Here are the re-inforced Rancho UCAs next to some unmodified. Yes I have a set of the original and a set of re-inforced arms see the differences! I thought about selling them but will probably just keep them in the Blazeland Museum for posterity.

 

Couldn't tell you exactly what I have. Maybe Raybicon can answer? he's the one I bought it from.

the reinforced ones are only a little bit wider... does it honestly help that much?

 

The centerlink and the pivot brackets are worth something. To reproduce either would be difficult and costly. I made a Rancho Gen II long arm kit that has potential for 2WD desert running. It can cycle 13"-14" of travel but as soon as you want 4WD you have to limit it back to 12"

 

Nice Im trying to think of how much travel I can get out of what I plan to do... I dont want to ruin or break anything during the process... but im shooting for 12" of travel with 4wd.

 

I illustrated the photo. The green markings are the area that fails. The cross section is much thicker, (3) additionl 1/4" plates

 

Hmm Interesting... I took a look at the arms I have currently, Seems to have no stress marks, bends, cracks or anything in that subjected area, or on any other part of the A-Arms.

What do you recommend on getting the most out of these arms, nate? Im not trying to jump my truck... ( would never do that ) but I would like some sort of soft ride, and some nice flex. I know that you make a Long travel kit based on Control arms. and obviously you've done some work with fabricating rancho control arms... So what's your opinion?

 

The Rancho kit may give you 10" but you will loose 3" of running ground clearence when you lower the differential. If you don't use the diff drop brackets you will need custom CVs. I have some I got from Downey years ago. The worst $700 purchase I ever made, the things vibrated like crazy at speed. Ok for crawling but worthless on the road or for pre-running

This is so frustrating.... My Blazeland kit is so superior to the Rancho junk. So simple! Easy to maintain, easy to install, a plethera of replaceable parts, and it works awsome.

 

theres a guy that got up to 12" on a rancho kit, but relocated shock mounts, and got some custom CVs... but not from downey... Could I use a custom diff drop from 4crawler perhaps? He makes a 1"... will that correct the angle enough?

EDIT: come to think of it, the guy that achieved 12" on his rancho kit used the downey CV joints that you are speaking of... the same ones you linked above.

 

If you had the complete kit I'd say install the Rancho kit. Even then, the Rancho UCA bushings wear out really quickly and are probably impossible to replace. I bought a few packs of replacemant bushings from Downey years ago. They were graphite impregnated and supposedly better but they weren't. The bushing design is bad, the bushings are just too small and have no shoulder, so the arms just walk around.

My opinion..... I think you allready know it!

 

haha n8, i dont wanna hear it.

I wanna get this to work. I'm following the guide. The bushings on this kit look very very healthy. no cracks, or any signs of wear what so ever. Also, theres a company called Energy Suspension that "supposedly" makes replacement bushings that fit this kit. I will be buying low profile bump stops from them as well.

I dont wheel hardcore, nor do I jump my truck... just wanna get this kit running top knotch and maintain a comfy ride with flex capabilities... I'm building this truck for expedition/camping rig... not rock crawling.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention the "Mega Travel Ball Joints" Downey custom modified the ball joints and sold them with the Rancho arms. I referenced my 2001 Downey catalog and they stated the travel for this Rancho / Downey hybrid was 10"-11" I'm going to get some sleep. Chat with you all later

 

Dang Rancho, i smell n SAS in the future vs new bushings and gussets.

 

Alrighty, thanks n8 for sharing information.

Im gonna try and get this to work how i'd like to Im pretty confident about it. so we'll see.

 

and Blaze n8, I know you went to bed, But when you can. Can you put the instruction manual into a PDF or some sort of file I can use so I can print it out and use it for reference? thanks.

 

Quoting Bear80 from Ih8mud.com:

My front is not much of a custom job other than a tweaked in "kit". I've only heard of or seen 2 other with a similar combo. Check the link my second post for more info.

The basics of it is that it's pretty much the OLD Downey/Rancho kit:
http://www.downeyoff-road.com/Suspen...ntrolArm.html#

I only added a ball joint spacer and used OME torsion bars. Any larger bars will suck on the trails, unless you're kicking up dust. I found my old stock bars to be too soft, however I would recommend using NEW OEM t-bars from a 92-95 4Runner. This will still ride soft but flex better. In my case, with runs down the beach and desert I needed something a tad stiffer and the OME fit the bill great. 25mm or 26mm t-bars will bring the suck.

The upper arms are from the discontinued Rancho 3" lift, minus the truss to drop the diff. Which means you will need the new center steering link, it is not only larger but has different offsets for the location of the inner and outer TREs.

Then you will need an axle solution. That is where Downey came in with the slip yoke axles. They really aren't that great, the pre-99 axles are only to stock hardness and can break. The latter axles, like I have are much much stronger. However, being a u-joint/slip yoke style they are inherently bad at vibration free rotation, not to mention they are not balanced. I cannot run my truck over 30mph with the front hubs locked.

The Porsche inner joints on a custom axle are a MUCH better solution. Downey now carries a Porsche axle for their long arm kit. I would look into that, and probably will if I ever break an axle.

Downey also calls for a "mega travel" ball joint; I don't know how necessary this is. Since I pulled my kit off a junked truck, it already had them and so I went ahead and used them.

I've found that using the slip yoke style axles I can only get away with a 1 3/8" ball joint spacer. I had to grind/machine in some clearance in the u-joint. However, with the Porsche axles you can get away with up to a 1 5/8" spacer.

An 8" travel shock will also have to be used. Total Chaos makes a cool shock riser but costly. Downey also makes one, not as cool, cheaper but I don't really like it. I came up with my own simple setup for around $80 total, cheaper than Downey's.

The area of debate for this setup (Rancho arms) is the steering and alignment. Guys have bitched about these arms for years, saying that after wheeling the alignment is whacked out. IMO this stems from ignorance and not going in to it with open eyes. The stock rubber lower arm bushings really need to be replaced with polyurethane. The supplied bushings for the new upper arms should also be replaced with the much harder ones Downey carries. The largest contributing factor to alignment woes is the IDLER ARM. A gusset will improve things but the nylon bushings need to replaced with something harder. These arms are VERY sensitive to height and toe! If either is off say due to a bad idler arm, the alignment will be out of whack but also the ride height will be off. And just the opposite, if something causes the ride hight to change, say a worn upper arm bushing then the toe will be off. If you keep and eye on it and know what's causing the issues, it reall isn't bad considering the 13ish" of wheel travel.

I got my basic setup for $250 in the junk yard and have a total of about $500 in it now. Not likely you will come out this cheap but then again about the only way to get this stuff is second hand.

Akarocket ran this kit with a 1 5/8" ball joint spacer, stock t-bars, differnt style shock risers and Porsche inner joints on a custom axle


Me:
Porsche axles can be used instead of yoke slip downey axles... does anyone know the part number of those?

 

Well there you have it, his experience concurs with mine. I am skeptical about 13" of travel without adding additional length to the arms. BJ spacers could account for this but would also explain the sensitive quirks when maintaining ride height, camber alignment, and bumpsteer. The Downey / Porshe CVs were for the 2" longer arms that Downey came up with after they abandoned the Rancho design, so they wouldn't work here. A moot point since Downey is out of the game!

Send me an e-mail to blazelandn8@yahoo.com from your e-mail address outside of yotatech and I'll send you the files for the Rancho manual.

 

Alrighty, I'll send you an email. Do you think I'll be fine if I went with stock tie rods, and CV joints?

what about using T100 axles? you mentioned using them in your kit...?

 

Not using the Rancho centerlink and the longer tie rod adjusting sleeves is a horrible idea, not even sure if it will work. If you use the Rancho Diff Drop Brackets then stock CVs will be ok..... but again you will be loosing 3" of running ground clearance at the front diff crossmember. The T-100 CVs are 3" longer so they wouldn't work. You putting perfume on a pig; the amount of time and money to make this work is going to cost you thousands of dollars.

 

Alrighty, I understand. But i'd really like to get this to work, without spending thousands... So... heres my last resort that I think im gonna go with.

What if I went with 23.5mm OME T-bars, 1.5 BJ spacers, Stock CV joints, stock tie rods, Stock upper and lower ball joints, idler arm truss, with the UCAs, but didn't use the drop brackets and diff drop? I could go with a diff drop from 4crawler. and only lose 1" up front, rather than 3". Iamsuperbleeder did it this way, and so did the guy I quoted earlier ( but he also had the custom CV joints and such so didn't use any sort of diff drop ) Iamsuperbleeder mentioned he has 10-11" of travel, which is still perfect.

This setup will work in this form, correct?

 

i heard the porsche axles are way more expensive