When one just isn't enough, dual steering stabiliser

[TonyN]

33" tyres are way heavier than 31's, and the steering stabilser is often worn after 10 years anyway, so after fitting 33's and 4" Superlift lift kit to Ashleys truck last year, he was having odd steering issues, so we fitted a Procomp Heavy Duty Steering Damper kit, which did improve things significantly.....

Its just a straight swap for the original, so not worth any 'fitting guide' on here, but here's a pic to show the weedy looking original next to the new one...


But we felt the front wheels were still a little jiggily, so it can back to be fitted with a 4x4Toys 'dually conversion' Which is basically another HD damper, mounted in tamdem to the first, on custom brackets.







We mounted one each way round to make sure it got the exactly the same push-pull force in either direction, as we felt the wheel was slightly easier to turn one way than the other with just one damper fitted.

Test run up a greenlane and on the road resulted in a happy Ashley and happy truck.

[Vagrant No2]

Tony
Didn't you have opposed mounted steering shocks on you pick up ? or was I seeing things wrong .

[bobo]

Sweet!
now if I go for the 4" lift ( not that I've finished the 2" suspension lift yet!)
will this improve the handling enough that it won't be a prob?
I remember talking to to you about the 4" lift after you had put a new head on for me and you pointed out that the handling changes drastically
cheers
Bobo

[TonyN]

Tony
Didn't you have opposed mounted steering shocks on you pick up ? or was I seeing things wrong .

Yeah, in the end, the original Pickup kit is two ES2000 shocks, one on top of the other but both pointing the same way, the lower one used to be a little exposed on the solid axle trucks, as its much lower than the IFS Surfs, so I mounted them across the lenght of the tie rod in a line, to protect them from rocks.

This is how they ended up looking.....



(if you can see through the mud!! )

This really old pic of my truck is how the kit is supposed to be mounted before I broke one of the lower mounts on a tree stump....



But we can normally do better than the 'proper way'

[da SLUG man]

i saw that truck with the green underneath the other day.... can't remember where though!

maybe on A34/M4??

[TonyN]

i saw that truck with the green underneath the other day.... can't remember where though!

maybe on A34/M4??

Probably, he regually drives between the Midlands and Wokingham at the mo.

[da SLUG man]

who's that bird riding co pilot??

hehehe!!

[TonyN]

who's that bird riding co pilot??

hehehe!!

[sumo]

who's that bird riding co pilot??

hehehe!!

His name is Tom and is the younger son of DA CLAN SUMO.He says that when he sees you next he is goona pop a cap in your knees,I havent a clue wot he is on about but hey youngsters of today they just dont speak de Engerlish like wot we do..

Any way,Tony will the steering damper be a straight swap on a 1st gen or will I need a mounting bracket like wot Roger (gamedawn) has got.

[TonyN]

Any way,Tony will the steering damper be a straight swap on a 1st gen or will I need a mounting bracket like wot Roger (gamedawn) has got.

Interesting development, turns out although I asked for a heavy duty, procomp sent an uprated one, twice! So ashley has 2 uprated ones, not a heavy duty one.

The (proper) heavy duty one for a Surf that I recently got for Linda's truck fits like this...



brackets are part of the kit.

The uprated damper (one of the ones the same as Bash has) bolt straight into the original location, unless you want to fit duals then you need costom brackets 'lik wot I made' in the first part of the post.

If you need 2 heavy duty dampers like my pickup (only really for 35" tyres and bigger) you'll need to knock something up (or I can! ) as there is not kit for 2 ES2000's to fit a IFS Surf like their solid axle pickup kit.

Incedentaly, Ashley is more than impressed with the 2 gabriel dampers, he says its far better than just one, which itself is a huge improvement over the original stock one. And our HD damper seems fine as well, so it seems either option works great for 33" tyres.

Hope this made some sort of sence......

[andycook]

i may have one of those HD ES2000 dampers going cheap,
as took mine off,

because:

a) inner tierod (passenger side) end boot got torn by the damper and it rubbing
2) the passenger tie rod end was touching the mounting bracket of ES2000 at full lock, when suspension drooped all the way . not a problem normal driving but it was offroading

didnt have a problem until i cranked up the torsion bars about .75-1" though!
no rubbing then

will prob sell the damper and all mounting kit - except the 2 bolts/nuts - for around 15 quid (including postage) its only a few months old

need to clean it up and check its condition first

miss the firmness it gave the steering now....