Long Travel BS Thread

Think about what you just said. If that force was actually transmitted back to the wheel you would have broken wrists every time the truck took a good crack. The purpose of the powered rack is to decrease steering input via hydraulic pressure. That hydraulic pressure is also decreasing the feedback to the wheel and shafts.

 

So then how is the rack seeing enough force/deflection to jump teeth without a significant amount of that force going to the steering column. And then what's the point of the rag joint up by the wheel?

 

Because the rack literally receives every ounce of force and the pinion is essentially held in place via hydraulic pressure. Rag joints simply buffer the feedback that does exist.

 

Trust me you need that rag joint. I removed rag joint and solid mounted when my rag joint went to shit. Gave it a test run on Dusy Ershim Trail. Lmao. Vibrations and jerking in the steering wheel were crazy. Removed it the next weekend.
Only did that cause i was in a bind for time before the planned trip. It was my quick repair while qaiting on part

 

Yea that's what i was trying to get at. He's making the argument that none of that force meets the steering column because of power steering but as you said: remove the rag joint and that's far from the truth. Arguable whether or not it's enough force to jump the splines on the column somewhere or damage the rag joint but it's worth a mention so i brought it up

I still don't think it's fair to take it out of the equation completely. Maybe somebody could measure the splines on the output of the steering rack and see how many degrees the wheel would move if one of those jumped

 

Dude. The column doesn’t see much force at all. All there is to it. It sees about the same force you put into turning the wheel. That’s it. The rag just decreases the amount of feedback you feel. The real force is applied during a hard side load of the front tires. That force is measured in tons. Not pounds.

 

That degree off for skipping gear in a rack is pretty dead nuts on. My wheel gets off about that amount when it skips a tooth. It happens when I am bound against a rock and man handle the wheel to turn. I can feel it in the wheel when it does. My fix is to do the same thing the opposite direction. Sometimes it will skip if I am turned and hit a side load hard but usually that just knocks the alignment off. I'm in both camps on this debate because I've seen both and experienced both.

 

Yea I’ve had to bump rocks at WindRock and catch the passenger hard and the truck will drive straight but steering wheel is off center. Hit another trail and try to purposely bump opposite side to get it back straight.

 

Dang did you drive all the way over here or did you live closer?

 

I used to live in Florida. We'd go up to WindRock or Black Mountain to actually wheel.

 

Speaking of racks, my first gen buddy managed to literally rip his in half today. That was impressive.

 

That’s impressive. Though I shouldn’t be surprised, rear steer setups suck. Glad the 2nd gens and up are front steer.

 

Makes sense. Not a whole lot of wheelin in Florida I would imagine. But they’ve got PCB and that’s…something

 

WindRock fun, Black Mountain Off Road, Fuck that place in the winter. Holy shit balls. Several near death moments at that place.

 

What your feeling through the steering wheel is the shitty OE pump, the check valves can ramp the pressure fast enough to eliminate the feedback. The power steering system is a fluid damper and the OE one can’t keep up off road especially with larger tires. I only do solid steering shafts on real trucks and you feel nothing through the steering wheel.

 

Have you tried removing the orifice from the control valve yet? I’m really tempted to try it, I feel like it’s possibly blowing the relief open in the pump before the rack ever sees full pressure from the TC pump. And if that’s the case there’s a good bit more to be had.

 

I have not but I think it would definitely be worthwhile to try it.

 

What you talking bout Willis Black Mtn is a blast. Or the few hrs I wheeled before ripping my Trac bar mount off the frame . But we went to have absolute beat downs and wheel all the hardest stuff there. Going again and gonna break again

 

Time to start my frame box templates, and figure out an upper mount.

 

So one time we stayed on the north side. Harlan. The one “blue” trail up was washed out from a slide. So we had to take that Orange/Red trail up. Can’t remember the number. Jesus man.
That’s the trail I slide off the boulder hit the tree with the bed. Which stopped me from going over.
Upon which is the same hole that Dom ripped his driver LBJ out on his 3rd gen 4Runner and took us 6hrs to winch him to a spot to get him off the trail and to try to fix.