My shop (Alpine Performance & Offroad) is a Dobinsons dealer here in NC, and I also have their billet UCA's on my personal vehicle (Toyota FJ Cruiser). I do alignments on vehicles equipped with SPC's all the time, and have to say that the Dobinsons are much easier to deal with. I will say though, that I would have tried to get whoever did the alignment to fix that caster spread. Normally .5 degrees of spread is ideal, and for the higher to be on the right front for tracking reasons with road crown.. Nevertheless, your truck is looking killer as always! Props for knocking that job out in a garage! -Brian
With a tacoma with 2.5 inch kings lift and -38 offset on 17x9 wheels for 315/70r/17 tires, would you recommend the spacer be in the front of the rear to clear the 35s from the body mount? Already have body mount relocation. Just ordered these and will install when they arrive.
I believe I have all the tools I need for this install. This is something very advanced from me as I have zero experience with this other than only oil changes. Your instructions seem great. I’m going to go at it. Thank you for your video!
I came to watch your review and install on these beautiful arms. Sick looking truck and UCA! Dobinson, keep up the good work in manufacturing awesome products! @ 10:53 where you mentioned to install the bolt angling downward vs upwards. I'm no expert and never once seen anyone talk on this subject in any of the social media pages or forums. Does it really make that much of a difference which way it's installed? I can see it backing out as you had mentioned. When I installed my UCA 4 years ago, I put the bolt angling upwards. I've never had an issue with it coming lose (knock on wood). Although, I do visually check every now and then, never checked the torque ever since install. Maybe my next oil/lube I should recheck the torque.
Thanks!! Yes, I used to think the bolt orientation didn’t matter. That’s why I installed it previously with it angling up. But in my experience, it backed out while I was on the trail and came out on one side. And I thought never again would I be putting it in that way.
Great vid. I have SPCs… never considered how tough it must be in you don’t have a good shop. My alignment guy usually takes 2-3 hours to get my alignment perfect with the SPCs after a new install. Good to know there are easier options to recommend.
Thanks. That’s awesome you have someone that will dial that in for you. I had about 6 alignments with my SPC’s and was never happy with any of the numbers. Went to several shops and clearly explained how the arms adjusted and what numbers I was after. Pretty frustrating. Happy with these. SPCs are definitely great uppers, these were just a bit simpler.
Really liked the video brother. Thanks a bunch! I’ve been torn on sticking with my SPC’s or moving to these as well. And yeah, my caster with my SPC’s is low as hell too. I’ve never found camber to be too hard to dial in though. These definitely look easier though, which is nice.. Just the shops around here don’t mess with SPC’s or anything adjustable! 😆. Usually takes me a few rounds of going back and forth at the very least. Couple things… after setting the new arms to 40mm how much adjustment was necessary to get your camber dialed when the alignment was taking place with the computer? Also, when your caster was brought back up, did you notice any issues with wheel spacing near the firewall? Any rubbing issues that required more cutting or hammering? Highly recommend getting spindle gussets with 35’s too brother. Just my opinion, but those factory spindles alone don’t like the extra weight when wheeling. 🤙
Thanks man! I have spindle gussets now. I honestly don't know how much adjustment was necessary to get my camber dialed in. I had a shop do it. And I didn't notice any issues with wheel spacing near the firewall.
Are we able to adjust these UCA while they're on the truck? It looks like the UCA needs to be off the truck in order to push them out to 39mm or whatever. You need to remove them from the truck to twist those things out, correct?
Are you sure you got the torque specs right on the castle nut? Dobinson states the following. M10=36 ft-lb, M12=64 ft-lb, M14=96 ft-lb. I'm going to assume that castle nut is M12 so it should of been 64 ft-lbs. Where did you get 81 ft-lbs from?
81 is closer to the stock torque. Its a factory style ball joint, so I would go with the 81 for sure. Other brands like SPC and JBA have a lower torque number though.
I can’t seem to find someone reviewing the UCAs How have they treated you after a year of having them installed? Have you had to do any kind of maintenance? Do you have any complaints? Is there any noticeable noise coming from them?
This is my 3rd UCA after running total chaos and SPC. These have been amazing man. No maintenance, no squeaking or anything at all. Highly recommend them.
I have a 4runner and I'm planning on running the MRR 3 with their uppers as well. Are you running the gusset Tabs as well? I was looking to add those but didn't know if you had them or not and had any issues with the tab strength doing the hardcore off roading you do.
Great video! I just recently switched to dobinson mrr from Fox thanks to @exitoffroad ...Still running SPC UCAs but might have to switch to dobinson... Unrelated question.. I see you're running wheel spacers..spdertrax? And did you use the lugs nuts that came with to install to hub or did you get extended ones? I've seen where some say it's better to get extended for more bite to secure spacer. Some say what comes with us just fine. You do some heavy off-roading so that's why I wanted to ask... Thanks for all the great content!
Heck yeah! These are KSP wheel spacers and are a 1". I didn't want the 1.25 spider trax. And I used extended lugs. Just make sure when you go to put the wheel on that the surface of the spacer is totally flush and theres no lugs sticking out that would cause a non flush fit.
So does the alignment person need to slide the long bolt out in order to adjust the ends for camber and caster? Because you have to spin the whole bushing around....
I just installed these on a GX470 - these are awesome arms! My favorite so far out of about 10-15 different ones that I have installed. Truly a game changer and better than SPC's
