Zone UCA reviews

[‘21OBX]

Hello all,

Found a deal on Eibach stage 2 coilovers. The guy als has Zone UCA’s for sale for a good price. Are they worth having? Zone description says they give more angle than stick but then says that they work with the stick ball joints? How do they get more angle when using the same ball joint? I know not many like the RC stuff but I already have RC UCA’s installed as part of theb3.5” kit. Moving to the eibach’s to go to a true coil over vs the spacer and preload setup. Any thoughts?

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[j_marinelli]

Hello all,

Found a deal on Eibach stage 2 coilovers. The guy als has Zone UCA’s for sale for a good price. Are they worth having? Zone description says they give more angle than stick but then says that they work with the stick ball joints? How do they get more angle when using the same ball joint? I know not many like the RC stuff but I already have RC UCA’s installed as part of theb3.5” kit. Moving to the eibach’s to go to a true coil over vs the spacer and preload setup. Any thoughts?

I got them with the zone spacer kit a few years back and I just swapped out the spacer kit for the Eibach coilovers and left the Zone UCA. Can't say that I have had a single issue with them in the approximately 32,000 miles I have had them on my Bronco

 

[RC Bronco]

I’ve been running Eibach Pro Truck 2.0’s and Zone UCA’s for about 20k miles now. Not a single issue with either thus far!

 

[ScLeCo]

They are a rock solid combo and will work well together. I had them on mine and loved them.

 

[Fordified1]

You don’t need them when running the Eibachs. Can’t comment on their quality.

 

[ScLeCo]

You don’t need them when running the Eibachs. Can’t comment on their quality.

It depends on how high you set the coilovers. I very much needed them, but I was also maxed out on height.

 

[‘21OBX]

Second part who actually off roads with them? I thought I remembered a post a long time back about them not having more travel than stock. We like the rocks the RC’s have been fine at 35k miles still solid and greasable. Keep losing the top covers tho. We like to hit Windrock a couple times a years and Drummond island.

 

[Oldhippie]

If your RCs are working for ya just keep them…I have zone 3” kit with the ucas…they are cast steel and very heavy but work fine…the ball joint is mounted at more angle than stock allowing proper angles (camber adjustment) with lift…the stock ball joint is fine…pretty much all the aftermarket ucas do the same thing with the same angles & length…

 

[Fordified1]

Second part who actually off roads with them? I thought I remembered a post a long time back about them not having more travel than stock. We like the rocks the RC’s have been fine at 35k miles still solid and greasable. Keep losing the top covers tho. We like to hit Windrock a couple times a years and Drummond island.

The coilover should be limiting the amount of travel we have, not the UCA. Too much down-travel (droop) is very bad for CV joints and steering rack and linkage. As far as I know, the stock UCA’s give as much travel as is safe for stock CV’s and steering.

What say you @87-Z28 ? Geometry wizard of the board.

 

[87-Z28]

The coilover should be limiting the amount of travel we have, not the UCA. Too much down-travel (droop) is very bad for CV joints and steering rack and linkage. As far as I know, the stock UCA’s give as much travel as is safe for stock CV’s and steering.

agreed. Some additional thoughts.

the front suspension has a kinematic response similar to a 4 bar mechanical linkage; ie, frame, LCA, wheel knuckle, and UCA. For the OEM double wishbone configuration, both the UCA and LCA have complete freedom of rotation at the frame pivot joints. This is not the case at the knuckle joints. It is possible that the knuckle joint locations bind under severe wheel articulation. However I don’t think this occurs under oem configuration.

The wheel motion or articulation is controlled by the LCA angular rotation which is completely defined by the shock travel. As long as no joint binding occurs. The UCA controls the orientation of the wheel knuckle during shock travel (LCA rotation). The attached figure shows the kinematic motion of this 4 bar linkage in the camber plane only. hence the UCA tries to maintain the design wheel alignment during shock travel (both camber and caster).

The quest for improved ground clearance usually includes lifting suspension with increased tire diameter. For oem LCA, suspension lift necessarily results in an increased downward rotation of the LCA (increased angle wrt horizontal plane). This also increases positive camber. The oem LCA can be moved outwards to readjust camber. Likewise front and back LCA pivots can be adjusted to dial in caster. At some level of lift, the ride height camber/caster can not be adjusted by LCA alone. Hence UCA knuckle joint needs to be moved inward to allow for oem designed wheel alignment. I think the oem LCA/UCA combination allow for up to a 2” lift above SAS and still maintain alignment.

 

[‘21OBX]

@87-Z28 way better explained than I could have said. I was just going to write the need for UCA’s is for alignment purposes above 2”ish of lift. I did not buy the ICA’s even tho the gentleman was asking 1/2 price for them. I did buy the Eibach coilovers from him for a pretty decent deal brand new in the box.

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