence or this aftermarket will never substantially expand beyond the fairly simple question of "how much lift do I want?" which today is largely a function of "how much money do I have to spend?". I'd sure like to see those questions be "How much tire do I need to run the trails I want, and how do I engineer the best suspension with the least expense and complications for those tires with readily available parts that I can customize for my usage?"
Anyway, 5* is out there for those who mall crawl and expedition more, and flex less...I'm just reporting potential sourcing options...
Nay
. That's the essential difference between DIY and paying for an engineered and tested solution that I can then adapt to my requirements.
