Westcott and UCAs

So I’ve been eyeballing the Westcott designs 3/1 for the 3rd gen lately.. what baffles me is that factory UCAs are being used in most cases.. How is the travel with a westcott? Why wouldn’t you use UCAs to help correct some geometry? Is the suspension close to being topped out with westcott? Any down travel left? Is the ball joint on the factory UCA the suspension droop limiter? Just curious how the trucks suspension performs with a preload collar and a spacer? I’d be tempted to put UCAs to help the travel & geometry.. anyway let me know

 

You're saying that aftermarket UCA increases travel after a spacer lift? Perhaps I'm wrong but that doesn't add up

 

yes and no.. on my Tacoma the factory UCA ball joint becomes the limiting factor for down travel for 2-3” lifts. Especially with extended travel coil overs.. you won’t get the droop.. the ball joint just wasn’t designed for any extra down travel with a lift.. i have no idea about the suspension geometry on the new tundra..

Westcott claims that travel isn’t affected with their lift. I just find that hard to believe without aftermarket UCAs

 

I have a Westcott 3/1 lift on my '23 TRD Sport with stock UCA's and I find the ride very stiff, especially over potholes and depressed manhole covers. I did not drive the truck before the lift was installed, so I don't have the stock setup drive to compare it to.

Would installing aftermarket UCA's help smooth out the ride over abrupt bumps and dips?

 

What limits the travel here is the length of the shock, a spacer lift does not add length to the shock. @hookedup
Whats causing the stiff ride is the preload added to the OEM shocks, aftermarket UCAs will not help softent the ride because the added preload will still be there @Bneff89

 

I’m wondering if your ride is extra stiff since the sport spring is already .5” shorter. Adding additional compression to an already shorter spring would inherently created a rougher ride vs. a longer spring.

 

Youtube tinkerers adventures, he is great at explaining suspension.

 

Welp looks like new front coil overs are in order then!

 

Other than what was already said you probably went with a stiffer tire also (load E vs the passenger tires it came with) and that accounts for additional stiffness in the ride.

 

Yeah I did go with a E load but I had the same tire on my 2020 Limited OR with a spacer leveling kit and it didn’t stiffen the ride up. So I didn’t think it was going to affect that much. But you’re probably right.

 

Westcott is just a cheap spacer lift that ain’t too cheap . The preload spacer is increasing the amount of pressure on the spring which gives the harsher ride . Yeah it looks cool but it ain’t a lift that’s properly designed for the increased height . The shocks aren’t being addressed or the upper control arm . Stock components are designed to function in their working range . Lifting the truck changes how much of an angle on upper control arm is at , which changes how the actual joint sits . A proper lift would tackle all this and the Toyota brand one does for a reason

 

Cool thanks for all the insight.

 

The uca can contact the the spring in some cases. When I had my Jeep Liberty on an OME lift with a small spacer on top, this was an issue even with an aftermarket UCA. I ended up removing the spacer because of it. My F150 is also quite close or can possibly graze the spring with Bilstein 5100's and stock UCA's. An aftermarket UCA typically has a little more clearance for this as well as a better ball joint/geometry allowing for more range of motion

The spacer does change the effective shock length. It doesnt change the total travel but it pushes the entire suspension into a lower travel range. So this will cause the UCA to be at a steeper angle when at full droop vs a stock suspension.

 

And here I am, trying to figure out what exactly Westcott is selling for so much money. It looks like a spacer lift and nothing more. Which, for reasons already addressed, changes suspension performance.

 

Essentially it is an aesthetically pleasing spacer lift kit with with a preload collar and a spacer for extending the bumpstop. It's cost could be a little cheaper, but lots people are buying them at the current price. Wescott states it will stiffen your ride a little and you wont taco your shock because of how its designed to hit the extended bumpstop so your shocks will work. Not really for hardcore fast speed offroading and more for aesthetics, but if you know what your buying and know its limitations than I see nothing wrong with that. If you want more performance out your suspension probably best to go a different way.

 

Aftermarket UCA's wont help. You need to upgrade the shocks if you want a better ride. My experience was I drove my truck with the westcott collar lift for a month on stock tires/wheels before going to 35s. The truck rode like shit, but mine was always a temp solution till suspension started rolling out. 8 months later I installed Icon stage 6 and absolutely love the ride now.

 

^^^^^ truth ^^^^

I had Westcott install the 3/1 once i got my new wheels and 35"s. I found it rode waaay better than I thought it would and its purely a stopgap measure until a new real lift kit comes out that is well tested and foolproof so no hurry.

The Baja 1000 isn't calling name and my name is not Ivan Stewart so it will suffice for 95% of driving conditions and it makes the truck look ALOT better in the meantime.

If you want more performance, I'd get something else like I plan on doing in the future. (Not meant in a derogatory way at all, just sayin....)

 

Westcott rides like garbage! Huge waste of money! Sold mine after a few months on the truck. They need to be honest with customers and tell us what to expect with this type of lift so we can make a informed decision. There is not enough length in the factory shock to handle as much preload as that kit adds. Any large bumps or dips that causes the front end to rebound or get light is followed by a bang when the shock "tops out". It's pretty sad that my Supra road better over speed bumps than my lifted Tundra.

They scammed us all with there overly hyped youtube videos.

 

There are quite a few high end and low end options out already if you didn’t know. I’m currently running Icon Stage 6 and it’s great.

 

What made you decide to go with that kit? 1-10 on how happy you are with it?

 

Remote resis and it was on sale for $3100 after tax. I'd give it a 10 so far... I haven't took the truck off road much yet, but love the daily drive.

 

If I ever get UCAs, I'll probably go chaos fab. They've got an incredible track record with previous toyota models. Camburg makes a great product, too, but I don't see a lot of input from toyota owners these days, and I have no idea why.