Tall Ball Joints - 0.5 inch taller, or 1-inch taller

Planning to do Tall Upper (with new tubular UCA) and Tall Lower (stock LCA) Ball Joints while I'm swapping to a Kore3 C5 Brake upgrade.

For the Tall Upper BJ...

The Proforged are 0.5 inch taller and this seems to be the norm.  However, Marcus at SC&C pointed me towards a 0.9 inch taller BJ.  Also, the UMI adjustable upper control arms I'm looking at have a 1 inch taller Upper BJ (QA1) as an option.

Should I be looking at these 0.9 - 1 inch taller options, or stick with the 0.5 inch taller ones?

Appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

Here's what SC&C was suggesting, with the 0.9-inch taller Howe Upper
http://scandc.com/new/node/47


ANd he'res the UMI adjustable UCAs I'm looking at, that have the option of a 1-inch talle Upper BJ (QA1)
http://umiperformance.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=256_283&products_id=923


Right now I'm leaning towards the more common 0.5 inch taller Upper BJ option.

Any thoughts?

Perhaps some info about my truck would help 

2003 RCSB ZQ8
2 inch Belltech 2102 Blazer Drop Spindles
stock ZQ8 Coils
Stock bilsteins in front
Belltech 3 inch Drop leafs
Belltech 1 inch blocks
Belltech drop shocks in back

What lower ball joint are you looking at?

Proforged 101-10048 for the lower
0.5 inch taller

And it's just a street truck?

Yes, it's a summer only street truck with future plans for the odd track day at Mosport.

I would go with a 1/2" power performance upper. You won't notice the camber gains by the extra length between balls.

You'll be happy with the 1/2" taller ball joints. My front setup is basically the same as yours but with Spohn UCAs and tall ball joints. It handles great and noticeably improves the camber curve. Just make sure to get a slightly more aggressive alignment than stock to get the full benefits of the setup.

Thanks for the input... that's the way I'm leaning right now.

The 1 inch taller upper BJ options were a surprise to me actually.  Is anyone actually running them?

I had only ever heard of 0.5, until I started researching a bit more actively.

I just heard of them recently too. Is there anywhere you can buy just the ball joints and not with UCAs? If I ever have my front suspension apart again, I may give them a shot.

Yeah, QA1 and someone else both make them. Expensive!

If you're hard on your truck you may notice an improvement in tire wear with the 0.9" BJ. With tall uppers and lowers I still see camber wear. You may be able to get away with less static camber and still see the grip benefits with this set up. I've bought from SC&C before and they clearly know what they're doing but the price premium is a bit much IMHO - most S-series guys would be more than happy with the performance they get from $100 worth of tall BJs from power performance and a set of cheap UBM or Speedway upper control arms.

If you're hard on your truck you may notice an improvement in tire wear with the 0.9" BJ. With tall uppers and lowers I still see camber wear. You may be able to get away with less static camber and still see the grip benefits with this set up. I've bought from SC&C before and they clearly know what they're doing but the price premium is a bit much IMHO - most S-series guys would be more than happy with the performance they get from $100 worth of tall BJs from power performance and a set of cheap UBM or Speedway upper control arms.

That's exactly it, there is a benefit to it, but it's all diminishing returns. How much improvement are you hoping to get for 2-3x as much...

Thanks for all the feedback everyone - much appreciated.

In my own case, I only want to do this front corner upgrade once... and an extra $50 or $100 for a more ideal ball joint setup is not bad relative to the overall cost with brakes etc.

So, no worry of binding with the 0.9 or 1-inch taller uppers?  I can't remember where I read that before as a potential issue.

Thanks.

I think binding can be an issue if you have a lot of spring drop and stock control arms.

I already have Howe upper BJs so I may look into just swapping the 0.5" stud for the 0.9" one.

With stock ZQ8 springs you shouldn't see any binding within the confines of the stop in bump. Droop will depend on what you're doing, I would be more worried in droop than bump, but don't jump it and you should be fine, if you start getting too crazy, a limiting strap would be an easy addition, but you'd have to be going pretty nucking futs to need it, outside of jacking the truck up and having the front fully droop out, but that's not a shock load, it's a relatively slow and constant load, so not a problem there either.

If you get UCAs with droop stops there should be no binding.