BigBlue&Goldie

I guess what you have read on the Internet makes you the expert here. My first hand experience installing and running King shocks on a 2015 tells me otherwise......but we'll stick with the expert, because you read it on the internet. By the way, if the knuckle bottoms out on the spring at the same time the UCA bottoms out on the frame stop, so how are you going to get more down travel with an aftermarket UCA? Once again, it's not the ball joint that is maxed out (or in the case of the arms you linked, the bearing cup), but the arms physically rests on the bump stop (the same an aftermarket one would) and the steering knuckle itself hits the springs

Keep trying dude.

BigBlue&Goldie

How many blown out ball joints and bent UCA's have you seen on a daily driven truck with leveling kits or replacement coilovers? My race team is sponsored by King, so naturally all of our chase trucks run King's as well. We have an 2005 F150 that has been used as a chase truck since 2011 and it's still on it's original UCA's/ball joints. My codriver also has a 2005 that has only seen one set of replacement arms/ball joints and it has over 300k miles on it.

FWIW, I had every intention of getting UCA's until I actually put my shocks in and couldn't find the benefit. The lead prep guy on our race team worked as a fab guy for Total Chaos for 4 years, and one of our drivers used to drive with Jerry Zaiden (Owner of Camburg), so we get solid deals on parts. Even with how cheap I can get UCA's for, I still don't see the benefit. I fully expected the arm itself to rest on the shocks at droop, but that wasn't the case (at least on a 2015 anyway).

Since I see you are looking to get a set of King's for your truck, I'll throw you some pointers. Mine came setup from King with 1/4" of down travel; they were pretty much maxed out and riding on the bumps. My truck is a 2015, but my friend had a 2012 and his came setup the same way. King's literature says their shocks are designed to have at least 1" of down travel, so I adjusted mine up about 4 or 5 turns. They are a royal bitch to adjust because the spring rate is so high. King assembles these shocks using a spring compressor, but I wasn't able to find a spring compressor that would fit between the tightly wound coils. The tool they provide is a piece of ****; we use a Hilti setting bit in the race shop as they are the only thing that holds up. I ended up buying a 5/16" punch and using a cheater bar on the punch to get the spring collars adjusted. WD40 on the shock body threads really helps.

Let me know if you have any more questions, I only put mine on about a month ago so things are pretty fresh in my head still.

rbrown150

Thanks for info. Your 15 is the same part# as my 14. I have a buddy at our local suspension shop doing mine. No worries on anything. Stock UCA has a terrible ball joint and seems that alone would have a great benefit. Obviously most aftermarket bearings will be noisy if not oiled monthly, but I was buying them for the fact of that one joint. Seems there must be some benefit no?

rbrown150

Just a quick question on UCA's since there are strong opinions against them and for them.

I am on the fence. Wouldn't any type uniball style joint be far superior to the typical POS ball joint which stock uppers have. Even with some articulation the uniball design allows for a far superior pivot over stock. Forget travel as we are limited by other things anyway, and I'm not talk going with a long travel kit. That's a different story. Thoughts?

NevaEnough

I'm no expert here, hence the reason I asked but, I'm going to upgrade my UCA's anyway. I get board very quickly and want the ability to go long travel if I hit the lottery. I spoke with a few company's that sell shocks and they said that UCA's are nice but aren't necessary. The company's I talked to that manufacture their own arms recommend them for obvious reasons. Usually a stage 1 package (UCA's and tie rods). Plus the stock arms aren't that nice to look at. I'd like to believe what you said rbrown150 is true but, what I use my truck for, I probably don't need them. They definitely won't make my truck ride worse.

sigma pi

More maintenance on that uniball

rbrown150

Yes there is. But so is anything you want to keep nice and maintain. I wash my truck weekly, that's a heck of a lot more to keep up. I think the guy who I talked to who just had new bearings after 40,000 miles and spent 2-$300 is too much to justify. If I find a smoking deal I'll go with it. But spent the money elsewhere

AricsFX

iTrader: (3)

I am INSANELY confused as to why you're asking questions and then answering them yourself since you apparently are on a race team. I had kings and rpg components.. A 2015 has the same suspension components as a 2014, hince the same part number. So you can stop whipping your 2015 dick out lol. The RPG arms I had on my old truck had the cut outs to allow more down travel and not whack the coil, EXACTLY like what happened when I was running the stock components with a leveling spacer, so if you could explain why I was hitting the coil before, and then not hitting it once the new ones were installed would be great. I'd be happy to take a picture of some stock coils next to the king 3.0s that are sitting in my garage for you to see just how much it won't work.

Who is your race team? If you're into desert racing you probably have heard of my half cousin/uncle John and johnathan Swift and their co-driver Steve.

BigBlue&Goldie

For the third time, the arm isn't what's hitting the coil, its the top of the knuckle that's hitting the coil. The arm clears the spring just fine.

AricsFX

iTrader: (3)

I have the stock arms sitting in my garage. The arm is grounded down to jagged metal from hitting the coil.