Lower control arms

[Regcabguy]

My upper ones are still factory, I dont know if you really need to replace them.
Small cracks at the surface of the rubber bushings aren't an indicator that the need to be replaced, the compressed rubber inside is still fine then.
It becomes visible it they are really worn out to the point a replacement is needed as you can see it that the inner part starts to move around inside the bushing.
The uppers are mostly reaction arms for the brake torque and way less guiding the axle down the road. Or different said, the lowers keep the axle at position, the uppers keep the axle from turning around.

I have the boxed ones in my 2007. Not much offroading really just carried 2200# around since '06 Oct.

 

[Superdawg]

Someone might find this helpful. Many years ago I replaced the lower control arms with Hell Bent Steel solid arms with threaded adjusters/lock nuts. Recently, I found out that almost all aftermarket control arms are longer than stock (for lifted trucks). This makes it very difficult to get the right caster numbers on a non-lifted truck. Anyhoo, I ended up cutting some of the threads off of both ends to get back to stock numbers. But I digress, what I wanted to say is that the lower arms came supplied with Johnny Joints with poly bushings at both ends. One of the poly bushings squeezed out the side.
I found a company in Northern Kalifornia called MetalCloak. They had rebuild kits for certain size Johnny Joints and found the one I needed for my control arms: 2.5" Johnny Joint Metalcloak Duroflex bushing #7350. I did have to drill out the 14mm sleeve to 16mm for my bolts.
https://metalcloak.com/2-5-8-d-x-2-5-8-l-duroflex-joint-2-1-2-jj-rebuild-kit.html
The best part is their Duroflex rubber. They have many different sizes for multiple applications.
"MetalCloak has taken the best features of the most widely used control arm joints and combined those features to create the Duroflex™ Joint, producing a Low-Maintenance, High-Misalignment, Self-Centering, Rebuildable Joint with an OEM quality ride." They do ride very nice, a big improvement over poly.

 

[AEdelheit]

Someone might find this helpful. Many years ago I replaced the lower control arms with Hell Bent Steel solid arms with threaded adjusters/lock nuts. Recently, I found out that almost all aftermarket control arms are longer than stock (for lifted trucks). This makes it very difficult to get the right caster numbers on a non-lifted truck. Anyhoo, I ended up cutting some of the threads off of both ends to get back to stock numbers. But I digress, what I wanted to say is that the lower arms came supplied with Johnny Joints with poly bushings at both ends. One of the poly bushings squeezed out the side.
I found a company in Northern Kalifornia called MetalCloak. They had rebuild kits for certain size Johnny Joints and found the one I needed for my control arms: 2.5" Johnny Joint Metalcloak Duroflex bushing #7350. I did have to drill out the 14mm sleeve to 16mm for my bolts.
https://metalcloak.com/2-5-8-d-x-2-5-8-l-duroflex-joint-2-1-2-jj-rebuild-kit.html
The best part is their Duroflex rubber. They have many different sizes for multiple applications.
"MetalCloak has taken the best features of the most widely used control arm joints and combined those features to create the Duroflex™ Joint, producing a Low-Maintenance, High-Misalignment, Self-Centering, Rebuildable Joint with an OEM quality ride." They do ride very nice, a big improvement over poly.

Yes most aftermarket arms are 1/2" longer for better tire clearance and why good high quality arms are always sold in sets of 4 not pairs.