[schcott]

just wondering how strong stock upper a-arms are? on the Donahoe kit, there are no uppers, just shocks (as im sure you all know), i was just curious how much wheeling the arms can put up with? obviously the life of them depends on how much offroading you do..... thx for your time and comments

 

[Wgasa84]

they are pretty damn strong, its mainly the ball joints that start to fail or break once lifted. Donahoe ran/runs them on their stock mini race truck.

 

[Donahoe]

just wondering how strong stock upper a-arms are? on the Donahoe kit, there are no uppers, just shocks (as im sure you all know), i was just curious how much wheeling the arms can put up with? obviously the life of them depends on how much offroading you do..... thx for your time and comments

Well I bet if you ran stock arms and Donahoe Coil-overs you would have a good chance at winning the Baja 1000... We won it with the same arms that won the Primm 300 so thats 1300 race miles and it just got back from Texas where Walker Evans took a Bunch of Goodyear Tire Vips Around the Goodyear proving grounds with the same arms and they look fine.

So on that note...I dont think you can break them. I could do some more testing if you like?

 

[schcott]

Well I bet if you ran stock arms and Donahoe Coil-overs you would have a good chance at winning the Baja 1000... We won it with the same arms that won the Primm 300 so thats 1300 race miles and it just got back from Texas where Walker Evans took a Bunch of Goodyear Tire Vips Around the Goodyear proving grounds with the same arms and they look fine.

So on that note...I dont think you can break them. I could do some more testing if you like?

i know u won Baja 1000 (congrats btw)....i wasnt sure if you used the stock a-arms or not.... sry for the misunderstanding..thx for clearing it up for me....

 

[Donahoe]

I wasnt trying to be cocky. They are REALLY Strong.... We beat the hell out of them.. I really dont think its possible to break them... I would be more worried about the lower arms. They see all the load. With the tall Tacoma spindle upright there is hardly any load on the upper arm.

 

[schcott]

I wasnt trying to be cocky. They are REALLY Strong.... We beat the hell out of them.. I really dont think its possible to break them... I would be more worried about the lower arms. They see all the load. With the tall Tacoma spindle upright there is hardly any load on the upper arm.

no prob....its all good...i was just curious because i dont want to buy uppers if i dont have too...i "offroad (nothing serious)" at work.. but if u ran it with no prob, then i definitly shouldnt have any problems, on that note tho, did u have any problems with the lower arms?? thx for your replies...

 

[DylanICON]

no prob....its all good...i was just curious because i dont want to buy uppers if i dont have too...i "offroad (nothing serious)" at work.. but if u ran it with no prob, then i definitly shouldnt have any problems, on that note tho, did u have any problems with the lower arms?? thx for your replies...

The problem arises when the shock is allowed to overextend the ball joints!
Our coil overs are designed to gain as much travel as possible without pissing off the upper ball joint. And yes the upper A-arms are REALLY strong. I haven’t even broken one on the race truck and I break it every time I drive it. and yes Kreg was being a little cocky!

 

[Donahoe]

I was not!

 

[DylanICON]

I was not!

You were too

 

[Donahoe]

Ok Maybe a little :xdevil: But your short and I can quit being cocky

Ha Ha short guy




OH GOD MAYBE I CANT QUIT

 

[DocTaco]

Lower Arm

Hello Guys, Glad the upper arms are working. I work back here in Ky. for the Toyota owned company that makes the lower arms. I am the engineer over that line as well as a few others. We stamp the parts, weld them up, paint them and then press the bushings into arm. Theses arms are put through some severe testing at a couple of stages in the process. The Toyota spec. is about 300% of usage demands, our spec on top of that puts it close to over 400% of demand. I would like to know ( just for my benefit ) if anyone has produced a component failure in this arm. I could do some additional testing in the failed area to see if improvement could help.
Thanks
Doc

 

[peekay331]

Hello Guys, Glad the upper arms are working. I work back here in Ky. for the Toyota owned company that makes the lower arms. I am the engineer over that line as well as a few others. We stamp the parts, weld them up, paint them and then press the bushings into arm. Theses arms are put through some severe testing at a couple of stages in the process. The Toyota spec. is about 300% of usage demands, our spec on top of that puts it close to over 400% of demand. I would like to know ( just for my benefit ) if anyone has produced a component failure in this arm. I could do some additional testing in the failed area to see if improvement could help.
Thanks
Doc

i've had the lower arm bushings fail after 60k miles. this truck was offroaded semi-frequently its first 45k miles. the worn bushings resulted in a very unstable ride and bump steer on the freeway. i eventually installed urethane bushings which eliminated the problem.

 

[DocTaco]

Both Fail?

You said both bushings failed. Did you use the warranty and try to get replaced? I have many , many sets here under my desk. We use a hyd. press to set these into the arm. But if someone needs some just contact me and i personally will send you new bushings, all you would need to do is orient them correctly and press in. I could give you the orientation position for bushing alignment, that part is simple, just pressing them in can be difficult with a press of some type. Sorry you had trouble.... but maybe someone else can benefit from this thread.
Doc

 

[drabnor]

lol hopefully the donahoe guys will chime in here on the durability of the lower arms

 

[peekay331]

You said both bushings failed. Did you use the warranty and try to get replaced? I have many , many sets here under my desk. We use a hyd. press to set these into the arm. But if someone needs some just contact me and i personally will send you new bushings, all you would need to do is orient them correctly and press in. I could give you the orientation position for bushing alignment, that part is simple, just pressing them in can be difficult with a press of some type. Sorry you had trouble.... but maybe someone else can benefit from this thread.
Doc

thanks a lot for the offer, that is very generous of you. i wish more tacoma engineers would frequent this board, it's very interesting to see things from their perspective.

i didn't get them warrantied bc it was past my bumper-bumper. i ended up getting energy bushings instead. i totally believe you when you say hydraulic pressed in bc those suckers were in there tight. a propane torch took care of that! luckily, putting the energy ones in were not that bad.

 

[DylanICON]

Hello Guys, Glad the upper arms are working. I work back here in Ky. for the Toyota owned company that makes the lower arms. I am the engineer over that line as well as a few others. We stamp the parts, weld them up, paint them and then press the bushings into arm. Theses arms are put through some severe testing at a couple of stages in the process. The Toyota spec. is about 300% of usage demands, our spec on top of that puts it close to over 400% of demand. I would like to know ( just for my benefit ) if anyone has produced a component failure in this arm. I could do some additional testing in the failed area to see if improvement could help.
Thanks
Doc

The lower arms have been very durable on everything we’ve done with the exception of our race truck.
We have found cracks in the lower arm when we are prepping it and we have had one pair fail during a race but we had not replaced them since the previous race. We now put on new lower arms EVERY race. The uppers have never been a problem.

 

[YoTRacer158]

so when are you gonna start making lower arms as well?