After 6 months with my F150 Bilstein 5100s at 2” lift, UCAs are a MUST!

[Black]

I am 2 weeks shy of having my F150 Bilstein 5100s on the front of my 2016 Expedition. I have them set on the 2nd ring giving me just at 2” of lift in the front. I had space between the coil spring and the inside of the control arm at all levels of articulation and rotation of the steering wheel.
Upon installation I had zero issues on road and the couple of times I did get to hit the trails.
Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago I started to get a clunk on big bumps and a pop under heavy turning.
Finally got a chance to crawl under today and yes the inside of the control arm is making contact with the spring. So I am guessing they have settled just a touch over the months to make slight contact.

Hard to get the phone up there for a good angle but trust me it is touching.

My guess this is why now that Bilstein has released 5100s for these Expeditions they are limited to 1.6” or 1.0” (can’t recall of the top of my head) of lift. They don’t want UCAs to be required for the install since at the time SPC was the only company marketing UCAs for lifted Expeditions. ICON has now entered the fold and we all know any F150 UCA will work (as long as back spacing and wheel offset is correct).

Luckily it is just a clunk on occasion and it is not actually binding.

So looks like new UCAs are going on sooner than I had planned.
BDS are not currently available on Amazon and $700 everywhere else I can find.
SPC are $600 and I get 5% cash back so $570.
$130 will buy me greasable endlinks and lower ball joints that I can toss on while I am doing the UCAs.

Maybe I can find a set of BDS on sale or used on the F150 forums.
While SPC gets a ton of praise on the Toyota forums the BDS looks to be a much beefier piece and the replacement ball joints are about half the price.

 

[16plati]

I am 2 weeks shy of having my F150 Bilstein 5100s on the front of my 2016 Expedition. I have them set on the 2nd ring giving me just at 2” of lift in the front. I had space between the coil spring and the inside of the control arm at all levels of articulation and rotation of the steering wheel.
Upon installation I had zero issues on road and the couple of times I did get to hit the trails.
Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago I started to get a clunk on big bumps and a pop under heavy turning.
Finally got a chance to crawl under today and yes the inside of the control arm is making contact with the spring. So I am guessing they have settled just a touch over the months to make slight contact.
View attachment 32417
Hard to get the phone up there for a good angle but trust me it is touching.

My guess this is why now that Bilstein has released 5100s for these Expeditions they are limited to 1.6” or 1.0” (can’t recall of the top of my head) of lift. They don’t want UCAs to be required for the install since at the time SPC was the only company marketing UCAs for lifted Expeditions. ICON has now entered the fold and we all know any F150 UCA will work (as long as back spacing and wheel offset is correct).

Luckily it is just a clunk on occasion and it is not actually binding.

So looks like new UCAs are going on sooner than I had planned.
BDS are not currently available on Amazon and $700 everywhere else I can find.
SPC are $600 and I get 5% cash back so $570.
$130 will buy me greasable endlinks and lower ball joints that I can toss on while I am doing the UCAs.

Maybe I can find a set of BDS on sale or used on the F150 forums.
While SPC gets a ton of praise on the Toyota forums the BDS looks to be a much beefier piece and the replacement ball joints are about half the price.

Interesting bc my readylift gives me more than that up front and I have zero issues with UCAs touching the springs. I’m gonna look into putting the expedition 5100s on my wife’s limited and possible my drop mine down to expedition 5100s after I see them on her truck. I’ve had mine on for well over 30k miles

 

[16plati]

I am 2 weeks shy of having my F150 Bilstein 5100s on the front of my 2016 Expedition. I have them set on the 2nd ring giving me just at 2” of lift in the front. I had space between the coil spring and the inside of the control arm at all levels of articulation and rotation of the steering wheel.
Upon installation I had zero issues on road and the couple of times I did get to hit the trails.
Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago I started to get a clunk on big bumps and a pop under heavy turning.
Finally got a chance to crawl under today and yes the inside of the control arm is making contact with the spring. So I am guessing they have settled just a touch over the months to make slight contact.
View attachment 32417
Hard to get the phone up there for a good angle but trust me it is touching.

My guess this is why now that Bilstein has released 5100s for these Expeditions they are limited to 1.6” or 1.0” (can’t recall of the top of my head) of lift. They don’t want UCAs to be required for the install since at the time SPC was the only company marketing UCAs for lifted Expeditions. ICON has now entered the fold and we all know any F150 UCA will work (as long as back spacing and wheel offset is correct).

Luckily it is just a clunk on occasion and it is not actually binding.

So looks like new UCAs are going on sooner than I had planned.
BDS are not currently available on Amazon and $700 everywhere else I can find.
SPC are $600 and I get 5% cash back so $570.
$130 will buy me greasable endlinks and lower ball joints that I can toss on while I am doing the UCAs.

Maybe I can find a set of BDS on sale or used on the F150 forums.
While SPC gets a ton of praise on the Toyota forums the BDS looks to be a much beefier piece and the replacement ball joints are about half the price.

Is that with the wheels on the ground and it rubs?

 

[Black]

Interesting bc my readylift gives me more than that up front and I have zero issues with UCAs touching the springs. I’m gonna look into putting the expedition 5100s on my wife’s limited and possible my drop mine down to expedition 5100s after I see them on her truck. I’ve had mine on for well over 30k miles

Readylift gains the lift by way of the top of the strut vs. the bottom like the 5100s. So the geometry of the two suspensions will be slightly different and likely why the issue is not present with a spacer.

Should have added in the original post
That is with the drivers side jacked up slightly. The passenger side on the ground with the drivers slightly jacked up is also touching.

The clunk is not all the time or with just regular driving or rolling bumps. Just big bumps with lots of articulation and rebound.

The Expedition spec’d 5100s won’t have the issue as they limit the lift. When they first came out a lot of folks were asking why the lift less than 2”. This is likely our answer.

Not a huge issue as I was planning on doing UCAs anyway. Just have to do them sooner than planned.

Curious if the ICON and Fox springs are narrower allowing for more lift without UCAs.

 

[Eric Mowrer]

Interesting bc my readylift gives me more than that up front and I have zero issues with UCAs touching the springs. I’m gonna look into putting the expedition 5100s on my wife’s limited and possible my drop mine down to expedition 5100s after I see them on her truck. I’ve had mine on for well over 30k miles

My ReadyLift causes the UCAs to hit at full extension. I get a clunk after speed humps. I'm running Monroe QuickStrut assemblies so maybe that makes a difference. I'm not sure a different UCA would change that unless the UCA has longer arms.

 

[Black]

My ReadyLift causes the UCAs to hit at full extension. I get a clunk after speed humps. I'm running Monroe QuickStrut assemblies so maybe that makes a difference. I'm not sure a different UCA would change that unless the UCA has longer arms.

The Monroes are super soft compared to factory and other after markets so you likely get just a touch more droop causing the contact.

Aftermarket UCAs change the angle of the balljoint cups bring lifted vehicles back to the proper geometry. Also Giving the balljoint more life since it is again at the proper angle and putting the arm itself back at the proper angle so it won’t contact the spring.

 

[Eric Mowrer]

The Monroes are super soft compared to factory and other after markets so you likely get just a touch more droop causing the contact.

Aftermarket UCAs change the angle of the balljoint cups bring lifted vehicles back to the proper geometry. Also Giving the balljoint more life since it is again at the proper angle and putting the arm itself back at the proper angle so it won’t contact the spring.

Where are you getting the information about the Monroe's being super soft?

I'm interested in the UCAs as well... I may rebuild my factory springs with Bilstein and replace the Monroes when I do the UCAs. I would rather bring the front down to 2" from 3".

My contact with the spring is almost exactly like yours. I will take a picture later and post.

 

[Black]

Personal experience with their products and your UCAs hitting with the ready lift spacers when the other folks do not.

 

[Eric Mowrer]

Personal experience with their products and your UCAs hitting with the ready lift spacers when the other folks do not.

In a static condition, isn't the contact with the spring more of a function of the max extension dimension of the strut assembly, regardless of the strut stiffness(damping)? This would be more of a function of the internal constraints of the strut.

Unless you are referring to a dynamic movement in which the strut reaches max extension quicker due the the lower presumed damping? This I could see with a strut with lower damping factor.

 

[Black]

The Spring and Strut both in a Monroe quickstrut are softer dampening than factory and other aftermarket.
Therefore you get more droop and when you reach full extension and make contact.

Most folks like 16plati (pretty sure he is still on factory struts) and others using aftermarket don’t make contact at full extension even though they are running the same Readift spacer that you are.