Split A-Arm control / ReadyLift SST 3.5” - Suggestions

[Adam2019]

Happy New Years to all!

Not the best news to share but hopefully someone can offer some insight here.

2019 Ram 1500 Laramie Sport 4x4 has the ReadyLift SST 3.5” installed on it. I have never had any issues…..until Saturday when just turning around in a parking lot I heard a loud metal bang type sound and my steering wheel immediately went to mush and pulled left.

I got out and noticed the passenger front tire was out of alignment. Didn’t take a lot to see that the upper A-Arm had completely snapped in half where the curved part of the arm is welded where it meets the ball joint. This is surprising as this truck is mainly driven in city / HWY with not too much off road.
tires are Nitto ridge grappler 33x12.50x20.

need some help here. What’s the fastest way to get this fixed. The RL was purchased through the Ram Dealer and installed by an off road shop. So, should I take it to Dealer and have them replace the part? Or, take it to off road shop who installed the RL and have them repair. My concern is that if other suspension parts are damaged then warranty may cover them.
should I be concerned about other suspension parts damage?

Thanks for any help!

 

[PurpleRT]

I wouldn’t worry about other parts being damaged once it broke you noticed it and stopped driving it right? Should be fine then. Could just be a defective control arm. I imagine Readylift has some type of warranty. Now the headache is going to be that you’ve purchased it from one place and had a different place install it, complicating it. I would say the offroad shop would be the best option but you might wanna contact Readylift first incase they direct you back to where you originally purchased the kit from. Make sure to get another alignment once everything’s fixed.


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[Av1]

If you get a chance, would you post some good photos of where it broke?

I think photos would be helpful for those of us who have installed the Readylift upper control arms.

I will have to add a visual inspection for cracks of that area when I do my oil changes.

 

[Adam2019]

I’ll post photos tomorrow. Y’all will want to see how this thing broke…..had I been on a Highway this would be a very different story. Fingers crossed.

 

[jl13]

Following

 

[Adam2019]

Here is a picture. Weld looks like it failed right where it attached to the ball joint. Props to ReadyLift for jumping in and getting the replacement parts for it to 4 WheelParts so it can be fixed.
ReadyLift General Manager is replacing both control arms and taking care of labor as they rightful should.
Truck should be ready tomorrow unless other suspension parts were damaged and need replacement. I’ll keep y’all updated. I’m one lucky sob that this didn’t happen on the Highway going 80.

 

[cskindt]

Here is a picture. Weld looks like it failed right where it attached to the ball joint. Props to ReadyLift for jumping in and getting the replacement parts for it to 4 WheelParts so it can be fixed.
ReadyLift General Manager is replacing both control arms and taking care of labor as they rightful should.
Truck should be ready tomorrow unless other suspension parts were damaged and need replacement. I’ll keep y’all updated. I’m one lucky sob that this didn’t happen on the Highway going 80.

That's scary!

And that's the very least RL should do for you.

 

[HSKR R/T]

Here is a picture. Weld looks like it failed right where it attached to the ball joint. Props to ReadyLift for jumping in and getting the replacement parts for it to 4 WheelParts so it can be fixed.
ReadyLift General Manager is replacing both control arms and taking care of labor as they rightful should.
Truck should be ready tomorrow unless other suspension parts were damaged and need replacement. I’ll keep y’all updated. I’m one lucky sob that this didn’t happen on the Highway going 80.

That was definitely a defective weld, as evident by the rust in it. The Powdercoating on the control arm covered it up.

 

[Av1]

Here is a picture. Weld looks like it failed right where it attached to the ball joint. Props to ReadyLift for jumping in and getting the replacement parts for it to 4 WheelParts so it can be fixed.
ReadyLift General Manager is replacing both control arms and taking care of labor as they rightful should.
Truck should be ready tomorrow unless other suspension parts were damaged and need replacement. I’ll keep y’all updated. I’m one lucky sob that this didn’t happen on the Highway going 80.

Thanks for the photo, I appreciate it.

It looks like the outboard side has been cracked for a while looking at the weld corrosion. The inboard side looks like it was the only thing holding before it completely failed.

I will do a thorough inspection of all my UCA welds this weekend.

If there is any evidence of a potential crack, I'll do a dye penetrant check of it. If that is inconclusive, I won't waste time with more in-depth NDT. I'll just take them off and install something else. I will certainly be keeping a close eye on this.

How many miles have your upper control arms been in service?

That weld looks horrible.

 

[Adam2019]

Thanks for the photo, I appreciate it.

It looks like the outboard side has been cracked for a while looking at the weld corrosion. The inboard side looks like it was the only thing holding before it completely failed.

I will do a thorough inspection of all my UCA welds this weekend.

If there is any evidence of a potential crack, I'll do a dye penetrant check of it. If that is inconclusive, I won't waste time with more in-depth NDT. I'll just take them off and install something else. I will certainly be keeping a close eye on this.

How many miles have your upper control arms been in service?

That weld looks horrible.

Truck only has 18,900 miles on it and no hard use / off road/ towing so far. Pretty much a city truck for now. Truck should be ready today and I will be picking it up. The Ram Dealership was useless with any help in dealing with this. They didn’t even have the right accessories listed on the invoice for the truck! Unwilling to be of any assistance.

I will post a report of the findings from 4 Wheel Parts as well as what I hear from ReadyLift once they are able to inspect the A-Arm. I can clearly tell by the speed with which they took care of this that they do not want this to be an issue. They recognize what could have happened. The more I think about it the luckier I know that I am.

Some additonal info, I have spoken with a lot of people about this and no one has seen this kind of failure before in a ReadyLift SST 3.5” application on the A-Arm. This is supposedly one of the first. II would take a look at your SST A-Arms if you have this and make sure you don’t see any visible cracks or that the weld is not 360 degrees around the ball joint enclosure. This was installed in December 2019 for parts reference.
Best,
Adam

 

[Adam2019]

That was definitely a defective weld, as evident by the rust in it. The Powdercoating on the control arm covered it up.

I agree!

 

[Adam2019]

So update on this…..picked up the truck. ReadyLift replaced the entire front end of the 3.5” SST lift. Best part, they did what few companies do…they took care of it as they should have.
Big thanks to Jeff (Manager at 4 Wheel Parts Houston) and the Manager at ReadyLift.
ReadyLift definitely did the right thing.