Hello. For those of you that make it over to the ODW bbs this will likely not be anything new to you. For those of you that haven't.. read on..

Myself and a friend are now a little startup called San Diego Off Road Solutions. We have developed this little 1.5" lift ball joint spacer kit which you can check out here San Diego Off Road Solutions

Normally I'm sure this would belong in a for-sale type forum but I expect there to be many questions so I'm hoping I can get away with posting this here.

In short, these spacers reside between the upper ball joint and UCA. The result is 1.5" of lift, 1.5" more suspension travel, and the ride remains very compliant.

Thanks,

Frank.

 

Link is not working :cry:

 

There it goes

 

Cool, glad it worked. I was having some troubles with the link but thought I had it ironed out.

Frank.

 

Just ordered a set, can't wait to get 'em! Nice job.

 

Interesting....

Does it only increase downward movement at the cost of upper movement? I mean, yes it can make the front tire drop 1.5" more, but at the cost of 1.5" of "stuffability" of the tire into the fender.

But I like - now how much metal was removed on the UCAs?

Steve

 

Whoa!! What a TRIP, my family used to live on Hummingbird Ln in the 70's.
Small frekin world!!!
Anyway, Looks like a sweet product, I might have to check it out. Im just kinda worried about the CV's. I'm also thinking the All Pro 2 1/4" Coil Spacer Lift might help level the rear. Hope to see you guys out at the Jambo to see them in action.
Josh

 

Actually it only icreases overall travel. Basically it can drop 1.5" farther and goes up just as far as it does now.

As for the CVs, it's no different than a 1.5" t-bar crank when you're cruising. Typically when the wheels are fully extended, it is because there is little or no weight on them so no loads. An exception would be if say a wheel was in the air and you turned it into a rock. Then you could load it fully extended and it would probably be just fine but less so than stock. However, we came to the conclusion if you want more travel, you have to live with steeper angles, just goes with the territory.

This should improve the flex characteristics due to it putting the UCA in a near level orientation.

The trimming was minimal. I took off about 3/8" off of that lip. There are some pics on the website.

Yep, small world indeed!

Frank.

 

Can you post a review once you get them installed and have tested them out?

Thanks.

 

Not a "review", but there are some observations toward the end of the thread (10 pages and counting...)

ODW thread

 

I'd like to report a succesfull alignment. Not that I thought I'd have a problem but I figured I'd share.

Frank.

 

Nope, doesn't convince me.



Nice forums TOYOTA forums by the way:

http://www.jeepeando.tv/foros/forumd...1000&x=17&y=13

 

In confused. Do you mean you aren't convinced the truck aligned properly? I guess I could scan that little print out to show you if it helps.

Frank.

 

No, I'm not convinced by the ball joint spacers.

 

Oh. Is there anything in particular to which you'd like convincing? Maybe you'd like to see a picture of them on?

Frank.

 

I don't like the fact that you have to do all that cutting. Seems kind of dangerous in a way and unprofessional.

My truck is definitely not the newest but I would hate to tamper with it in that form to fit the spacers.

 

Well the cutting is quite minor. We're talking a little over .25" of a lip that gets crunched anyway if you expand the travel of a 4" lift kit. I would put this on par with fender trimming/pounding.

Another thing to remeber, while the shear force is the same throughout the a-arm, it's the bending moment that is far more critical. The bending moment is at a max at the torsion bar joint and a zero at the ball joint. The cutting is very near the ball joint.

Frank.

 

what did you trim with.

 

Good question. I used a 19$ 4" cuttoff wheel/grinder from Harborfreight. Went very quick.

Frank.

 

It's really not that big of a deal and you don't have to take much off. This is pretty much run of the mill if your going to modifiy the vehicle to work better. Bolt-on isn't going to get you very far.

FYI: Vern Smith will be installing these on his 92 Mini this Saturday. He doesn't really understand what they do but, I told him to "trust me". The Rear Chevys came out really nice and that involved cutting and welding.