Convince me NOT to buy Freedom Offroad UCA

How does it ride?

I still have stock UCA and a 1.5 lift and I feel like mine is overly sensitive at freeway speeds. I'm not sure what my number are though, I forgot to ask.

I've been hearing 2 or higher on caster so just wanted to get some real world feedback on less caster and how it steers.

 

The steering is a little sensitive, but making turns is where you can notice the biggest difference. The truck makes turns on a dime, and love it. The driving experience with the ICONS is a world of difference (Cadillac smooth), so that has a lot to do with it. I believe all trucks will be a different driving experience since they all don’t have the same gear tires, wheels, coilovers and shocks. Might be wrong, but that’s my honest opinion.

 

I shouldn't have said what I said but honestly it did sound like you were butthurt based on your reply to them.
As far as first come first serve: When I worked for a mail order offroad parts company and we did something like what Freedom offered to do, whoever replied to us via PM first would have received the free product. I ASSumed that's why the other person was offered the parts instead of you. But, I shouldn't have assumed and again, shouldn't have even said what I said in my previous post.

Hope you enjoy the UCA's you install. I wish I could put some on my Tundra but it's not a necessity for me. Good luck.

 

Well, I'm the one that got them (or rather will be). I don't know that I was the first to reply, but I know I reached out to them VERY quickly after they posted the offer. In their reply indicating I'd been selected they indicated that I was selected because of my activity level on the forum relative to my time here. I don't know how much research they did on my posting other than my post count. I had to put a $200 deposit on them, that I will get back after I get them installed, have my truck aligned, send them the alignment #s and post a review on them. Hope I didn't step on anyone's toes. That was not my intention.

 

you did nothing wrong and I’m ecstatic that they are going to you. You’re a very worthy recipient and I hope they just outperform all of your expectations! Congrats!

 

Good deal. I didn't contact them myself as I'm happy with mine, but I'm really interested to see your results.

 

Any updates on these?

 

https://www.tundras.com/threads/1st-gen-tundra-freedom-off-road-upper-control-arms.61757/

 

It's been about a year since installing mine. Still no real complaints. I don't see any signs of play or wear. I should point out, I put less than 4k miles on the truck last year. Kind of part of the reason I didn't mind trying these in the first place.

It looks like the updated version has significant geometry changes.

 

i put these on my 2001 a few weeks ago and the control arm, right at the ball joint, hits the top of the coil bucket. i haven't read about anyone else having this problem? i don't know. i had to grind off a channel at the top of the coil bucket for the UCA to pass. i made a video ill post the link

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BCI22Dhvbo&t=1s

 

Looks like you were careful in your cutting. I would be weary of cutting that bucket because its flimsy as hell to begin with. I ran a gopro in my fender well once and was surprised how much that coil bucket flexes off road.

 

Here you go OP....

 

JBA’s are just $100 more. I’d keep saving and go for those.

Ball joints are easier to replace. Might give more caster too.

 

Dumb question, but in real world driving is the UCA ever going up that high?

 

If you hit a good dip at speed it could. Depends how soft your suspension is.

 

If you go back to the first page other people reported the same issue. I thought that Freedom came out with a design change and fixed the issue but I could be wrong.

 

Ok, so it hitting at the top of the bucket is a very bad thing

 

If they can’t even engineer a part that is very specific to a vehicle correctly I would look elsewhere but that’s just me.

 

To be fair, as I mentioned before, even some of the really expensive upper control arms had this exact same problem. But I agree that this should be a basic measurement that they get right during the design.

 

Basically, are you willing to roll the dice.

 

Rigged!

 

I think the moderators are in on this one.

 

It isn't a great thing. My Camburg arms don't hit. To be fair there might be some variance in how far put that coil bucket lip sits from truck to truck. Some guys with Total Chaos had to trim, others did not.

I'll look for a video of my suspension in action and youll see how far up the arm can swing. You will also see how flimsy that coil bucket is and why I would be afraid to trim away from it without reinforcing it.

 

That gasket thingy that goes between the top of the shock/coil and the bottom of bucket on OEM UCA’s... do they ever go bad? And how do you know?

 

My 2004 runs on 18's with a -12 offset to accommodate chains, when I wrap the tires with them.

 

Not really. It can rot eventually, I don't know how you would tell other than visual inspection. Wheelers used to sell them for pretty cheap, they're called isolators.

 

i thought they were referring to it just hitting the side, not the top

 

it smacked the top of that bucket all the time on my truck; course i only have a 2" lift.