Tighter turning radius

[Guest Lenny]

Now that everyone is happy with the power steering, I found the next thing you can do to the steering to make a huge difference in driving. I have managed to greatly reduce my turning radius. Did a perfect circle in the sand and measured the diameter across the tracks from tire track edge to tire track edge and got 21 feet. Don't know what stock is. What a difference to drive. It turns really sharp. No more backing up for a second go on tight turns. Managed to get the the inside tire to turn about 7-8 more degrees. If you want to measure for some referance , the degrees between the top side tubing of the hood and the inside tire of mine at full turn in now about 50 degrees. Now, I have all new ball joints and tie rod ends. I made sure I got the maximum deflection available out of each joint item. Keep in mind, I'm running 14.5" of suspension travel on the front, actually after a bit ot tweeking i'm now about 15-1/4". With this much movement I needed joints that would take a lot of bend. For you other guys out there, I think you can get the tighter turning like I have fairly easily. That is for those that are going to go to an aftermarket rack and pinion steering box. The stock box is about a 2:1 ratio and I strongly sujest you go to a 3:1 ratio which is what I have. My steering handles the 4x4 full lockout fairly well (not perfect but pretty good). The trick for getting a tighter turn is to be sure you get a box that has at least 4-11/16" of side to side travel of the rack. If it's more then that you will have to add stoppers. The CV joints take it fine in mine and that is at full droop or bump of the suspension. You may be able to even get tighter without the long travel I have but you would need a rack box that would move maybe about 5-1/4". In fact I could pick up another maybe 6 degrees of turning of the inside wheel if I wanted to move my front diff forward about 1-3/4". I've got too many things up there to get into that and my steering box doesn't have more then 4-11/16" of travel so I'm not going to do it. But, with that change, I think you could bring the diameter of the circle down to maybe 15 feet. By moving the front diff forward, you reduce the max angle on the CVs by about 6 degrees which can be added to steering.

Lenny

[rocmoc]

Bravo!

I have been looking for a 3:1 but hard to find. Suggestions !

rocmoc n AZ

[Guest Lenny]

Bravo!

I have been looking for a 3:1 but hard to find. Suggestions !

rocmoc n AZ

Here are some sites to look at. '

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Polished-Rack-and-Pinion-Steering-Box-International-Tie-Rod-Ends-/200664361879?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item2eb8872b97

http://www.ebay.com/itm/STEERING-RACK-SAND-RAIL-DUNE-MINI-BUGGY-LONG-TRAVEL-/300359073257?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item45eecbbde9

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RACK-STEERING-KIT-Dune-Buggy-VW-Baja-Bug-/200664568486?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item2eb88a52a6

http://www.appletreeauto.com/VW-STEERING/RACK-and-PINIONS/

http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/buggy/susp/buggysusp%20rack&pinion.htm

http://www.f1engineering.com/yamaha.html

http://www.dansperformanceparts.com/buggy/susp/buggysusp%20rack&pinion.htm

Lenny

[rocmoc]

Lenny,

I had some of those already Id but what is confusing is the specs. What do I look at to determine if 3:1?

rocmoc n AZ

[Guest Lenny]

Lenny,

I had some of those already Id but what is confusing is the specs. What do I look at to determine if 3:1?

rocmoc n AZ

3:1 would be three turns of the steering wheel to go from all the way right to all the way left. Some look at it as the number of degrees turned of the wheel to movement of the rack which is sifferent. Of coures you want the approx. same length of rack as stock to keep bump steer down. I'm thinking that I got lucky in finding the rack I have. You may want to look for an electric power steering unit and just take the motor off. I would just start sending questions to each supplier with the approx rack length you need and the turns lock to lock and tell them it's on an off road vehicle of about 1800 pounds. Somebody should come back with some sujestions.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=kjrmc&cp=33&gs_id=57&xhr=t&q=number+of+turns+of+steering+wheel&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=number+of+turns+of+steering+wheel&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=fe49d561ad75bea3&biw=1701&bih=829

Here is a list of cars using rack and pinions.

http://shop.rackdoctor.net/

Lenny

Lenny

[rocmoc]

I have been watching for a smartcar rack on ebay but I think you got the only one.

rocmoc n AZ

[2scoops]

Check out RBP manufacturing. They have a nice end load rack.