why not just buy some tube arms?

 

Fab. shops want too much money, because they give me the whole "Well we have to develop the design...." bullshit. I offered $200 for a set, I would send a stock Z71 Upper, balljoint, and the heim joints I wanted on the new arms, and they wanted more. I don't have a tubing bender so I may just make my own by using angles and gussets rather than the typical radius design. I was just looking for an easy option and the H3 are actually really nice.

No one really makes tube arms for lifted, I'd be more worried about the front diff and rack then the control arms though

I was worried about the front differential if I went to a bigger tire, but I have put this thing through hell with these 33's already and it's still in good shape. The key is just going really easy when the suspensions flexed and avoid 4Lo in anything other than mud. I'm going to go easy on this truck now that I'm supercharging it so I'm probably going to stick to a nice open mudding spot that's basically all that's left in town. As for the rack I can adapt something beefier from a junkyard cheap when mine breaks.

 

No one really makes tube arms for lifted, I'd be more worried about the front diff and rack then the control arms though

 

u could get a basic bender from harbor freight for $99
Pipe Benders at Harbor Freight Tools

 

arent the h3 arms alluminum, i know when i looked at my moms before at least one was if not both, i didnt look to see how thick they are but the new ford f150s have a similar design and we have two sitting at the shop that were in a collision and the spindle stayed intact and the lower arm sheared off, looked kinda scary

 

In an accident the arm is supposed to shear off. You dont want the frame bending, much more costly to fix.

 

I wouldnet be worred bout the uppers its the lowers that need to be beefed up, Ive bent one so far LOL

 

Aren't the H3 arms longer than our arms, since the track width is wider. I know the rear axle is wider, I just assume that the H3 upper and lower arms were longer than ours to make the front match the rear, but I may be wrong.

 

i think they are, i can take some measurements when i get home later this week

 

If so, then you'd have to do both upper and lower and then you'd need longer cv shafts and depending, you may need H3 tie rods. Sounds like custom uppers would be the cheaper route then.

 

if the h3 arms are only 1/2" longer like I've read my truck will still align with them. I'm probably going to buy one side just to try. As for the lowers I can't without removing my lift, stock are beefy enough you just have to keep them off the rocks.

 

this has been talked about a number of times. they seem that they will bolt up fine.\ with the prelim measurements i took a few months ago. i stopped once i found out it was only 1/2 in wider.

dhpmike has the right idea. a tubed upper and tubed and boxed lower would be sick.

mike dealer. those HF kinkers would never be able to bend 4130

i'm working on something kind of similar but it's not 1/2 in wider. i see no point in that. buy some $60 billet wheel spacers and there you go.
youre an inch wider even over the h3 and for way less and no need for cv's

plus the geometry might get out of sync the way youre just extending everything

 

I'm not to worried about swapping the lowers at all mine have been fine, one even took a hit from a neon and looked fine but I swapped it anyways. If the H3 upper is 1/2" longer though that's perfect because my uppers are completely pulled outward on the cams so that will put them to about an 1/8" away from the minimum setting of the slot in the mount. I just have to compress it a bunch before hitting the road and make sure the ball joint for the H3 isn't angled differently so that it starts throwing chamber way off over bumps. Looks like I'll try and pick at least one up for now.

 

i have with no issue. since i'm a little lower now i had to pull them off to clear my 34's.

many rock crawlers, yotas and what not run spacers no issue. those see way more abuse than our trucks will see.

1.25 dom will be more than strong enough and that $200 from dhp would be perfect. i'm worried that the 1/2 in (if it fits) will be too much. FIX have you flipped and spaced your upper ball joint? that would help your cam position.

 

Yup Balljoints flipped and spaced 1/4". It changed my geometry though so now my chamber goes all over hell in flex and rounds the tires, and it only gave me like an extra degree of chamber adjustment.

Well now I got some thinking to do, I may just wait a couple weeks and then have Mike build them. I just got to hold off on spending a couple weeks because I need to get my Fiberglass fenders and bedsides ordered, I'm tired of looking at my smashed bedside.

 

i dont see how it changed your geometry too much. longer arms will only make that worse.

how high are you cranked?

 

ya just saying, only a handful of these trucks are into hardcore baja running, spacers will hold up to any type of offroading that can be done where i live

 

3.5" over the 4" kit. It made the difference because it drops the ball joint relative to the upper arm mounting place which changes the uppers angle in comparison to the lower arms. Which made a lot of chamber change over bumps.

If I have the arms made, I'm not going to have them made longer. I plan on dropping the truck back down to about 5" of lift after I get the supercharger in. I was just looking for a way to replace those shitty stock bushings in the uppers. The h3 arms are basically out the door now, mike would be a better route.

 

did you space the lower?

 

no, that's why it was like that. If I had spaced the lower as well though it would have kept my chamber the same.

 

yeah. had you spaced the lower too you would have increased your bump steer by not raising the tie rod mount on your spindle. i can definitely see that being an issue.
honestly, the 1/2 in longer arm is going to be a bigger problem than you want. or even a fabbed arm for that matter.

take off the spacer and run the flip alone

 

I know mine is a completely different animal, since mine's a Z85 not a Z71, but mikes arms allowed me to, not need to run the upper balljoint spacer, because they have the balljoint angle changed.They were built for bagged trucks, so the balljoint angle is built in the opposite of what you need when lifting, so I just flipped them over and reversed the balljoint angle to what I needed. Here's a pic of them installed with a 5" spindle and 2.5" coil spacer stacked and you can see that the balljoint is at a almost perfect angle.

And you can also spend a bit more, get the adjustable arms and dial in your camber where you want it. Instead of hoping that it'll be ok with longer arms.

 

Thats ineresting Cuzican don't know if that'll work on a 4x4 though. Flipping them didn't mess with caster angles did it?

 

Nope no problems with caster, the arms on a Z85 are symetrical it doesn't affect caster. Now if they were assymetrical you would just flip them from left side to right side and the caster wouldn't be changed. Now as I, stated I didn't know what the differences were in Z85 and Z71 arms, as far as upper control arms go, but I'm sure a set could be built for the Z71's with the same benefits as the arms I have on my truck.

 

caster wont be affected by that. z85/zq8's mount under the arm whereas z71's mount over.

i guarantee the h3 arms will be too long. a flip and spacer will be fine. it will cause the uppers to go a little positive but not bad

 

Who the hell said I was hitting whoops? Wtf? Irrelevant info.

Wheel spacers are fine. There's what 5 trucks on this entire site that are long traveled and can actually handle something remotely close to that.

Back to the op. They wont work nuffsaid

 

regardless if a truck is long traveled or not adding a spacer may cause issues...street use is fine and even small trail riding is ok. but its def not as strong as if u didnt have them...then there are other things like quality...u can get some for $40 and then there are some that $300 race quality (rock crawling etc.) its an irrelevent issue cus 90% of people dont run the truck enough for that to be an issue but ignoring the fact "they could be" an issue is dumb too...its the same for someone running a coil spacer and runnning the truck hard and it cracks, most people it wont be an isue but it is def not a sure thing.

bottom line is this conversation is more about obtaining a look so obviosly functionality and durability isnt the main concern but there should be a warning

kevin-def not trying to battle you or anything just stating is all

 

it's cool. the point of the longer "arm" was to fix alignment not get the prerunner stance

i ran spacers cause i was cranked do far up that my track width was way narrower than the rear.

i personally would like to see someone bite the bullet and grab a set of h3 uppers and lowers and see if they fit. my prelim measurements seem to tell they are very close if not the exact same mount.

there's really many more options for getting A. proper alignment at any ride height and B. wider stance. hell a 2 over kit on a 4x4 would be sex. with the potential to run coilovers while still maintaining the cv's

 

if they would fit i would grab uppers and lowers too

 

much rather have this

 

those look niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee