Halo vs. Bilstein or Eibach ride quality

[112]

Can someone elaborate on this? I know Halo highly recommended SPC UCA’s. Are you saying with Eibach they are not needed? Whats the reason for it?

I talked to my off-road shop about this too. They said you can run ucas if you want but they aren’t truly necessary until you hit net gain of 3in of rise. A lot of manufacturers will argue that it should be +2.5in but regardless you’re right in that grey area. With the eibach stage 2R kit at highest point my truck still aligned perfectly and my net gain was 2.2in. (Powerboost 3.5) so I didn’t add the uca. If you have the 5.0 due to the weight difference in engine you will get close to 3in so at that point I would consider adding ucas.
Also note that any quoted height gains that are not tremor specific kits you will have -.5in off there projected lift as the tremor spring is .5in bigger than standard 150 coils.

 

[Tremgineer]

I talked to my off-road shop about this too. They said you can run ucas if you want but they aren’t truly necessary until you hit net gain of 3in of rise. A lot of manufacturers will argue that it should be +2.5in but regardless you’re right in that grey area. With the eibach stage 2R kit at highest point my truck still aligned perfectly and my net gain was 2.2in. (Powerboost 3.5) so I didn’t add the uca. If you have the 5.0 due to the weight difference in engine you will get close to 3in so at that point I would consider adding ucas.
Also note that any quoted height gains that are not tremor specific kits you will have -.5in off there projected lift as the tremor spring is .5in bigger than standard 150 coils.

Not many people know or care, but UCAs are needed for any lift applied to a Tremor if you don’t want interference at full droop. I put a 1.5” Motofab kit in my truck, which is the smallest level puck that will bolt up (it’s 1.070” thick and requires trimming of the studs) and it created interference at full droop in two positions: UCA hit spring, and Outer CV hit the Lower Shock Mount. In this case, a UCA would only resolve the spring interference. The OEM Lower Shock Mount is bigger than most aftermarket, so aftermarket is necessary to eliminate this failure mode.

My assumption is that people are paying & trusting mechanics to put kits in, and the mechanics aren’t noticing or caring, so they get paid. Or for the people who are installing themselves either aren’t paying attention or are being dismissive to the ‘infrequent’ failure modes.

@halo.f150 Halo Lifts Stage 1 (w/UCA) is the best answer for a truly application-specific system. I learned the hard way wasting a bunch of time w/ my truck apart for leveling kits.

 

[112]

Not many people know or care, but UCAs are needed for any lift applied to a Tremor if you don’t want interference at full droop. I put a 1.5” Motofab kit in my truck, which is the smallest level puck that will bolt up (it’s 1.070” thick and requires trimming of the studs) and it created interference at full droop in two positions: UCA hit spring, and Outer CV hit the Lower Shock Mount. In this case, a UCA would only resolve the spring interference. The OEM Lower Shock Mount is bigger than most aftermarket, so aftermarket is necessary to eliminate this failure mode.

My assumption is that people are paying & trusting mechanics to put kits in, and the mechanics aren’t noticing or caring, so they get paid. Or for the people who are installing themselves either aren’t paying attention or are being dismissive to the ‘infrequent’ failure modes.

@halo.f150 Halo Lifts Stage 1 (w/UCA) is the best answer for a truly application-specific system. I learned the hard way wasting a bunch of time w/ my truck apart for leveling kits.

To your point that conversation should be had with the shop on your intentions on how the truck will be used. If you’re truly going to be pushing the limits off-road or if it’s just a pavement princess. If you are going to be going hard on the trails an entry level kit isn’t the right option regardless.

 

[Reid1234]

The thing I’ve learned about cranking up the preload, to lift the vehicle, which I’ve noticed is not often talked about is…. loss of down-travel.

I have recently talked to many manufacturers and retailers to inquire: “how much up-travel is OEM, how much down-travel is OEM, and what amount of down-travel is necessary for a comfortable on road ride?” - nobody knows.

The best way to characterize this would be to set up an actual experiment with a Tremor. Alas, the “how much down-travel is necesssry for a comfortable on road ride” question remains a mystery, unless others can post here how much down travel they have with their set ups.

An advantage Halo provides over the others is that the strut overall length is longer. So some amount of lift comes from the longer strut (similar to a top hat spacer a.k.a. puck lift) and the rest of the desired lift comes from the preload adjustment. This does put the CVs at more angle than OEM and could cause OEM UCA interference with other bits like the frame or spring, but it’s less worse than the smallest spacer you could add and also the UCA interference can be overcome by using aftermarket UCAs like the SPC option.

In the tacoma/toyota world minimum 2" downtravel to maintain ride comfort.

It doesn't matter if "lift" comes from the length of the strut or the preload. If you are using the oem control arm (upper & lower) mounting points, any amount of lift decreases downtravel.

 

[Tremgineer]

To your point that conversation should be had with the shop on your intentions on how the truck will be used. If you’re truly going to be pushing the limits off-road or if it’s just a pavement princess. If you are going to be going hard on the trails an entry level kit isn’t the right option regardless.

Personal preference and risk tolerance. I don’t off road but I’m still uncomfortable with those two types of interferences. If you are on-road over rail road tracks at speed that may be a full de-weighting and momentary exposure to full droop, definitely wearing and potentially tearing a CV boot.

 

[betarange]

Not many people know or care, but UCAs are needed for any lift applied to a Tremor if you don’t want interference at full droop. I put a 1.5” Motofab kit in my truck, which is the smallest level puck that will bolt up (it’s 1.070” thick and requires trimming of the studs) and it created interference at full droop in two positions: UCA hit spring, and Outer CV hit the Lower Shock Mount. In this case, a UCA would only resolve the spring interference. The OEM Lower Shock Mount is bigger than most aftermarket, so aftermarket is necessary to eliminate this failure mode.

My assumption is that people are paying & trusting mechanics to put kits in, and the mechanics aren’t noticing or caring, so they get paid. Or for the people who are installing themselves either aren’t paying attention or are being dismissive to the ‘infrequent’ failure modes.

@halo.f150 Halo Lifts Stage 1 (w/UCA) is the best answer for a truly application-specific system. I learned the hard way wasting a bunch of time w/ my truck apart for leveling kits.

I completely agree with you and this is my experience as well.

 

[Tremgineer]

I completely agree with you and this is my experience as well.

right on brother! just trying to raise awareness.

 

[mxvet]

I’ve had much back and forth with halo on their stage 1 kit. Since I desire some rake, with a lift of only 1.5”, no uca are needed according to him. Now, I had been waiting for several weeks still don’t have them in stock. Eibach warranty replaced my rear resi, so I’m gonna put them back on and also the front coilovers which eibach says are now supported on tremor. We’ll see.

 

[Tremor53]

I’m not an expert so take this at face value…My Eibach strut and spring setup is set at the 2.7” ring and it netted a 3” lift which measured level to rear but visually looked nose high. A small trailer, boat or 200lbs of load in the back created a bad squat. They didn’t have a rear setup available so I installed the RAS and love the ride. It’s definitely more firm than stock. I commute 70 miles a day mainly on the highway and it’s a great ride. I can take pot holes easily and not experience the rear jumping all over the road like stock.

Nice set-up! Did you keep your OEM UCA's?