BDS ball joint gives way... What a mess.

[JohnnyTyler]

says right on bds website NOT to use with there lift kits !!!!

• BDS122251 UCA will NOT work on BDS 4" Lift Kits or 6" Fox Coilover Lift Systems

It does say that now. However, prior to the apparent update, it only said that the UCA would not work with the 4" lift kits; no mention of the 6" Coilover kits. As mentioned above (see Abrams117), the UCAs were a selectable option on the 6" Coilover kit a while back. So, they changed their minds on 6" Coilover kits. It seems it would be helpful and offer some piece of mind for all BDS customers to know if this change came out of an abundance of caution (since apparently the only UBJ failures have come with customers who also installed the Fox coilovers) or if they have been conducting some testing and discovered some flaw in the UCA design when combined with the Fox coilovers. Also, it is just the Fox coilovers contributing to the problem, or would another brand of coilovers similarly be of concern, say for example, King shocks? And why aren't the stock coilovers with the spacers having similar issues? Is it a certain lift height that is achieve that is an issues (considering that one lift kit will achieve different lift heights based on the specific vehicle equipment that came from the factory and/or any equipment added by the truck owner)? Lots of questions but not may answers from BDS.

 

[singlerail]

It does say that now. However, prior to the apparent update, it only said that the UCA would not work with the 4" lift kits; no mention of the 6" Coilover kits. As mentioned above (see Abrams117), the UCAs were a selectable option on the 6" Coilover kit a while back. So, they changed their minds on 6" Coilover kits. It seems it would be helpful and offer some piece of mind for all BDS customers to know if this change came out of an abundance of caution (since apparently the only UBJ failures have come with customers who also installed the Fox coilovers) or if they have been conducting some testing and discovered some flaw in the UCA design when combined with the Fox coilovers. Also, it is just the Fox coilovers contributing to the problem, or would another brand of coilovers similarly be of concern, say for example, King shocks? And why aren't the stock coilovers with the spacers having similar issues? Is it a certain lift height that is achieve that is an issues (considering that one lift kit will achieve different lift heights based on the specific vehicle equipment that came from the factory and/or any equipment added by the truck owner)? Lots of questions but not may answers from BDS.

its my assumption, because with there lift puts them at the wrong angle; the bds lift is designed to be used with the stock UCA, using the bds UCA's says there indexed which to me means the ball joint is built into the UCA on an angle already...

 

[JohnnyTyler]

its my assumption, because with there lift puts them at the wrong angle; the bds lift is designed to be used with the stock UCA, using the bds UCA's says there indexed which to me means the ball joint is built into the UCA on an angle already...

I agree that the UCA's are indexed as BDS website says, "Indexed ball joint cup allows for additional droop travel", as wells as, "Designed to add 1.4 degrees of additional positive caster." But if they are not designed to work with a lift, then what's the need for the 1.4 degrees of positive caster on a stock height truck (I actually don't know the answer to that question)? However, what I am asserting is that the BDS UCA were in fact designed to work with the lift kits. The BDS UCA was in fact an option for building a 6" kit on their website until recently. They also removed it as an build option for the non-coilover 6" lift. A quote from YouTube video uploaded by BDS re. BDS installing their 6" coilover kit on a 2021 Ram 1500, "... our upper control arm also has an indexed ball joint cup, so that way it works with our lift kit system..." This video was posted to YouTube on Jan 5, 2021 by BDS, with the above quote at 1:45 minutes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f68ToYEj7G0&t=1s

There are several other videos by other folks, including Custom Offsets who installed the BDS UCA on lifted trucks in the 19-21 model year range.

If they were truly never designed to be used with their 6" lift kits, as you suggest and as it now seems BDS is suggesting by removing them as an option for their lifts, then BDS should do the right thing and be instituting an immediate recall and refund of all the UCA they sold as an option to a kit build, at the least.

 

[SurfRebel20]

Traditionally after market ucas aren't usually needed with any drop bracket lifts because by dropping the diff and lowering the lower control arm brackets with the drop bracket you are keeping the factory geometry the same.

 

[JohnnyTyler]

Traditionally after market ucas aren't usually needed with any drop bracket lifts because by dropping the diff and lowering the lower control arm brackets with the drop bracket you are keeping the factory geometry the same.

Yeah, okay. That makes sense. The diff isn't being rotated positive or negative by the drop bracket lift. So, your only risking placing your front driveshaft out of alignment?

But I'm visualizing that even a spacer lift above the coilover in a Ram should not alter the factory caster in these Rams, since the spacers aren't/shouldn't rotate the knuckle, correct? Maybe I'm over thinking this but I'm trying to understand what benefit the BDS UCA's would be re. the positive caster increase, either with a spacer or stock.