Broken Steering

There have been several posts on various forums where peeps have had trouble with damaged steering and after damaging mine more than once has set me thinking about improvements

The first brakage was back in May 2010 at Bala in North Wales where I snapped a steering arm and bent the steering idler, not sure exactly at which point it happened but was really testing the limits of the Frontera as had recently fitted a front locker.  Managed to borrow some spare parts tot get me home but lesson learnt meant that I now carry spare steering arms as they are a known weak point.

A few weeks ago was helping recce a Pay & Play site near Cardiff and managed to bend another steering idler and steering arm!

Had previously looked at what options were available and Independent4x in the USA do a heavy duty steering arm kit but doing a bit of reaserch on these suggested that while they stopped steering arm breakages they merely transferred the problem elsewhere and the main steering link between the steering box and idler bends instead.  Given the choice of replacing  steering arm or the main steering link while out its a no brainer so have stayed with the standard steering arms for now.

Looking at the angle of the steering arms on a lifted IFS its easy to see why there are problems so first target is to replace the stock arms with rose jointed links an mount on top of the steering link on the hub to reduce the angle, phase 2 is to find a LHD steering box to replace the steering idler which should hopefully reduce any probems with thee bending.  Once complete will run with this for a while and see how it performs and this just leaves the steering link, need to cook up a way of improving this, not sure yet but give it time.