Increasing wheel travel, improving ride

[Guest JohnSavage]

My rig is cranked up 3" along with the 3" body lift and I'm running 33's. The UCA's are right on the bump stops as I'm sure most of you have experienced. The aftermarket UCA companies will sometimes adverstise that their modified UCA's increase wheel travel. Have any of you found that to be true?

 

Was the increased wheel travel enough to get off the stops?

 

I already have UCA spacers and that didn't increase the wheel travel enough.

 

I wonder about using the spacers with an aftermarket UCA?

 

Any other ideas?

 

I saw that someone suggested switching sides with the UCA's so that the bump stops didn't align?

 

It's usually bearable until I hit a really rough patch on the interstate, and then I'm literally bouncing down the road.!

[88pathoffroad]

Methinks your expectations are quite a bit high. You're looking at it wrong, you don't need more wheel travel, you need to lower the torsion bars.

 

It's been argued over and over on several forums, and the end result as far as I've seen is that aftermarket UCA's do not increase IFS travel by any significant amount over stock, even by +/- 1".

 

That said...

 

Increasing front suspension travel with BJ spacers AND aftermarket UCA's will result in the semi-immediate destruction of your CV joints on the diff side joint within the first few attempts at off-roading, or even driving in 4WD around curves. I guarantee it. Been there, done that, got tired of changing axles out. The joints cannot cope with the additional angles you're putting them at at that ride height. The tie rods will be next to go.

 

If you don't want it to ride rough and bounce, lower the front end. That's all you can do with the IFS we were given. There ARE limitations. You simply can't get much more than stock travel from the IFS without breaking things, even with aftermarket parts. Besides, if all you want is for it to ride better it's not going to happen by spacing the travel out more. It's entirely dependent on the torsion bar height and by the shocks.

[Guest JohnSavage]

Thankd for your quick reply.

 

That's what I was afraid of. I was just hoping that there was a way to get it off the bump stops without lowering it since I've got the 33's. I guess there is no real reason to get the aftermarket UCA's yet since I have the spacers then, huh? At least wait until I twist one of those first?

[GrimGreg]

Maybe get some ulrta-lowprofile stops.

[Mr. Pickles]

If rubbing and highway driving is your concern, maybe some stiffer torsion bars and poly swaybar bushings could help firm things up to minimize the amount of roll and suspension compression (and extension) around town. I've done both, and added Rancho 5000 shocks as well, although only with 31" tires (oh, and also with the 3" body lift). It rides quite well, corners fairly flat even at highway speeds, at least for a lifted truck, etc. But it can still compress and travel just fine when slow-going off road. I've got it cranked until about half and inch before the bump stop at rest. I guess the point of all this is, as mine is set up, its firm enough that you're not banging on the bump stops and floating down the road, but at the same time its soft enough that you don't get beat up and bounced around.

[Guest JohnSavage]

Yeah, I already put the poly bushings on the sway bar and have the Rancho 5000's as well. If I had 31's, I could easily lower it slightly and improve the ride.

 

Thanks for the reply.