Solos Motorsports LCA with lower ball joint forward 1” (1 Viewer)

[MTKID]

A recent post by Solos Motorsports peaked my curiosity. They offer this Lower Control Arm for the 1st gen Tundra with the Lower Ball Joint moved forward 1” to allow for larger tires and reduced interference at the body mount.

So I reached out to Bobby there at Solo and asked about the possibility of doing a 200 series LCA with the LBJ moved forward 1”. He needs about 10 to justify the laser cutting and setup necessary for a new product. The above Tundra model costs $1200 which seems reasonable to me to allow for a larger tire with reduced interference. Possibly getting people into a 37” with minimal body mount chopping.

Maybe a fit with SPC UCA’s.

I’m curious if there is enough interest here to get this moving?

Hoping, really.

 

[MTKID]

Well, I was hopeful, but it’s been brought to my attention again, that 1” further forward will likely cause the CV to bind and fail

I keep trying to find ways to push this platform but everyone else has this figured out, for the most part

Back to cutting more metal for me. What could go wrong with that

 

[TeCKis300]

I think it's possible.

It's when too much down travel combined with forward shift that I think we run into problems with CV durability. As you're on AHC shocks, down travel is still limited to a degree. A diff drop could be used to help angles.

Speaking of, this may not be your specific idea, but I think there's opportunity to lift AHC in a different way, by 1-2". Especially for bigger 35+ tires. Use a larger shock spacer (than the OEM front shock spacer, something like a ~20mm or 1" spacer) to move the effective travel downward in the stroke. And limit uptravel shimming the bump stops. This won't gain any overall stroke, but move the usable stroke downward to avoid body contact. Bigger tires will be the added suspension stroke anyhow.

On the rear, we've seen people move the lower shock mount up the bracket. My preference would be to modify the AHC rear shock, to extend the body length. Cut the lower mount eye, and weld an new eye at an extended position maybe 1" lower/longer. This may also require shimming down the rear bump stop so the shock body doesn't become the compression limiter.

 

[MTKID]

I think it's possible.

It's when too much down travel combined with forward shift that I think we run into problems with CV durability. As you're on AHC shocks, down travel is still limited to a degree. A diff drop could be used to help angles.

Speaking of, this may not be your specific idea, but I think there's opportunity to lift AHC in a different way, by 1-2". Especially for bigger 35+ tires. Use a larger shock spacer (than the OEM front shock spacer, something like a ~20mm or 1" spacer) to move the effective travel downward in the stroke. And limit uptravel shimming the bump stops. This won't gain any overall stroke, but move the usable stroke downward to avoid body contact. Bigger tires will be the added suspension stroke anyhow.

On the rear, we've seen people move the lower shock mount up the bracket. My preference would be to modify the AHC rear shock, to extend the body length. Cut the lower mount eye, and weld an new eye at an extended position maybe 1" lower/longer. This may also require shimming down the rear bump stop so the shock body doesn't become the compression limiter.

I like what you’re thinking. I’ve thought about the same thicker spacer also. And I think it could be machined with a small slot in it to pass around the AHC, so you don’t have to remove the hose and re-flush the system.

Someone else also once mentioned sending the AHC shocks to a shock company and seeing if they could make a longer travel version. I felt like they were oversimplifying it, but if anyone know of a shop that they think could do this, I have a front shock I would send and I’d find a rear shock to send also.

I have friends trying to convince me to SAS this rig and, although I love the idea of it, it feels like there are so many options and so many unknowns that I’m uncertain that is what I want to do.

I’ll probably just keep whittling away at small steps that hopefully get me a little further down the trail