RCLT HD 2.75" - Travel Numbers and Notes

Noted, they brag about being the only kit that is DeSiGeNeD for rok crawling, therfor you have to be in 410:1 or else it'll break and isnt designed for that.

Good they are doing the 3rd mount/double sheer all marketing aside, and the solid pass side bushing is an easy make. I have buddies that build those at home

 

I agree with you, but kinda get where they are coming from. They said that Nate had no bushing failures and his passenger side bushing didnt fail like mine and there were no issues with his rack, it was only his sub-frame that failed. I get that his case is extreme, but my position was that it is the eventual outcome with more modest driving. His just happened sooner.

Knowing what I know now, I would have had that sub frame / cross member replaced during the initial install. Hopefully this knowledge helps people in the future.

If you know anyone who can make / sell the solid bushing, let me know, since I need one, but I am not going to address that until the rack comes out. I should be good with the double shear and 3rd mount until then.

 

FYI that trail Nate was "abusing" his truck on is not really that hard or extreme, I ran that same trail back in the fall. That's also pretty typical style wheeling for around here.

They should add that SE wheeling is considered extreme use disclaimer on their website.

 

Not defending Marlin, but we don't know if that was when Nate damaged his sub frame or if he just noticed it then.

 

I think at some point it’s easier to just replace the entire crossmember with rectangular tube like @Wishbone Runner did.
RCLT HD 2.75" - Travel Numbers and Notes

I assume that could eliminate clearancing the crossmember below where the sector shaft comes in- depending on what size tube you used if you set the bottom of the crossmember to top of diff mount height and then spaced the rack mount up with weld washers.

The issue is the mounting ear on the rack conflicts with the mounting bolt for the diff mount, hence the offset bushing to use the same through bolt for both the diff and the steering rack. I think you could get away from this by welding in threaded sleeves instead of smooth sleeves and eliminating the nuts on the opposite side. Another thing worth looking into if doing this from scratch is using the 2010+ inline style diff mount instead of the offset mount:



That would move the diff bolt further away from the rack bolt and give more room for the two sleeves to sit side by side.

One question I have is how much of a press fit are the solid bushings in the rack? Are they free to rotate? Bushings with centered holes would be ideal from a loading perspective. I could see the OEM bushings being advantageous in most situations because they would allow a bit of deflection to take shock load off of the other steering components, but the trade off is with how tight the 200 rack fits, it might need additional clearance around the steering shaft and u joints to not make contact with the frame when deflected.

 

I think the factory crossmember should be strong enough if all 3 mounts are used and the two forward mounts are the same material. I believe the solid bushings are not too tight, in order for them to be able to rotate for the off-set alignment.

The steering shaft u joint is such a tight fit, mine still rubs.

The offset bushing seems to work fine on the driver's side. The issue I am having, and I have been going in circles trying to find a solution is for the passenger side. If the front bushings dont match in hardness, there is forever going to be the offset torque issue. There are multiple sources for hard bushings, but they are only offset. I've found poly bushings, but they are only straight. I need matching hardness of one straight and one offset. But no such luck so far.

Is anyone able to measure the ID and OD of the 200 rack bushings?

 

Im saying that replacing the crossmember is easier at some point when you look at the amount of fab and welding required to modify and reinforce the stock crossmember in the vehicle instead of fabbing a replacement off the vehicle and welding it in. I agree the added strength probably isn’t needed.

the problem with an offset bushing that is free to rotate is that it will cam around and load the bolt weird when the rack sees a side load. That is why centered bushings would be better.

 

That makes sense. I can get centered bushings, so it might be easier to figure out how to use those vs the offset bushings.


Looking over the RCLT instructions, the RH rack mount and the diff mount share a bolt. It seems the rack would need to be significantly re positioned to avoid that, and you would end up with two bolts right next to each other, so it makes sense why they are using the offset bushing there.

 

This is the way IMO if you are going to install either a Tundra or 200 rack. For an RCLT install, to maintain their same geometry and to get the rack at the correct height, you would need to use either a thicker tube (I used a 2x4), or space it up in order to not move the diff mounting surface up as well. For the Tundra rack, dropping the rack mounting surface down is preferred to create more clearance to the oil pan and put the vertical center of the rack back to where the stock one was regardless if you use the diff mount bolt for one of the rack mounting points.

I was ripping the barrels out of the stock crossmember with the stock rack, so beefing up the crossmember was a no-brainer for my application.

 

Here are the deets on the LC 200 rack center mount and double shear kit from Marlin:

https://www.marlincrawler.com/steering/parts/rclt/double-sheer-mount-marrack-steering-rack

https://www.marlincrawler.com/steering/parts/rclt/heavy-duty-center-mount-marrack-steering-rack

These plus an upgraded passenger mount (if I can find one) should be good.

I imagine there will be some slight rack side to side movement inside the the double shear tabs, but with the 3rd mount that should be eliminated.

One interesting bit of trivia I noticed on the Marlin Center Mount product page:

Marlin Crawler invented the use of a Heavy Duty full-size IFS steering rack with modified steering geometry compatible with light-duty mid-size vehicles (patent no. 11066099), giving birth to the Heavy Duty MarRack.

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While this statement might be true, I think it is what annoys people. It also means that the companies selling tundra steering rack upgrades are basically infringing on Marlin's patent.

 

Not a bad solution, but now youll have to pull the diff anytime you need to work on the steering rack. Hopefully that wont happen often.

 

When I read the instructions it seemed both could be installed without removing the rack. Why would you need to pull the diff?

UPS just dropped off both kits.

 

I dont see how your going to pull the steering rack out the front.

 

It slides out the side.

 

Fred alludes to some steering issues in the preamble to this video, would be interesting to know what he’s referring to
https://youtu.be/2tGsUG2L_hc

 

Someone hit me up on instagram and turns out he told Marlin about his steering issues back in September.

 

Slides out the side with the double shears welded in? I generally had the same idea but was going to make the double shear part bolt in, as its a tight fit in there with the lc/tundra rack. Especially on 3rd gens

 

Yes, the double shear are just two L brackets. They drop on top of the forward mounts and then the face welds to the front of the crossmember.

Looks like this:



It isnt going to do much without the 3rd mount as well, because even with the double shear, the rack will still slide side to side once the bushings start to go bad.

 

Do you mean out the hole where the tie rods go? I couldnt even fit my stock rack through that hole and the lc200 rack is much larger.

 

That "Double Shear" is going to torque and tear right out of the cross member for sure. It's going to take a chunk of the cross member with it right a the edge of that weld.