So I heard you guys like 40s on 17s..

40s performed well on another mild trail in Utah this time. There are a few new rub spots (where I used temporary spray paint to see points of contact) that I need to cut/hammer but overall it's performing well..

 

Now you're in my backyard. Did you get a chance to flex much cause there isn't much flexing on that road.

 

Only spots I remember getting any flex was the little spots right at the falls after u got down the hill. Still a nice little drive though

 

Or if you climb some of the side trails going up the mountain

 

Aside from some tie-rods what steering upgrades exist for a Tundra?

 

What are you looking for? Like a new rack? You would have to go full custom for a new rack

 

Spvrtan mentioned steering upgrades earlier but I had never heard or seen of any real upgrades for the Tundra. I'm sticking with 34" tires anyway. I wonder what the limits of the stock rack is though.

 

I know guys that have considered custom racks. Especially guys with bracket lifts since they tend to blow the stock rack.

 

Im an expert with steering systems on these trucks and considering Ive replaced 5 racks in 3.5 years with this truck running 37's on a BDS kit .... here is the short version... (i did this first and it didnt solve anything) you can get new upgraded tie rods and rack bushings, but that is not what will fail first on our racks... its the internal seals that will fail the larger tires put too much back pressure on the inner seals and blow them.. so only option is a custom steering rack which if you talk to Howe racing, the premier racing rack company who is 5 minutes from my house and i have showed him my truck and talked with the owner about a custom bolt in solution its 3500-5000$ for a steering setup to support 37's or larger to fit in the limited space not to mention custom tie rods and other stuff to support the custom pump and rack.

additionally the BDS spindles have a screwed up geometry and adds pressure to the rack which is why BDS guys like my self had a higher rate of failure on racks. Which ultimately led me to my perm fix... i ditched BDS and Im going Long travel.. i know for a fact long travel hasnt caused rack failures even running 37's .. so there you go

 

From when I researched the issue across the multiple Tundra-based online communities, it seems the people with the BDS kit and getting a broken rack because of it had at least one of the following (if not both) issues..

1. Cranking the lift too high. Yea, it says it's a 7" lift but that's on the extreme end and obviously puts the axles and rods at risky daily angles. I've been running my BDS kit at 6"

2. Using the stock rod ends. As you said, the BDS spindles put the tie rods at an awkward angle. I knew that early on and upgraded to Coachbuilder's rod ends that allow for more degrees of motion and raise the ends up a bit from the spindle.

Other things I considered are tire weight and PSI (affects ground friction), which would mean more resistance for the steering rack to fight and move around. I tried to stay with the lowest weights possible when going to 40s. Right now I'm at ~121lbs per corner. I could probably shave off ~5lbs if I had the money and went for forged wheels but that's a dream for now. I also keep my pressure as high as safely possible for daily usage so that there's less rubber contacting pavement.

Maybe I'm just lucky but I haven't had any issues with my rack and I'm at 50k miles now (over 2.5 years). I've been running 37s since about 3k when I put my BDS lift on. I still have yet to upgrade my rack's bushings but will do that soon.

 

I had steering limit plates welded on to prevent oversteering and i was ruinning my BDS kit at 5"ish not the full 7 and running 37's for a while and also had CB tie rods as well and still blew 2 racks on that setup... its gonna happen eventually you have gotten lucky thus far give it time it will blow.

 

Well
@papasmurf now that you're going LT you shouldn't have any issues. Blew 3 racks on MT and my 4th rack hasn't had an issue since I went to LT. No steering stops and no problems.
Good choice to upgrade to a real suspension.

 

Exactly..... im happy with my choice! LOL

 

I would also imagine the high-speed style of offroading you say you do most often is a lot harder on the rack than the slower speed stuff that @Spvrtan seems to mostly do.

I know I didnt have steering rack issues on my 4Runner until a few times going over rough terrain a bit faster than I really meant to--and i could definitely feel the steering wheel jerking back and forth.

Thanks for the info and anecdotes, to everyone!

 

Nope I didn’t run fast when I had the BDS and had three rack failures w the BDS since going long travel and stock spindles I haven’t had a rack failure in 40k miles. The bad steering geometry in BDS spindles puts extra stress on the rack causing premature failures. Also most of my wheeling was slow stuff a few years ago. So driving habits have nothing to do with it. And actually the high speed stuff is easier on the steering components because you are going straight when you do slow crawling the high steering angles combined w large tires and torque on the wheels from rocks etc cause extra stress on steering. I mostly blame the BDS gen 1 lift I had less issues when I replaced the spindles w their gen 2 spindles which corrected some of the steering angle problems

 

Big fan of 40’s myself.
First post! Hello everyone

 

Lightweights...

 

nice truck, would love to see the front setup

 

Yeah that thing is dope, moar pics and mod lists please!

Also, definitely going to need to see some video of that thing in action

 

He's a tease! First post, one pic and gone.

 

Sorry fellas working on a water leak. It’s a fresh build and currently have the atlas back at advanced getting tweaked

 

I wonder if one could run an old pre-Tacoma steering box in a current tundra with ifs and add hydro assist? Like the early 90’s trucks

 

Where you located??

 

Old ifs up top here taped for Psc hydro.

 

I think its awesome that @Spvrtan build thread has been taken over by @Overlandcrawler ..well played

 

In southern Nevada. About a mile from the logandale trails. Hope to have this thing back together for the hump and bump at the beginning of Nov. Would love to meet some of you tundra guys there

 

Haha I’m sorry sprvtan! I thought this was a thread on 40’s and tundras. Big fan of you sprvtan and have been following ya on YouTube for a while now. Wish I could have started with a platform like yours

 

Interesting thought. What would be the benefit or what problem does it solve? Just finding a way around the steering rack failures or trying to adjust the amount of steer angle available?