I am about to rebuild the front end of my truck at 137K and would like to replace the control arm bushings while I'm there, but I cannot fond any replacement bushings. Anyone have any luck finding these? If I cannot rebuild, I'm going to replace. Fixed length arms start around $200 and adjustables are $320 and up. Ruk Industries seems to have the best price on custom and adjustable lengths, but I can't find any feedback on them. Anyone have some experience with them or a better deal?

I am also wondering what length I should go with on the upper and lower. I have a Road Armor bumper to put on that gives me more room forward to play with and around 2 to 3 inches of lift in the front. Any thoughts? Do I increase the U & L lengths by 1/2 an inch and call it good?

Thanks

 

Looking at what RuK has available, they only list LOWER adjustablecontrol arms . . so, are you just planning to buy 2 pairs of them?

CD

 

No, they have just about every combo possible, stock length U&L, custom length U&L, Adjustable U&L and pairs of the all the aforementioned combo's. These are the adjustable;

http://www.rukindustries.com/store/i...roducts_id=428

And here is the 1st page of 2, showing all the combinations;

http://www.rukindustries.com/store/i...ha_filter_id=0

 

I have not heard of them before. But which ever route you go think about doing an axle forward. It will help with clearance issues after lifting your truck.

 

If I go with the Ruk arms, I am pretty sure that I am getting the adjustables and am trying to figure out how far forward I should go. 1/2 an inch seem to be a common amount for the 2-3 inch range, I need to know if both are lengthened the same or what the ratio is. With the Road Armor front bumper, I will have a lot more room to the front. Besides dropping the front driveshaft, it would be interesting to know what the downsides of going further out are.

 

I've never heard of Ruk, I was thinking of DT ProFab control arms, never heard anything bad about them.

If your truck is stock height why would you want to put longer ones in?
With my leveling kit I'd like to get new ones ½" longer to give me more room at the fenders when turning. My tires come very close and rubbed my stock mud flaps, needed to trim the corners of my flares so they wouldn't rub.

I think if you move the axle too far ahead you'll screw up the geometry of things like your track bar etc, but I'm no expert.

 

if you going to spend the money. these are probleby the best one you can get.
http://www.thecarlisuspension.com/do...ntrolarms.html

 

I have read a few negative comments about DT's customer support, but otherwise good. However thier price is a bit higher than I want to spend.

The Thuren kit I have lifts the front 2 or 3 inches and the rear 1 to 2. That is where the 1/2 inch came from. I need to crawl under the front again to see how every thing will be affected.

 

Tejasdge....I have their (RUK) control arms. I installed them along with a bunch of other stuff in beefing up the front end of my 04.5. I got their fixed length arms, the upper and lowers. They are about .5 inch longer than stock (I have a 2inch lift up front). I also got what they called the "race" version. If you read the descriptions real close you will notice that they make the arms out of different thickness of wall tubing which is why you see so many choices. The heavyest is .250 inch DOM tubing and that is what they call their race version. Heavy Duty is around .150 wall thickness, I don't recall exactly right now. They where nicely made, fit perfectly with no problems, and where VERY heavy. I was impressed. I got all 4 last summer for about $300.

 

If money were no object I would have a bunch of his stuff. Thuren uses his mini packs and they are one of the single best ride improvements. I would love one of his sway bar kits.

 

What do they use for bushings? I want to be able to rebuild them even if they go out of business.

 

They used a black polyurethane bushing with a steel insert. Easily sourced and be replaced from what I can tell. From the looks of these arms and bushings you would have to truly beat them, abuse them to get the arms or bushings to go bad, they where that heavy/beefy. Hope this helps............

 

I sent them an email to find out what the differant wall thicknesses are. I am now trying to decide if I want them adjustable or not.

 

If you go to the second link you posted above and then go to page 2 you will find control arms described as "heavy duty", "off road" and "race". Off Road is .195 and race is .250

http://www.rukindustries.com/store/i...roducts_id=421

http://www.rukindustries.com/store/i...roducts_id=420

 

They now are offering .133 wall on everything and will upgrade wall thickness at extra cost, though they don't think it is needed. I went ahead and got the adjustable with the .133 wall since the pipe segments are so short, and I am pretty easy on my suspension.