Sure, but you don't upgrade your UCAs unless you add a lift of a couple inches, and at that point most lifts on a 200 are within what... an inch? You make a good point though.
New Product: ARB Old Man Emu Upper Control Arms
- Thread starter BAY2MTN
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FWIW my goal too: beef up suspension to accommodate extra load but keep lift minimal. I’m still the newbie to this but Tough Dog are fitting my needs in the top spot right now when I rationalize what my goals are. If I can get away without a new UCA perfect, otherwise Total Chaos are too of my list. I am also growing on the Ironman kit, I think they don’t get a fair shake given what what most 200s do on real life. Sure BP51 or Stage 7 Icon if you can afford throwing money rather than matching form to function. Soap box over
bloc
SILVER Star
That’s exactly what I thought, but there seem to be a lot of posts about people having issues with clearance or alignment, even when fitting into the common lift/UCA/tire size/spacer formula.
bloc
SILVER Star
I stepped back and asked what will perform the best for my intended use, specifically because I want to keep mine low. Less up travel means maintaining damping performance is even more important. Kings won the battle in large part because of Filthy motorsports videos about them and the undeniable reality of piston surface area.FWIW my goal too: beef up suspension to accommodate extra load but keep lift minimal. I’m still the newbie to this but Tough Dog are fitting my needs in the top spot right now when I rationalize what my goals are. If I can get away without a new UCA perfect, otherwise Total Chaos are too of my list. I am also growing on the Ironman kit, I think they don’t get a fair shake given what what most 200s do on real life. Sure BP51 or Stage 7 Icon if you can afford throwing money rather than matching form to function. Soap box over
Another part of my equation is I WILL NOT tolerate squeaky suspension, and would rather not deal with greasing bushings and the mess that creates, which means many of the current UCA offerings are off the table even if I wanted to go high enough to need them. IMO expensive aftermarket parts should operate better than stock and factory parts have these issues sorted.
So yes I’d like details on these OMEs, like what inner pivot design they use, what caster/camber adjustment they provide, etc. Why does Taco like then initially?
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
I liked the non-deflection, no grease, no maintenance bushes that contact the arm to the coil-over tower. SPC has had a builder part, their X-Axis bush for years. You can find it in their rear lower control arms, its a great joint that takes the good of a Johnny Joint, but without the "exposed to a bunch of crap" style of Johnny Joints (Part why I'm over Johnny Joints, they were great when the came out, but they are old tech and better is available non.) But I always wondered why SPC didn't use them on their application specific components. Then getting in Arms for 3rd gen Tacos and 5th Gen 4Runners, saw that the X-Axis joint was now on the UCAs. Whoo, that is awesome. But the SPC arms for a LC200 are still with the older style urethan bush. And without a easy way to grease the thing, well... if it speaks, its' coming all the way out the slather it with grease.
The new OME UCAs have basically the ARB version of an SPC X-Axis joint. A non deflection buster, but doesn't need grease. That alone is a great option for everyone that doesn't want to maintain urethan bushes.
I do agree with @04UZJ100, the gold standard is a Total Chaos UCA. But on my TCs (these are my 5th personal TC arm)... even 'ol Rob over here is getting tired of unbolting the through bolt, greasing the urethan bushes juuusssstttt right, then torquing it all down to factory specs every 5,000 miles.
@Sac Cerevisiae Reid, after I installed your BudBuilt sliders in that gravel lot during LCDC, I then had to loosen, re-grease, and torque down by TC UCAs again. Me and that gravel lot became even more of friends. The arms were squeaking from my trail scouting the days before. Take the good with the bad I guess.
I just ordered three more pairs of this OME UCA so I'll take some pictures probably not next week, but the one after than for the group. Time will tell if these are good. Remember the BP-51 when they came out, clunking, and oil leaks. ARB stood behind all of it like a champ, and now the BPs are super reliable. But new isn't always the best thing to jump on first.
Sac Cerevisiae
Reid
Brutal. Thank you again for helping!
Those UCAs don’t look to be adjustable. How important or not is that in your opinion?
Moby
GOLD Star
Any experience with Nitro's? I've been leaning towards these for when I get back to my house with a full shop and can actually start my suspension work.
Land Cruiser 200 Series Upper Control Arms Longer travel ball joint style NPUCA-TLC200
Land Cruiser 200 Series Upper Control Arms Longer travel ball joint style NPUCA-TLC200 Nitro Gear & Axle strives to provide the highest quality differential & axle components available. We take the steps necessary to ensure our parts are dependable.
www.nitro-gear.com
TOTALLY agree. Having to re-grease all the joints to keep them from squeaking... that would piss me off.
Seems like about $543 USD, $560 MSRP
nwfl4runner
GOLD Star
Is there a tab for LX AHC Mount?
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
Even on SPCs, they get set to about the same spot, all the time. Having the ball joint positioned in that same spot, but not having fasteners that can loosen up, is a plus for me. As long as the UCA was built for a 2ish" lift, then there is more than enough adjustment on the lower control arms.
Super expensive with rubber joints. I'd pass. You don't get a lot of bang for your buck and just put more money in Nitro's pocket.Any experience with Nitro's? I've been leaning towards these for when I get back to my house with a full shop and can actually start my suspension work.
Land Cruiser 200 Series Upper Control Arms Longer travel ball joint style NPUCA-TLC200
Land Cruiser 200 Series Upper Control Arms Longer travel ball joint style NPUCA-TLC200 Nitro Gear & Axle strives to provide the highest quality differential & axle components available. We take the steps necessary to ensure our parts are dependable.www.nitro-gear.com
TheGrrrrr
GOLD Star
*insert rant about people making definitive statements that boil down to "what I like is best and what you like sucks" despite no first hand experience with the part they are denigrating*
I'm excited to see a new option and look forward to feedback from folks that jump in early and are willing to share their first hand experiences both good and bad. Looking forward to @Taco2Cruiser providing exactly this kind of perspective as he always does so well.
I'm excited to see a new option and look forward to feedback from folks that jump in early and are willing to share their first hand experiences both good and bad. Looking forward to @Taco2Cruiser providing exactly this kind of perspective as he always does so well.
Moby
GOLD Star
Well, no UCA seems to be great. Someone complains about every option. Rubber has less chance of squeaking and it is a ball joint not uniball. At some point I have to roll the dice on something. Either these or TTs. Definitely not SPCs though, I see too many failure threads.
@Taco2Cruiser
Had issues with squeaky bushings after install on mine too. I did not care for the lube they recommend.
Next time try M1 synthetic grease and slather the hell out of them. Mine have been silent for 5 years.
Also - on the 120 platform you could install the through bolt “reversed” to make install and remove easier on subsequent removals. Not sure if that’s an option on the 200.
Had issues with squeaky bushings after install on mine too. I did not care for the lube they recommend.
Next time try M1 synthetic grease and slather the hell out of them. Mine have been silent for 5 years.
Also - on the 120 platform you could install the through bolt “reversed” to make install and remove easier on subsequent removals. Not sure if that’s an option on the 200.
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
I'm with you, the Super lube they recommend is garage for that application (I really like super lube as a dielectric grease though). I use Amsoil Mulit Purpose and it holds up really well also. I just spend a lot of time in the mud, and open grease joints get washed free regularly.
One thing I noticed on mine with a better grease like M1 or Amsoil, is that while they keep it quite. Once I pulled the bushes out and inspected them, they were deformed. When I started grease them regularly, they seemed to not "rub irregularly" in there. That was in a desert environment though, may be different in not so dry of an area.
If you don't already have TC UCAs, I might be selling mine to run these OME UCAs. Not for any other reason than this is how I find out if stuff actually sucks or not. Gotta test!
Hindsight I wouldn't have purchased the SPCs. If you don't have an alignment shop that will touch them, you're SOL. I'm going to my 5th alignment on Monday with yet another shop. F*&king nightmare of sheared off cam tabs, not torquing the LCAs right, torquing them unloaded, putting the axle too far forward, too far back. Absolute s*** show here in West Michigan for IFS knowledge.
I just ordered the OME UCAs along with 285/75/17 BFGs going on KMC Bully 717 wheels. Installing them next week hopefully and then I can also provide some feedback. I currently have the OME standard lift installed so I thought this would be a good pairing.
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
Installed another set of these today and actually took some pictures. So, one nice thing about these is they fit the best out of all the aftermarket UCAs.
The bushes still blow my mind because they look like normal urethane bushes, buuuuuttttt you don’t grease them. Time will tell.
I like the fact there is a cap for the ball joint. I don’t like how after you grease the ball joint. You unscrew the zerk (with a 7mm socket), and then try to stow it in this little recess in the cap. Which doesn’t fit in an intuitive way. But it does fit. You will need to use a very small flat head like an eye glass flat head to help you as you put the cap on top of the ball joint with the zerk in the recess. But then you screw the cap down (with a 3/16 Allen key) into the zerk threads. I’ve never though zerk fitting had any problems. But I guess ARB doesn’t like them, and Toyota doesn’t have them on the 3rd gen Tacoma. I wouldn’t be surprise if the next Land Cruiser does away with zerk fitting also.
I like that you can grease the ball joint. That’s a big plus. I’ve seen other ball joint aftermarket UCAs, but you can’t grease them, and they fail a little quicker it seamed. I like how there is a cap for the fit and finish (again, I don’t feel like a zerk fitting is letting any junk in). I don’t like how I have to thread the zerk fitting and the cap screw in and out a bunch to service the ball joint. But... it is the best ball joint setup on the market in my small opinion, even with this.
Forged ball joint cups. Umm, hell yeah.
Alignments are pretty easy and strait forward. Basically the OME are very close to where say a Total Chaos uni ball is positioned. And where you should set a SPC. If you don’t want to blow a CV axle that is. That’s one thing about the SPC, this isn’t a knock on the SPC, but no one needs that level of adjustability on the upper (with coil overs, it not like we have 100 series’). So I always felt people caused uncessesary problems with SPCs. Not at all a fault of SPC, just what happens when you give people too many options... and they don’t know what they are doing.
There is a nice stud and nut to hold the ABS wire bracket. But I felt it pulled to tight on the wire, so I opened up the bracket and positioned the wire a bit better. The design also rotated the bracket a bit. A big deal, but if you put though into having a factory bracket mount, then make it mount exactly like the factory.
The powder coating is really nice, ARBs super tough Ingrit coating. The sticker is a little meh. And... yeah. I think it will be a great option for most. In fact, once I see a few thousand miles on these “no grease but they look like they need grease, but ARB says don’t grease them” bushes, I would say that unless you are running the Baja. Get these UCAs. (If they don’t squeak... again, time will tell soon enough)
The bushes still blow my mind because they look like normal urethane bushes, buuuuuttttt you don’t grease them. Time will tell.
I like the fact there is a cap for the ball joint. I don’t like how after you grease the ball joint. You unscrew the zerk (with a 7mm socket), and then try to stow it in this little recess in the cap. Which doesn’t fit in an intuitive way. But it does fit. You will need to use a very small flat head like an eye glass flat head to help you as you put the cap on top of the ball joint with the zerk in the recess. But then you screw the cap down (with a 3/16 Allen key) into the zerk threads. I’ve never though zerk fitting had any problems. But I guess ARB doesn’t like them, and Toyota doesn’t have them on the 3rd gen Tacoma. I wouldn’t be surprise if the next Land Cruiser does away with zerk fitting also.
I like that you can grease the ball joint. That’s a big plus. I’ve seen other ball joint aftermarket UCAs, but you can’t grease them, and they fail a little quicker it seamed. I like how there is a cap for the fit and finish (again, I don’t feel like a zerk fitting is letting any junk in). I don’t like how I have to thread the zerk fitting and the cap screw in and out a bunch to service the ball joint. But... it is the best ball joint setup on the market in my small opinion, even with this.
Forged ball joint cups. Umm, hell yeah.
Alignments are pretty easy and strait forward. Basically the OME are very close to where say a Total Chaos uni ball is positioned. And where you should set a SPC. If you don’t want to blow a CV axle that is. That’s one thing about the SPC, this isn’t a knock on the SPC, but no one needs that level of adjustability on the upper (with coil overs, it not like we have 100 series’). So I always felt people caused uncessesary problems with SPCs. Not at all a fault of SPC, just what happens when you give people too many options... and they don’t know what they are doing.
There is a nice stud and nut to hold the ABS wire bracket. But I felt it pulled to tight on the wire, so I opened up the bracket and positioned the wire a bit better. The design also rotated the bracket a bit. A big deal, but if you put though into having a factory bracket mount, then make it mount exactly like the factory.
The powder coating is really nice, ARBs super tough Ingrit coating. The sticker is a little meh. And... yeah. I think it will be a great option for most. In fact, once I see a few thousand miles on these “no grease but they look like they need grease, but ARB says don’t grease them” bushes, I would say that unless you are running the Baja. Get these UCAs. (If they don’t squeak... again, time will tell soon enough)
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bloc
SILVER Star
And the upper balljoint is replaceable if we manage to nuke one?
Taco2Cruiser
Crazy American Off Road
That would be a question for ARB. I don’t know what their replacement parts plan is.
But at the end of the day, that ball joint is pressed in. So it can be pressed out and a new could be pressed in again. Just like factory or pressing in and out uniballs on Total Chaos arms.
But if ARB never releases replacement parts, then I guess not.
But it we look at factory arms, by the time the ball joint is shot, so are the bushes. And when I look up all the stuff needed to rebuild an arm, that is probably also a little rusty. It’s like, just buy a new one.
Greased ball joints last pretty long if they are made right from the get go.
But like in my “review” above. If you are running the Baja, then stay with a uni ball. If you low maintenance, these are looking like a good option.
