Will Crossover Steering Help?

[norcals91]

I have a 91 ranger that i've built into a mild prerunner style truck. The beams are 3 inches over stock and bent to compensate for the 5.5 springs that it has. I have a skyjacker drop pitman arm, not the extreme one, but the one thats about 3 inches drop. I extended the steering for the beams, so it is also 3 inches over stock.

I'm having bump steer problems.

Now I expected a bit of bump steer, but not this much. Not to mention the massive toe in I get when cycling. I'm looking to pick up ruff stuff specialites crossover steering kit with one ton TRE's if that will help my problem. It seems that it will because it lessens angles the steering has. I'd build a swingset style steering but I don't really want to run hiems in my steering because this is a dd.

This is the steering I am looking at:
http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/YLINK.html

This is my truck

Here you can see the toe im getting, I don't mind this so much as I do when I'm driving it on the highway and it darts around.

Thanks for any input you can provide. I know whats involved in installing this kit, and understand that that beams have this problem without swingset steering, but I'm looking to minimize the bumpe steer as much as possible without the use of hiems.

 

[Rolled Ranger]

I may be mistaken but I believe the steering setup you linked would be used on a solid axle setup. You need something that will pivot in the middle with the beams like the super lift kit. That is what I am about to get. The steering on my 91 is crap too.

 

[norcals91]

Oh. That's why I haven't seen that style on other trucks. Hmm. Makes since it would have to pivot in the middle with the beams.

 

[doorgunner]

Well....I guess it does dart around...I don't know how you even keep it on the highway....

the "toe" is O.K.

it's the "camber" that needs adjusting (getting the wheels perpendicular to the road) that'll solve a lot of problems...

 

[upnsmoke]

I have a 4 inch lift with my stock manual steering and stock pitman arm. The truck actually tracks a lot straighter on the highway than I thought it would after some of what I have read. It still wanders enough to annoy me though. I would assume Norcal's camber is where it needs to be, as he has bent beams. It just won't track that straight with the bump steer, regardless of whether the static alignment is correct or not. I also have been exploring options to replace my setup, but just can't find what I want. The stock box is too slow and loose for my liking. I am thinking about doing something custom with a different steering box, possibly dropped from the stock location, and aftermarket steering shaft. I really like the simplicity of the stock setup, and I think I can improve on the geometry without complicating it, the drawback being that some bump steer would remain. However, if I could run something popular like a Vega box I would have all kinds of options that may make it worth the required fabrication.

 

[scotts90ranger]

just glancing at the picture, I think your drop pitman arm is causing your toe issue, it looks like you are using the stock pivot brackets and just put taller springs and bent the beams to correct the camber, with that setup you would need a stockish steering setup or a crossover setup to be reasonable.

But that's not going to handle the freeway wandering, that issue is from you not having drop brackets for the radius arms, your caster is out of wack, an appropriate caster angle is what makes the tires track straight down the road.

 

[upnsmoke]

But that's not going to handle the freeway wandering, that issue is from you not having drop brackets for the radius arms, your caster is out of wack, an appropriate caster angle is what makes the tires track straight down the road.

This may be why mine is not too bad. I have bent beams and my radius arms are modified to return the caster to near stock settings. I have verified with a hunter rack that it is close enough. If you let go of the steering wheel at speed, it tends to straighten, as it should, but I still have significantly more bump steer than stock. Would a drop pitman arm not correct the bump steer?

 

[norcals91]

Caster isn't out of wack. Has extended radius arms at 6 degrees of caster, I know because I built them. All I wanted to know was if that crossover kit will help which is now obvious to me that it won't because the steering had to travel equally with the beam. Guess I got to get creative.

 

[ZMan]

The crossover steering you're looking at buying is not the same kind of crossover steering that goes on a prerunner..

This is what ruff stuff sells:

This is what you need:

Unfortunately there are no kits for this, you will need to custom fab something.

But I do agree with the others, take the drop pitman off, it won't solve anything, but it may make it a little better.

 

[scotts90ranger]

yep, pic above is what you need, doesn't need to be quite that elaborate and the links can be straight...

bump steer is caused by bad steering geometry, drop pitman arms are used on TTB and TIB when drop pivot brackets are used which corrects geometry, when you add a drop pitman arm with stock pivot brackets you are screwing with the steering geometry in a negative way, forces the toe to go out, stock might make it go in

 

[norcals91]

Yea that's what I figured out after starting this thread. I had heard that referred to ad swingset steering and always thought that other style was crossover from my crawler days. Lol. Thanks all for the help and I'll just try to get it AC best I can cuz I don't want heims in my steering. Thanks all for the help.

 

[Jspeed4x4]

I'm not to sure how it would work for a 2wd truck but the superlift steering system is the way to go. i put a 5.5 left on my truck and the bump steer was realy bad wife would not even drive it after i put on the lift so i did some research on it and foundout that the superlift system worked the best. I had it in stalled buy 4wheel parts no more bump steer truck drives stright . Had my wife drive after the install she said it was like night & day she will now drive the truck without b****in at me when she needs to. i would check it out if i were you before you spend your hard erined bucks on something that my not work for you.