Steering dampener questions

[TROOPERIIandFJ]

Well guys, just trying to tame some death wobble and would like to know about steering dampeners. I know that there are some out there that have a coil on them in addition to the typical horizontal shock absorber kind of look. It is my understanding that these do a better job returning your steering to center position. But frankly, I'm a little doubtful as to how much impact it will have on this 12 foot of rube goldburg steering linkage.

This is what I'm talking about (pic comes from a G60 Nissan patrol)

Anybody using anything like this? If so, how does that compare to the ones on CCOT? Just looking for some realword experience.

Thanks in advance. Fantastic forum.

 

[Fast Eddy]

You should fix the cause of the wobble instead of putting a bandaid on it. Spring bushings, TREs, maybe a new steering box or rebuild, maybe a slight change to geometry, rotate the tires, torque the u-bolts, rebuild the knuckles...

 

[DSRTRDR]

the steering stabilizer will not fix your death wobble

 

[Ol'40]

X2 with everything Fast Eddy says....
Its a process of elimination, bushings, steering knuckles, wheelbearings etc.. It doesnt hurt to check and renew the lot periodically anyway.
The cause of my severe death wobble turned out to be loose U bolts on one side.
The return to centre steering damper shown could reduce your turning circle as well..

Cheers.. Gaz

 

[lostmarbles]

Yeah. I reckon aftermarket steering stabilisers/dampers are just a gimmick.
(The OEM one is as good as any.)

As everyone else says so far ...... Fix the cause of the shimmy/deathwobble rather than trying to dampen it.

 

[DSRTRDR]

check the caster angle

 

[Fast Eddy]

Yeah. I reckon aftermarket steering stabilisers/dampers are just a gimmick.
(The OEM one is as good as any.)

I've got the HFS one that mounts in the stock location.

 

[TROOPERIIandFJ]

Guys I'm tearing this thing down this winter so the steering will be rebuilt. I really just wanted to know if anyone had any experience with this kind of dampener with the coil. Really not just trying to put a bandaid on it. Just want to improve the overall performance if I can. I suppose I'll just rebuild it all and then see what I'm working with. Thanks though.

 

[Downey]

After you rebuild the front-end, then additionally add a stabilizer---they really do work good (for a few months). The one you showed (with coil spring) was originally designed by the "4 Way Equalizer" company. Their coil was made so that it did not want to stretch or compress. This would work great if they mounted their spring onto a "quality" 50/50 shock (doubtful).

 

[TROOPERIIandFJ]

Thanks Downey. So is the general consensus to go OEM with the dampener?

 

[bsilva132]

any dapener is going to work OK as a temp fix. no matter what you need to fix the underlying problem causing the death wobble (TREs, trunion bearings, caster, spring bushings, etc...). All the dapener is going to do until the underlying problem is fix is minimize the death wobble at best. Most of the potential underlying problems can be fixed in a day if you have the parts on hand.

 

[lostmarbles]

Yeah. I reckon aftermarket steering stabilisers/dampers are just a gimmick.
(The OEM one is as good as any.).....

I must have been on the plonk when I wrote this....because I don't think I often "exaggerate for effect" like I've obviously done here.

While the OEM stabiliser is fine for me, I have to admit that some modified cruisers can indeed benefit from a beefier unit than OEM.

Having a front difflock without power steering would probably be the most extreme example of this . Here a beefier stabiliser would slow the rate at which your steering wheel is ripped from your hands and at which you are sent on an unexpected detour (when one front wheel alone "bites" in a "foot-to-the-floor offroad scenario"). This could give you more reaction time and may perhaps even save your life!

And any extra dampening of "steering shimmy" produced by say .... underinflated BIG flabby tyres rotating at ultra-high rpm ... has surely got to be useful.

I fell into this trap (of exaggerating) because I hate (and obviously others here do too) steering dampers being purchased to reduce the ill-effects of faults that really need to be tracked down and fixed (in preference to any alternative action being taken).

Steering dampers can be effective at slowing rapid left-to-right and right-to-left "front-wheel-direction-movement". But IMO they're not even very effective at doing that where such movement is "high frequency".

As for self-centering... What do people want this feature for? (I genuinely don't know!) Do people think that a damper with this feature will cure "wandering" if their vehicle has a tendency to do this on the open-road for instance? Or do they want to be able to come out of a corner at speed and let go of the steering wheel to have the wheels "return to centre" by themselves?

 

[Fast Eddy]

As for self-centering... do they want to be able to come out of a corner at speed and let go of the steering wheel to have the wheels "return to centre" by themselves?

Center.

Proper caster angle should produce this result by itself.

 

[lc69hunter]

steering stabilizers/dampeners have a function, but stopping death wobble is not one of them. as mentioned ad nauseum, fix the underlying issues first.

 

[piecemeal]

I 4 deg caster shimmed my 74 and put an OME stabilizer on it running 33's. Big difference....

 

[DSRTRDR]

Having a front difflock without power steering would probably be the most extreme example of this . Here a beefier stabiliser would slow the rate at which your steering wheel is ripped from your hands and at which you are sent on an unexpected detour (when one front wheel alone "bites" in a "foot-to-the-floor offroad scenario"). This could give you more reaction time and may perhaps even save your life!

since I am one who wheels this scenario:

in my experience, the dampener will not save your thumbs, backclash happens just as well with and without a steering stabilizer, you need to keep the thumbs out at all times in a manual rig - nor will it make a whole lot of difference when you are in an obstacle where you have a hard time turning the steering wheel in the first place

if the front binds with locker engaged (rear or front), the only way to get out of that -if the steering wheel hasn't snapped back by itself already- is to disengage the locker, lightening traction in the front, steering ever harder (which is how I broke my steering stabilizer mount ), or having the truck airlifted out

having run for several years with and without a steering stabilizer, the only time I felt significant dampening was on the road at higher speeds