Extended travel CO's and Stock UCA?

I plan on getting extended travel Kings and set them to 1-1.5" of lift.

Toyota advertises that the TRD Pro Tundra is lifted 2" and gets about 1.5" of additional travel out of the 2.5" Fox's they use, and those trucks are running the stock UCA and presumably are within alignment spec from the factory.

So why do King/Icon/Fox say their E.T. Coilovers require $500 aftermarket UCA's?

 

TRD Pro’s have the bilsteins not fox’s...

 

Not yet at least. They’ll have Fox on the 2018 PRO’s.

I’m no expert, but I’d wonder if it doesn’t have something to do with the extended droop travel on those shocks. I bet @zackbremer or @KevinK may have an answer.

 

At least that is what the pics show.

 

???

 

Your ball joints will limit droop travel, they will break. That is why they say you must run upper control arms with extended travel coilovers.

Edit- Normally the oe shocks, or aftermarket coilovers limit droop. What you would be doing, and spacer lifts do this as well, forces the upper ball joint to limit droop. Additionally there is a good chance the factory upper will also hit the coilover when drooped as well.

 

Makes sense to me. So when Toyota says TRD pro models gain travel, what they really mean is uptravel, or at least mostly uptravel?

 

I never messed with a pro, but pretty much all coilovers give a little more droop simply by being slightly longer extended length than an oe shock. I would think the pro does the same. Up travel is limited by the bump stops, they are the same on the pro, although the new version with Fox shocks may differ. The extended travel coilovers add about 1/2” ish more to the extended length of the shock, but that translates to 1”+ more droop travel.

 

Extended length coilovers will fit okay with stock uppers. You may need to clearance the lower control arm where the rod end mounts. Multiple people have done this. Stock uppers have also survived the Baja 1000 on various race trucks. Uppers are for caster.

 

That’s fine, but everyone that offers the extended travel coilovers requires uppers. And of course people have used stock arms when there are better options, but your statement is bad advice for most here.

 

Where have you seen that they require ucas? It’s recommended but not REQUIRED

 

I won’t put much effort into this, and will not reply to you again. By all means do as you please. Feel free to call Fox or King...

 

Interesting. I ran my kings with stock ucas no problem for nearly a year.. I wonder why fox demands aftermarket ucas.. or is that the retailer ?

 

The extended travel is an option, available through certain vendors. That is Fox and King requiring uppers, not a vendor. The oe replacements are not extended travel, and this is what most purchase, and probably what you had/have.

 

It's hardly bad advice. If folks are running their coilovers closer to 2" of lift it will likely be better geometry than an aftermarket arm and also provide better clearance for tires. The TRD Pro Baja Champion of 2014 ran stock uppers. Canguro Racing and Joe Bacal run stock uppers on their LC200 race trucks. Those Land Cruisers run OEM Tundra arms and cycle 14"+ on them. You should read more.

Start with Googling:
Evolution of an 07 Tundra-Stock to Desert Machine. That guy not only ran Fox coilovers with stock arms but ran them with even more droop after removing the 0.2" internal spacer. If you do that, regardless of upper arms, you will need to clearance the lower control arm for the shock rod end. That shock setup nets 12.4" of travel.

 

How many coilovers have you installed on Tundras?

 

you most likely run the oem size ones like most of us.

 

King lists only one length coilover on their website. http://www.kingshocks.com/products/oem/toyota-oem/

 

This whole thread is about running extended travel coilovers that do not have the internal spacer, glad you and I are talking about the same thing now. You don’t know shit. It does not matter how much lift you run, it’s the extra droop that gets you. I have installed a few coilovers, surely less than you, but your google advice sucks. Call Fox, King, and any vendor selling extended travel coilovers, and they will tell you the same thing, why??? By the way, some of the uppers you are finding on google, are not even made anymore...

*edit*
And after re-reading your dissertation, your suggestion to read more offends me. You should build more trucks and then we could talk.

 

If you run more than 2" of lift, you should look into upper control arms because of caster. The stock ball joint does not limit droop on an extended coilover and is not a weak link. Some upper control arms actually will not droop as far as an OEM upper arm. King does not offer their coilover off the shelf with the spacer removed. It would be a special order item and it appears that Filthy Motorsports will gladly do that as a service to its customers.

Also, I doubt that a 3.0 coilover will fit inside the OEM arm. If that is your plan, then upper arms should be included in that plan.

 

Google again? Your wrong. The stock ball joint limits droop. But before that the stock upper smashes your coilover right before you ask your ball joint to stop. It’s not a custom option provided by filthy motorsports, just an option, call King. I do not want or take any pride in arguing with you.

 

Look, I'm just here to provide data. Below is a photo of an OEM upper arm at full droop with an extended travel Fox. Not binding the ball joint and not hitting the coil spring.

 

Been running oem control arms with Fox 2.5 remote resi at 3in for almost 2 years no issues.

 

That’s an old picture of a Kore Fox coilover. No longer made, and has nothing to do with this thread. Oh, you don’t think that ball joint isn’t limiting droop, look closer...

 

are your shocks extended travel ?

on wheelers offroad site it says king shocks are great for factory upper control arms.

i ordered some kings from filthy motorsports last week. they call you and go over everything, supper awesome guys.

well anyway, when i told them i was going to be using spc upper control arms, they said ok great, then we can set your kings for extended travel, since not using the stock uca's.

 

I haven't seen this before. What "clearancing" is required? I thought these aftermarked coils bolted right up.

 

Most coilovers fit without any extra work. The Fox/KORE setup requires just a little bit of grinding out the lower control arm so that the rod end will clear the control arm at full droop. The off the shelf Fox extended travel will fit the lower arm without modification.

 

Had to do this with my ToyTec Radflo 2.5’s as well. It’s not a big deal @pbcolt