New guy. Question about wheel offset and aftermarket UCAs.

Hi. New here. I picked up an 08 Tundra back in March and love it, but of course I already need to do some upgrades.

My plan is 37x12.5 tires on +25 or +35 offset 17x8.5 wheels. I'm looking at the Ironman4x4 lift kit.

I've been searching the internet for months but can't find one key bit of information. I need to know if the Ironman4x4 UCAs will fit with that wheel/tire combo. I know there are some other aftermarket UCAs that won't fit. The JBA UCAs for example require something like a 0 or negative offset to clear.

Does anybody know for sure if the Ironman UCAs will work for me? Or do you know of any other UCAs that would work for me? I'm not particularly fond of the uniball and/or heim joint race arms. I'd like to stick with good old fashioned, durable, bushings and ball joints.

I'd also like to avoid going to 0 or negative offset wheels because that just makes fitting the larger tires MUCH more difficult.

Thanks

 

I know absolutely nothing about wheels or UCA's but welcome from LA (Lower Alabama)!

 

You may have to worry about your steering tie-rods on a +35 offset wheels. I currently have 35x12.5x20’s on a +25 wheel and the tie-rod is less than a 1/4” clearance.

 

Would you be able to show me a picture of that? According to the manufacturer of the wheels, they are supposed to fit on the tundra. Is your clearance issue with the wheel itself or the tire?

What upper control arm are you running and how much clearance is there?

 

Just for reference, when a wheel manufacturer says that they will fit, all that they use is backspacing and lug pattern. They won't be concerned with anything else.

 

The clearance is with the tire. The wider the tire the closer the tire will be to the upper arm. I will grab a photo today and send to your.

 

+35 will likely cause a 12.5” wide tire to rub multiple places. Including stock UCA (which is pretty small). You have a pic of the Ironman uca?

You’re probably going to want a minimum (maximum?)of +18 and then that opens a whole set of fitment issues on the opposite side of the wheel.

 

I've seen a LOT of threads, videos, write ups, etc that say that +25 is the "sweet spot" for fitting large tires with the least amount of extra work. I'm not afraid of doing a body mount chop or cutting bumper and pinch welds. I just want to clear the UCA and steering tie-rod. The rest I can handle.

I've also seen a LOT of guys running large tires on the much desired Rock Warrior wheels which have a +50 offset.

+35 is less than a half inch difference from the +25 and is nearly 3/4 of an inch different (in the opposite direction) from the Rock Warrior wheels.

The problem I have is that I keep getting conflicting reports from manufacturers, end users, forum members, and YouTube content creators on what fits and what doesn't. Also a bunch of opinions from people that don't really know anything but want to throw their 2 cents in anyway. Either that or the guys who have done what I am looking to do never went into any detail about how they managed it and instead talk about useless cosmetic stuff like "stance". I suspect they just paid some shop to do it all and never bothered to learn what went into it.

The Ironman4x4 arms are one piece forged aluminum.

 

@Kur those Ironman ucas are pretty awesome looking. They may be pretty close or stick “out” a little more than stock ucas.

I think most guys talk about +25 being the sweet spot in terms of appearance/stance and “poke” from the wheel well. I think there’s BMC and bumper shims and heat guns aplenty to fit them. As for guys running 35s or so on the rock warriors, I’d imagine they’re removing front sway bars to clear a 12.5” wide tire. My 12” Baja boss ATs rubbed the sway bar at full lock on the +60 TRD rims but those were meaty wide tires. (295/70r18)

 

No, they were quite clear about the +25 "Sweet spot" being for clearance, not for "poke".

And I am fully prepared to remove the front sway bar. I don't mind a little body roll and sway bars are nothing but a hinderance off-road anyway.

I am also going to be removing the stock bumper and building a high clearance bumper out of plate steel, and again, a body mount chop is no big deal to me.

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/everything-you-need-to-know-about-upper-control-arms-uca.4497/

 

You should be all set with 25-35 then if you’re removing sway bars and changing the front bumper. Those seem to be the biggest hurdles

 

I know. I SHOULD be set. But the fact that so many UCA manufacturers claim they won't clear that offset, combined with the fact that i can't get a straight answer out of anybody who has actually done it, makes me hesitant to pull the trigger on the wheels.

Nobody can tell me how much clearance they have with +25 and i haven't seen anybody with the +35 offset yet. Unfortunately it seems that most people are either running 20in wheels, or smaller tires like 285s. And the people that are running 37s aren't forthcoming with their figures and settings.

At this point i think I'm just going to have to install the lift kit and then take it to discount tire and see what fits, assuming they just have the wheels in stock, which they won't.

 

Hopefully this will help a bit. So the photos were taken before I went to 37s.

Bilstein 5100s @ top setting, SPC uppers with stock aluminum wheels on 275/65r18 Bridgestone Duelers, and Spidertrax 1.25” spacers.

60mm-31.75mm=28.25mm

I guess it’ll give you a general reference of the spacing between tire and UCA.

 

If you're going to run 37s with +35mm, I'm pretty sure it'll fit.

 

I think I just figured out your question. You're asking whether or not a UCA will fit with your set up and the answer to that, yes it will. UCA's will provide you adjustments to caster and toe (depending on what you choose).

Looks like you're not willing to go to uniballs, so SPC and JBA are two sought out brands as far as UCA goes.

I went with SPC due to the wide adjustment of caster. That'll help you push the wheel forward towards the front in order to clear your body mount to fit larger tires. I haven't had any issues with my SPC, torqued everything to spec and it's been running real nice. Just make sure you grease the sealed ball joint upon installation with the recommended grease SPC notes in their installation instructions.

Also, if you're going bigger tires, doesn't matter if you're not lifting your truck 3" or more, you're going to want to upgrade UCA.

 

Wow, how do i find that tool you are using? Is that specific to the tundra?

 

Thank you. That should help me figure some things out.

 

Here is 12mm offset with 37s on SPC UCA:




If you’re going 35mm offset, you’re going to be at least an inch closer than where I’m at and that’ll be pretty close to the UCA.

 

Are those 37x12.50 or 37x13.50?

Also, I am going to be using the ironman4x4 UCAs which look to me like they have more clearance room.

Using that tire size tool I've found that 37s on a +35 offset are 0.13in further away from the UCA than my stock tires on the stock +60 offset wheels. So hopefully that's enough.

I've ordered the lift kit with the UCAs. I'm going to install it and just see how much clearance i have before i pull the trigger on wheels and tires. I will probably just end up at the tire shop trying on different offset wheels to see what fits.

I appreciate all the help. Thank you.

 

Those measurements sound like you’ll be fine.

 

I'm on 12.5, trying to fit 13.5 will be a PITA getting anywhere close to 0 offset wheels.

If charts are any where near accurate, you're looking at roughly 1/8" clearance between your tire and the UCA.

 

I'd have no problem running 11.5 if I could find them. I take that back, i found one, but it was MUCH more expensive than the 12.50 for whatever reason.

 

12.50r17's are the cheapest around. You'd be surprised at how much more you would need to pay for 12.5/13.5... on 18's.

 

You can always run smaller 37s... like the KM3. They run 36.5"

 

Oh i know. That was half the reason i am trying so hard to use the 17s.

If the prices weren't so high for the 18s i would probably just run the method 18s to get the +25 offset.