• SuperPro is an innovative leader in suspension upgrades, a segment that is becoming recognized as a need among modified truck owners.
• The Australian manufacturer’s specially formulated, high-quality components improve stability, handling, and control in both on and off-road applications.
• The F150 fixed offset front control arm assembly is particularly useful for lifted trucks, helping correct the Ford’s suspension geometry (caster and camber).
• This heavy-duty arm pair also provides additional clearance to the coilover strut and more arm articulation.

Whether you’re looking at them in the parking lot or on the road, lifted trucks, have an undeniable presence. In the rearview mirror of a lowered car, all you see is the undercarriage, an amalgamation of metal that supports a two-to-three-ton body as it trundles down the street. That intimidating vantage point has a lot to do with the lift and often, an even beefier set of wheels and tires to go with it. But all of that visual theater comes at a price: increased and unfavorable wear to the suspension’s supporting cast.

Akin to their lowered, automotive counterparts, installing springs or coilovers means that the factory suspension geometry—and with it, the way the engineers intended the truck to handle—is altered. Indeed, most critical enthusiasts will consider coilovers to be a crucial first step rather than a final solution. While aftermarket dampers and springs are typically more heavy-duty than OE equipment, there’s much more corrective work to perform to ensure the rest of the vehicle’s underpinnings—the bushings, arms, and joints—can cope with the new performance threshold.

THE RIGHT MATERIAL

More often than not, the factory equipment isn’t up to the task. SuperPro is acutely aware of the truck community’s shortcomings and the Australian-based manufacturer has dedicated its entire operations to solving them. Today, SuperPro touts a wide array of high-quality components that improve stability, handling, and control in both on and off-road applications.

The secret to its success is a specially formulated polyurethane elastomer material. While many aftermarket polyurethane components are known for their harshness and making the passenger cabin too “chatty”, SuperPro’s unique formulation blends the best characteristics of rubber (OE) and thermoset polys without taking on any of the unwanted side effects more typically associated with solid material replacements. Inside strut bars, radius rods, and trailing arm locations, SuperPro’s polyurethane bushings—which are manufactured and tested in Australia’s harshest topography—improve the road holding, handling, and tire wear of any vehicle they touch.

COMPLETE SOLUTION

Today, we’ve honed in on one of the most popular trucks in the game: the Ford F150. This particular example is a 2019 that has been tastefully modded with a 6-inch SuperLift lift kit, Fox 2.5 Factory Series front coilovers, Fox 2.0 Performance rear shocks, Vossen 20” HF6-4 wheels, and Mickey Thompson Baja Legend EXP 37×12.50R20 tires. For this platform, SuperPro’s improvements don’t stop at bushing replacements; its Upper Control Arm Assembly (TRC6670) builds on the company’s proficiencies by providing additional clearance to the coilover strut and more arm articulation overall.

Tangential to these benefits is an important correction: alignment. Lifting an F150—especially six inches—puts the aforementioned suspension geometry well out of spec. The SuperPro arms have a fixed offset built-in and provide an additional 1.0° of caster and up to 0.5° of negative camber—effectively, returning the truck to its factory alignment for 2-4″ lift kits. Jaymin Gilmour, ZEDER Corporation’s (SuperPro’s parent company) Research & Development Engineer, added how SuperPro arrived at those figures:

“Using both 3D scan data and physical testing, we raise the vehicle in small increments to look at the change in camber and caster as the vehicle is lifted. We do the same thing in the virtual space, using the scan data to confirm what we saw on the wheel alignment machine. We then target a spec that allows the user to achieve a good wheel alignment for a lift anywhere from 2-4”. Afterwards, SuperPro makes a prototype of the arm using CNC machined housings and 3D scan the parts to confirm it matches our CAD model before testing it in a car to see if the desired result is achieved.”

Indeed, SuperPro’s decision to create fixed offset arms was far from theoretical. Its precise methodology allowed the company to create a solution that eliminated unnecessary adjustments, while also trimming the cost for the final product. Aside from its laundry list of benefits, the tubular steel SuperPro control arm assemblies were beautifully made and finished in the company’s signature Navy blue hue. Side by side, the SuperPro pieces trounced the factory units. You could see the toll the mods and the Northeastern climate had taken on the OE equipment. “I was experiencing vibration due to the upper control arm ball joint starting to wear quickly. The 37s put a lot of stress on ball joints,” Kyle Felici, the owner of the F150, confessed. As you can see, the SuperPro Upper Control Arm Assembly retains greaseable, sealed ball joints, which will help it function properly even when extreme hot or cold weather bouts hit.

INSTALLATION AND IMPRESSIONS

I’ve already covered how much better the SuperPro control arm assemblies look, but I should also mention that as plug-and-play factory replacements, the SuperPro bushings were pre-pressed into the control arm right out of the box. This consideration made the entire installation process much faster and easily achievable by a novice wrencher. Fortunately for us, we had the expert hands nearby. We chose to perform the install at John C Garage, a Duramax/truck specialist shop based out of Telford, PA.

Once the factory arms were uninstalled, the SuperPro replacement pieces were slotted in and factory hardware was reused to secure the arms into place. The procedure was plug-and-play by every definition of the phrase. Looking into the wheel well, the additional clearance to the coilover was immediately apparent. SuperPro engineers claim that the F150 Front Upper Control Arm Assembly achieves an additional 15° of ball joint articulation over the factory pieces, which is welcomed for such an aggressive lift. Gilmour added, “Our ball joint provides an articulation range of 90°, vs the OE 82°. On the F150 specifically, droop is limited by the steering knuckle contacting the spring, so droop travel compared to OE is very similar, but sufficient in most cases.”

The net effect of this change was immediately perceivable on the road. Some of that should be expected from replacing visibly worn components with new ones, but the “neutral” geometry and more robust, polyurethane bushings helped restore and additionally improve the steering feel in the F150. “The handling has definitely improved and the SuperPro kit has tightened up the truck’s steering a lot. I’m super happy with the upgrade.” Felici reported.

As the truck market continues to build steam, it’s fantastic to see a company of SuperPro’s pedigree keep up with the pace of consumer demand. Its Ford F150 Front Upper Control Arm Assembly is physical proof of that and its undeniable benefits bode well for SuperPro to retain its leading position amongst its competitors.

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