Beef up the front advice

[mudblood]

Wanting to beef up the front suspension. Will put on 3.0 shocks of course. Wanting suggestions on what else to include (UCA,LCA, Tie Rods, spindles, CV joints etc.). Will want more articulation and stronger parts than stock. Would appreciate suggestions and brands you folks find very well made and strong. One caveat is must be made in America. Thanks for any and all suggestions. Now before you ask my off road will be mostly dirt roads and occasional mud puddle or field all at reasonable speeds and no jumping. This vehicle is also my daily driver so it must be nice on the highway as well. I have done plenty of research and obviously there are plenty of good products out there but would like to hear and be advised on what many of you folks feel is at or near the top of the heap. I have another quandary between Fox and King 3.0's but I don't really want to open that can of worms on this thread. Thank you so much in advance for sharing your in site and knowledge.

 

[mudblood]

Bump for advice.

 

[Huck]

search is your friend.

 

[Az Scooter]

If that is what you are going to do, go with the Geiser front springs. They rock, and you won't feel compelled to buy upgraded shocks. Of course, that is just my opinion. You might want to do UCA's and tie rods. There are plenty of choices on those.

 

[mudblood]

If that is what you are going to do, go with the Geiser front springs. They rock, and you won't feel compelled to buy upgraded shocks. Of course, that is just my opinion. You might want to do UCA's and tie rods. There are plenty of choices on those.

Thanks. Not that familiar with Geiser. I will do a little research on those.

---------- Post added at 09:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:08 AM ----------

search is your friend.

Come on Huck.....I did a ton of that first before anything else.

 

[MTUH3]

3.0s and UCAs are a good place to start. I like the idea of upgrading the UCAs because they are a serviceable part now. The more your use your truck, the faster the stock upper ball joints will wear out. Swap out to new uppers, and keep the stock ones as spares, or sell them with your stock take off shocks.

Depending on your cash flow, you could go all out and pull the upper, lower, tie rods and sell them as a package to some one looking to convert their non Raptor F150. Use the cash from that sale to offset the upgrades.

Word of caution, as you review these parts, pay attention and ask to what type of wheel you might need. some parts require larger offset wheels, usually the 1.5" bearings on the UCAs

 

[mudblood]

3.0s and UCAs are a good place to start. I like the idea of upgrading the UCAs because they are a serviceable part now. The more your use your truck, the faster the stock upper ball joints will wear out. Swap out to new uppers, and keep the stock ones as spares, or sell them with your stock take off shocks.

Depending on your cash flow, you could go all out and pull the upper, lower, tie rods and sell them as a package to some one looking to convert their non Raptor F150. Use the cash from that sale to offset the upgrades.

Word of caution, as you review these parts, pay attention and ask to what type of wheel you might need. some parts require larger offset wheels, usually the 1.5" bearings on the UCAs[/QUOTE


Very helpful. Thank you. My wheels have only a +1 offset so I should be ok there.

 

[ntm]

Put 3.0 shocks on and leave the rest stock if your off road time is going to be fairly limited, or if it's going to be just slow offroading.
Anything with a heim joint is going to be more maintenance intensive and wear out faster than a ball joint. Their up side is strength, downside is quicker wear in the real world with moisture and salt.

If you want to go offroad hard, don't mess around. By the time you buy a lca setup with the secondary bypass, uca, tie rods, fabricated/reinforced spindle, etc. you have spent almost as much as a brenthel long travel kit, and will end up with a weaker setup with less travel.
Look at the brenthel or rogue stage 4 where everything is in double shear, including the lower spindle heim, and the horizontal heim bolt at the spindle to uca connection. More strength, more travel, more smiles...

 

[factive]

If you want to go offroad hard, don't mess around. By the time you buy a lca setup with the secondary bypass, uca, tie rods, fabricated/reinforced spindle, etc. you have spent almost as much as a brenthel long travel kit, and will end up with a weaker setup with less travel.

But then you're increasing track width and that's a whole other can of worms opened.

 

[ntm]

But then you're increasing track width and that's a whole other can of worms opened.

What worms ?
I agree that an excessive track width change is problematic, but a few inches doesn't have any adverse effects that I've noticed. It's handling much better offroad compared to the 3.0 setup I was previously running.