What is best for your truck? Cast or Billet steel steering arms? Pictured to the right is a cast steering arm that failed while on the trail, resulting in total loss of steering. In the casting process, liquid steel is poured into a mold and allowed to cool. A common problem with casting is porosity. Larger cast parts tend to have holes or voids due to the casting process. These holes are an obvious weak spot that can and does lead to fatigue and failure. Cutting open cast arms often reveals long tunnels of air inside the arms.

Cast arms such as these also lack machining on the cone washer and tie rod end surfaces. When these surfaces remain rough, the precision taper of the cone washers and tie rod ends do not contact the surface evenly. The purpose of the knuckle cone washers is to center the bolt in the arm and to ensure a tight fit between the arm and the stud. Factory forged Toyota arms are machined in order to assure a precision fit between the cone washers and studs. Notice the photos below, the rough cast seats offer a random contact pattern. 

Marlin Crawler Steering arms are made from superior quality Billet steel and forged tool steel. There are no voids or holes in our source materials. Our high steer arms are precision finished  including the cone washer openings and the tie rod end holes. Yes they cost more to make than cast but we feel quality and safety are more important. Marlin Crawler Billet and forged steering arms are the best arms available anywhere.