Anyone out there using the XTV Engineering high steering set up?? www.xtvengineering.com

www.members.home.net/fredtj/XTVhysteer2.jpg
www.members.home.net/fredtj/XTVhysteer3.jpg

Looks beefy, but wondering how it does, how it handles. Place too much stress on the steering knuckles??

TIA,

Doug

Looks pretty cool, I run something similar that I fabbed. Just don't drill out your knuckles to 3/4", go to 5/8" and use RE reducers in the heims so you can use the inverted spacers for more movement out of the heims.

My question is where did you get the photos with the brackets bolted on the D30 knuckles? I didn't find those on the site and they were not in any of the photos of the other products.

That stuff looks pretty cool, but a little expensive, don't you think? Spidertrax had a deal where you can have them build custom links for you with heims. Or they can ship you the tubing and weld-in inserts if you want to dave a little more. You can peice together your whole system through other sources, as well. That is all these companies do. The Spurce and Specality Co. has tubing for CHEAP, and heims and weld-in inserts can be bought from spider trax. Check it out, I used it for my high steer in my YJ... Built it myself and saved :p

The photos (from my web space) were sent to me by a person who has the system installed. The price doesn't seem to bad at $375.00 or so. Anyway, his comments on the install:

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Hey Fred, I am glad that the pics worked well for you. There is a new bracket that bolts onto both the driver and passenger side of the axel. On both sides it bolts to the wheel bearing in two places (the top and front bolts) then the original knuckle whole gets drilled out and it get bolted there also, then there are two 3/8" bolts that you have to drill and tap for on the top of the knuckle. The pitman arm also must be drilled to work with the beafy heims. All of the drilling isnt that bad and really doesnt take much meat out of the existing knuckles. The drag link bolts to the pitman arm and then to the original knuckle whole on the passenger side knuckle to maintain correct steering from lock to lock, while the tie rod mounts out and up higher on the new arms that you bolt down. I did cut and relocate the passenger side sway bar mount... it was really easy. I have put many road miles on it, and its great. I dont have any bump steer like many think you will get with something like this. I have beat the hell ou
t of it at Paragon on the hardest trails they have to offer and Tellico and it is great. It really turns heads when people see what there is there... If you give a call to XTV and ask for Dave just tell him that Dave Cleary from CT sent you and he will take good care of you... I hope it all works out, keep in touch....
Happy Trails,
Dave C.
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Right now, I'm seriously considering this.

Cheers,
Fred

You're going to have some bump steer with that, the drag link and track bar just are not near parallel. You could fab a shorter track bar and fab a track bar mount up higher to get it back to parallel.
I'm planning on doing that, putting a D44 in with chevy flat top knuckles and hi steer arms. On the D30 I broke I had pretty much that set up without the arms they have, so I'll re-use the linkages. It was tie rod under the knuckle drag link over.

Hey Guys, Mountain Off Road has rod ends with a 5/8" hole with 3/4" threads. They also have threaded tube ends and D.O.M. tubing.

I havent personally used the XTV steering setup but I've talked to Dave at XTV about it a couple times. Its suppost to be awesome and bullet proof. There design and engineering is really impressive too.. For all the TJ guys out there having steering problems here's your solution. call Dave. Tell him Tony recommended you. (205)251-5318

Hey Lucy's Driver, the "problem" with shortening the track bar to move it up towards the top of the axle, is that now it's a lot shorter than the drag link. Not only should the drag link and track bar be close to parallel, but they need to be close to the same length also. On the XTV setup, not only are they not really parallel, but the drag link is already fairly longer than the track bar. Having said that, though, the couple of people that have them claim that they are fine, with no reported bumpsteer problems. They certainly look beefy as hell.

:)
Fred

Ya fred. you said it. hy steer on my yj eliminated my bump steer but on a TJ you have to have to do one thing to no longer have bump steer. a parallel drag link and panhard bar= no bump steer
that jeep that we saw pics of will have bump steer i don't care what anyone says...try going down the highway and hitting some bumps, that steering wheel will be out of your hands.

Originally posted by Fred Wilson
Hey Lucy's Driver, the "problem" with shortening the track bar to move it up towards the top of the axle, is that now it's a lot shorter than the drag link. Not only should the drag link and track bar be close to parallel, but they need to be close to the same length also. On the XTV setup, not only are they not really parallel, but the drag link is already fairly longer than the track bar. Having said that, though, the couple of people that have them claim that they are fine, with no reported bumpsteer problems. They certainly look beefy as hell.

:)
Fred

I realize that ideally the pivot point of each of the drag link and track bar should be right behind each other. Put the drag link on top of the knuckle and that's impossible. IMHO the best possible next best choice is to keep them parallel and fab a track bar mount as far outboard on the axle as possible. I suppose in theory you could match the axle travel to the (now) knuckle travel with a longer track bar mounted lower down.
If anyone has math or whatever to figure that out, let me know. I'm in the process of setting up my front end.

The day after I spoke about this very issue in detail with Dave Baker at XTV last month he posted this on Rockcrawler;

http://www.rockcrawler.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=000448

Don't know if it will affect the overall cost of the steering conversion but it might be worth putting a call into XTV to ask.

Personally, I decided to go ahead and wait for the Currie HD draglink/tierod to come back out mid-Jan instead of bothering with relocating the trackbar (already have the RE adjustable/relocated trackbar as I'm running the RE Long Arm lift).

Originally posted by Jolleyman
The day after I spoke about this very issue in detail with Dave Baker at XTV last month he posted this on Rockcrawler;

http://www.rockcrawler.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=000448

Don't know if it will affect the overall cost of the steering conversion but it might be worth putting a call into XTV to ask.

Personally, I decided to go ahead and wait for the Currie HD draglink/tierod to come back out mid-Jan instead of bothering with relocating the trackbar (already have the RE adjustable/relocated trackbar as I'm running the RE Long Arm lift).

ity still would not have the pivit points in lione, but would be much closer I think. I already run the RE extreme duty track bar. You can still fab a mount for a track bar higher up in front, like where the steering damper mounts. Just beef that and relocate the damper. That's my plan, anyway.

...just go hydro

My drag link and trackbar are not the same length and the new trackbar is double the angle of the draglink.

I have no bumpsteer whatsoever and this Internet based rumour that the two have to be the same is, IMHO, utter bollocks.

If you don't believe me, why not try it before joining in the misinformation ;)

DS