Convince me NOT to buy Freedom Offroad UCA

That's the limit in my opinion to drive safely and be able to get alignment in specs. I don't think it's coincidence that 5100s max out at 2.5" of lift.

I drove almost a year above 3" on stock arms and it was making horrible sounds every time I hit a speed bump. I had weak caster too, lots of bump steer and pretty twitchy.

 

Going on about two years installed now. The right ball joint boot recently started to split. Otherwise, no issues of note.

I actually really want to buy the JBA's, but I'm waiting until I at least need a new ball joint.

 

The JBA’s have cracked boot problems out of the gate. I’ve only had my installed for a few hundred miles but I’ve already been contacted but other members who have experienced this issue. JBA will send new boots but still, kind of a bummer. If your Freedom arms are working, I don’t see a reason to change them out.

 

I have heard reports of improved ride with new control arms even at low lift levels.

 

Here's how they are looking currently. All told, still pretty happy with them. The finish is all dull except for a few spots. I had given them a coat of Spraymax 2K clear when new for extra protection. Not sure if that's what is remaining.

 

I m expecting mine to show up today, will I need a press to get the old ball joints out of the spindle, or just a BFH? And I guess I’ll find out once they arrive will I need to press in the new ball joints, or are they already installed. Just wanna go to autozone once to rent the tools I’ll need.

 

I want with the JBA snice they look nicer and review where alot better. JBA has supposedly fix the issue with boot issues with there new design and material.

 

Press, 4x4 adapter kit and 3 jaw puller. I tried the BFH, but it didn't work for me.

Also, I can't recommend these enough. I got one side out without it, but not the other, would have saved me so much time to just get them in the first place.

 

ive had mine for about 5k miles, no issues and I was able to get an alignment without being harrassed due to the camber correction. My buddy at work here has an 06, just like mine but he went uni ball. He hates them.........

 

Got mine installed over the weekend with new lbj’s. Was gonna put bushings in the steering rack but now it’s started to leak. So new rack will go in this weekend. And then hopefully I can get it aligned. But for now it’s not to bad. Maybe wonders a bit on the freeway

 

Here ya go
https://www.tundras.com/threads/freedom-off-road-uca-bent-my-spindles.99719/

 

I dunno @Darkness, any idea how that could happen other than a failed install? They didn't wear wrong, they banged from the start.

 

The dull is the added clear coat failing.

 

Could be a bad install. Could be bad ball joints. Hard to tell from the limited pics I've seen of their design. We need to know more about what that guy has on his truck too.

 

It does make more sense that ball joints were so bad that misalignment created bind. The uppers were new with the arms, the lowers would have to be barely hanging on I imagine. But, travel limited so much on the upper arms at the bolts you could lift the truck? I like your thought better. If you welded the upper arms at the bushings to the towers, they would still break there. Bind is much more plausible at the ball joints, but still more at the upper. Is it possible that there is play in the bolt of the ball and not the ball itself? I don't see evidence but I think you are onto the problem with the ball joints.

 

Really hard to say. If you look at the OPs pics im actually curious if there is a problem at the pivots. His truck is on a jack and the arms are hardly drooping. Even with bent spindle and ball joints I would expect the force of his coils and weight of his tires to press further down.

The ball joints are showing an awful lot of shaft too. Not sure if the boot ripped off and thats normal, or if the nut on the ball joints wasn't snug enough and allowed play. I can picture it being pretty awkward to tighten the nut under the ring on the spindle. There's a lot in the way and if you don't install the arms before the coilovers it would be fighting you.

 

Just voted to tie it up.

Very useful first post

 

TLDR, did y'all convince em?

 

I forgot about that

 

Still going strong with no issues. They even took a good beating in the cinders at T2S.

 

I like mine the only thing was I got some clunking after rebuilding my front end and it turned out to be my passenger side control arm didn’t have any or enough grease in the ball joint. I greased it and clunk went away. Other than that good bang for the buck

 

I finally decided to move on from mine. Went with the JBA arms. I had the original ones that scraped the coil bucket before a little grinding. I need to take some pictures.

Also, if anyone wants them I'll probably let them go for the cost of shipping.

 

@Trailscape still have the old ones you pulled off? Got a budget truck that I need some on

 

Bringing this post back to life. I’m also in the same bind as you were at the beginning of the thread. The JBA’s are more pricey now a days versus back then so I’m leaning towards the freedom uca’s. They redesigned them and they no longer hit the coil housing, but what I’m curious about is durability and longevity of them.

 

It's all garbage. There's a single warehouse in mainland China pumping out the shells of these arms and they're being drilled for zerks, sometimes gussets added, and resold under various names - Freedom, KSP, Flashark, Skuch, PraOents, and the list goes on. I wouldn't personally buy them unless they've added a gusset bridging both sections of tubular to the ball joint holder, which they have on some newer models. It's the major weak point on those arms, I've seen a couple of photos now of the UBJ mount shearing off one side of the tubular arm totally. If that's your thing, and you're cool with the inferior UBJ, go for it.

But I think the $200 more (if you're looking at the cheaper Freedom UCA), or $30 more (for the uniball Freedom tubular UCA) to get the JBA with its more bombproof design, toting a longer-life standard sealed-joint UBJ with zero maintenance other than greasing, on a part that's been proven to be quite fail-proof - never seen one fail yet, at least - is it really worth saving $200 here?

I realize a lot of people are balling on a budget, but just like people who fuck up and use aftermarket LBJs to save $100-150 in part cost, knowing if it fails you'll at best be out a thousand or so in parts, or at worst total your truck ... is this really worth saving $200?